IMPROVEMENT is the order of the day, if the modern is better
than the old, and if our civilization, with its numberless appliances,
be really an improvement upon the primitive and savage state. One who now
walks abroad in this city can scarcely realize that sixty years ago it
and all the region hereabout was a wilderness unbroken. Except in the clusters
of Indian wigwams and huts, and in their few rude implements, tools and
dress, there was no evidence of the presence here of the hand of man. Within
the lifetime of men of sixty years have been made all the changes from
that condition to the present that are shown in the panorama which now
fills the eye of the beholder. Three or four hundred pages of this book
are dotted with details of improvements, in the descriptions of those changes,
and of the works of utility and of enterprise that are seen on every hand.
But the gathering, one by one, of these little threads and hints scarcely
gives the reader an adequate conception of the immensity of the improvements,
public, quasi-public and private, taken as a whole.
A RETROSPECTIVE VIEW.
Go back in imagination to June, 1833. Take a position on the roof of
the Ledyard Block at the corner of Pearl and Ottawa streets. Imagine that
you stand on Prospect Hill, the highest part of which was near that spot.
Look to the north. The hill slopes off gradually to near Crescent avenue,
and there at its extremity is a narrow and shallow ravine, and a little
brook. Beyond is a nearly level stretch, comprising the territory between
the river and Ottawa street, and extending upward of a mile northward.
It is a narrow strip, varying from about twenty-five rods in width just
above Bridge street, to about fifteen rods wide a little south of Coldbrook.
It is dotted with maple, elm and oak woods, but for a considerable portion
of the way is a miry and almost impassable black ash and tamarack swamp.
Turn your gaze eastward. Prospect Hill slopes in that direction gently
down to a ravine, a large frog pond and a swamp, which were a little west
of the Division street line. Beyond, and stretching from Coldbrook southward
to the present line of Fulton street and farther, is a, precipitous sand-hill
bluff, rising to an elevation of 160 feet above the river level, cutting
off the further view in that direction. This hill is fringed with a thin
growth of oak trees, most of them not very large.
Now turn to the south. Almost at your feet is the precipitous descent
of the southern point of Prospect Hill, its base resting at the Indian
trail (where Monroe street now is). Beyond is a gentle incline to a ravine
that crosses Division street, passing near the present Union Depot grounds,
westward to the river. At the bottom of this ravine is a brook. In the
distance, and as far as the eye can reach, the view is that apparently
of a nearly level, though slightly broken and irregular, forest landscape,
some of it bearing a heavy growth of timber. In it, if you were to wander
along the Division street line, you would find marshy ground, at some points
very miry; innumerable springs, and a number of rivulets. Westward of that
line are alternating gravel and clay hillocks, gorges, dells, swamps and
quagmires; and as you approach the river, one of the finest of "God's first
temples."
Look again westward. On that side first is the steep declivity of the
hill from your feet to where now stands the National City Bank at its base,
and thence a gradual descent to the river's edge, which is some sixty feet
or more lower than where you stand. Within sight the only evidences of
the presence of man are the Campau trading post with its block houses a
little to your right, on the east bank of the river; the mission buildings,
across the rapids in the same direction on the farther side, and slightly
to your left on the west side the Indian village. In midstream are three
beautiful islands. West of the river, the landscape view is that of a nearly
level, wooded plain, about a mile wide, of which a strip next the river
is under rude Indian cultivation; and in the distance a long range of bluffs,
considerably timbered, shutting from vision the outlying country in that
direction. But in that part of the picture, were they not hidden by the
trees, you would see a line of swamps and lakelets in the rear ground and
toward the hill. The view is a fine one in every direction, with beautiful
verdure and enough of variety to please the eye of the most fastidious
artist.
TRANSITION.
Remove the veil between the past and the present, and again open your
eyes. Look upon the changed face of nature. Behold the straightened or
waving lines, and the artistic mould of the shallow but symmetrical basin
whose rim in the distance encircles you. The hill of solid clay has gone
from beneath your feet. The little streams have disappeared. The springs
are not in sight. The seams and the holes have been filled. The inequalities
of surface have been shaven away, and it almost seems as if the hand of
the polisher had finished the transformation. Streets, fine blocks and
residences, factories, public buildings, and modern appliances are all
about.
BEGINNING OF IMPROVEMENT.
The first notable improvement here, and that which is the most general,
was begun by Louis Campau, when he set the stitches in his village plat,
from which has been knitted and extended the network of streets that covers
nine square miles of territory. These of themselves are illustrative of
the growth of the web of progress. In no particular is the march of improvement
better shown, than in the great change from the winding ways of the Indian
trails and of the first wagon roads, and from the deep gullies, muddy holes
and sharp hills in and about which they traversed, to the level or gently
inclined grades now furnishing in every part of the town avenues of easy
locomotion.
EAST SIDE WATER POWER.
The second step in important improvements was that taken by Lyon &
Sargeant and their associates - the initial movement in the development
of the water power here. These gentlemen, when they undertook the construction
of that mill race on the east side of the rapids, had great foresight,
and anticipated a profitable outcome. But they really builded [sic] wiser
than they knew, in the foundation which they laid for the great industrial
interests of Grand Rapids. This work was started in 1835, and in its progress
marred more fortunes than it made during the succeeding fifteen years,
and until its full development. Yet a considerable number of energetic
and hard working men began there the struggle which led to success and
prominence. A companion piece to this is the West-side canal and water
power improvement made thirty years later. In connection with these is
the dam across Grand River, first built in 1849 some distance above where
the present dam stands, and rebuilt where it now is in 1866. The immense
water power, utilized by use of these canals, which has been estimated
as high as 2,400 horse-power, turns a great many industrial wheels, gives
employment to hundreds of men and support hundreds of families, and contributes
doubtless more largely than any other single factor to the value of our
manufacturing interests.
