Discovering Plymouth, Michigan's Past (The Charles Draper Collection)

I was thinking about going to the library with the kids and found this great site about the Charles Draper Collection. The Plymouth District Library is among a number of libraries who are digitizing photos from Michigan's past. What an awesome concept.

Here is one picture that is pretty darn cool.... As many of you know, we live in an old Victorian Gothic house that still needs a LOT of work. It is across the street from the Daisy Square Condos. Prior to that it was vacant and home of Adistra Corporation. However, it's first incarnation and most famous purpose was being home of the Daisy Air Rifle Company. Below is a picture from 1908 of the building as it existed. Our house was three years old at that point. We're still looking for pictures of our house around that time period. So, if for some reason, someone who surfs onto my blog reads this and has some pictures or is related to / knows the following individuals:

* Don & Amy Kelley (sons: Harold and Mark) Builders of home - 1899 - 1910
* Henry & Maude Steinmetz: 1910 - 1952 (Henry was a foreman of the Pere Marquette RR.)
* Mr. & Mrs. Jesse and Agnes West: 1953 - 1989

We have an old black and white photo from around the 1970's from Mrs. Margaret Phelps who owned the house from 1989 - 1990 before it became an (ugh) rental house (1990 - 2000)... Then we bought our house, and the rest is history...


Daisy Air Rifle circa 1908