WEST SIDE WATER POWER.
In 1865 and 1866 Win. T. Powers secured by purchase the river front
on the west side of Grand River from a point below the G. R. & I. R.
R. bridge in the Eighth ward, to a point just above Seventh street in the
Sixth ward, and during the years 1866 and 1867 he constructed the West
Side Water Power Canal and guard gates. This canal is over three-quarters
of a mile in length, and cost, including the lands through which it runs,
upward of $90,000. In the construction of the dam across the river at the
head of the canal, Mr. Powers and the East Side Water Power Company joined,
he constructing that portion west of the center chute, and the east side
company the eastern part. The chute was constructed at the joint expense
of these parties, and a contract was entered into to perpetuate and maintain
it. The work of constructing the guard gates and dam belonging to the west
side canal was done under the supervision of Silas Pelton, and the earth-work
was under the supervision of W. W. France. The first factory on this canal
was built by Powers & Ball, a planing mill and sash and door factory.
The present owners and users of the water power are, besides Mr. Powers,
who has several factories: The Powers & Walker Casket Company, Voigt
Milling Company, C. G. A. Voigt & Co., Perkins & Co., Grand Rapids
Electric Light and Power Company, Grand Rapids Brush Company, and one or
two others.
The Grand Rapids Water Power Company was organized February 2, 1864
- President, G. M. Huntly; Secretary, James M. Barnett; Treasurer, W. A.
Berkey. The chief work of this company has been that of keeping in repair
and serviceable condition the east side canal with its water power privileges,
and its members have been the owners of water rights there.
CHANGES AT PEARL STREET.
Prominent among what may be classed as the general improvements of the
city, is one which would be scarcely noticed by the stranger who is unacquainted
with its early history, though its locality is now almost in the very center
of heavy business. This was the filling up of the east channel of the river)
and making business property of that and the adjacent islands. It involved
the destruction of the main steamboat channel, which came up to the foot
of Canal street at Pearl street. The encroachment upon that channel began
soon after the building of the Pearl street bridge; but its complete extinguishment
was not accomplished until about the time of the straightening and extension
of Monroe street to its foot, or later, when the Island Addition Company
platted Island No. 1, and the accretions by the filling of the adjacent
channel were laid into lots for business property, now a portion of the
most valuable real estate in the city, including nearly all south of Lyon
and west of Canal street as far down as Fulton street, except that which
fronts on Waterloo street.
In the spring of 1873 was completed a street change for which several
years of effort had been spent. It was the extension of the southerly line
of Monroe street down to a point even with the west line of Canal street.
It originally came down only to a point six or eight feet east of where
the east line of Canal street, if extended, would strike it, and there
angled and ran due north to Pearl street, the corner at the foot being
about eighty feet west of the National City Bank. Thus was formed the breathing
space at the foot of Monroe street now called Campau Place.
A great general public improvement already hinted at is the sinking
out of sight of nearly all the springs and rivulets and the disposal of
the water therefrom by the means of a comprehensive system of sewerage
which extends throughout the municipality.
In the catalogue of public and quasipublic improvements may also be
placed the Government Building, the City Hall, the Soldiers' Home, the
engine houses, the churches, the school houses, the U. B. A. Home and several
other benevolent institutions, all of which are in sight of even the casual
observer, though not easily grouped as a whole without considerable travel.
In all they compromise nearly one hundred handsome edifices, and to them
may be added the county Court House, the St. Mark's Hospital, and other
buildings now (1890) under process of construction.
Improvements of a private and business character are in all parts of
the city. Tasty dwellings have multiplied from the beginning, and beautiful
and stately residences are to be seen on every hand. Fine brick business
blocks and mercantile houses, from two to seven stories high, line the
centrally prominent streets. Large factories and mills are all about. Millions
of dollars are invested in these improvements, which in turn are destined
to yield millions on millions to the general sustenance and increase of
wealth.
To this estate has the city grown from the conditions existing when
the first Yankee settler swung his ax here. Of its material interests it
may be said, generally, that their growth has been healthy and strong,
and during the last quarter of a century rapid. The contrast of its present
beautiful buildings with the humble rough-board pioneer dwellings is but
a fair illustration of the advance in less than sixty years of our beautiful
valley from its primitive state, as the home of the untutored Indian. Fifty
years ago railroad lines were infantile, few and short. The steam giant
was in its childhood. The street railway was undreamed of. The telegraph
was unknown. The lights by night were chiefly those of sperm oil and the
tallow candle. The man who should have imagined the telegraph, the electric
light, and the telephone, had he given utterance to his thought, would
have been looked upon as a visionary lunatic. Looking at these now common
and indispensable conveniences, looking at the palatial blocks and business
houses and banks and the buzz of enterprises commanding and using millions
of dollars annually, looking at our splendid schools and churches, and
then looking at the time only fifty years back in the lives of many who
are still among us, at the pioneer huts and cabins, at the primitive and
economical ways and habits, the toil and struggle of those days - on this
picture and then on that - bow like a miracle seems the great change, the
wonderful growth! And yet it is one that can only be half appreciated
by such an exercise of the eye and the mind; only those who have lived
it, and been a part of it, can fully realize all the lights and shadows
and processes in the progress from what this valley and city were to what
they now are. What shall be the story of the next half century?