I’ve been chatting on about Kalamazoo, Michigan, for some months now, but if you don’t know the city or the area, you probably only know what I’ve been able to post.
If you would like to see more of historical Kalamazoo, here are some links:
The library has links to many collections, including one which displays this photo of 310 E. Michigan Avenue in 1893.
Vanished from Kalamazoo, County
This site allows people to send in photos of businesses and other places in Kalamazoo which have vanished from the landscape. Here is a photo which was sent in by my brother of the family business. At the time of this photo my father Rudy Hanson owned both the luggage store and Why Shoe Works located next door (you can see a bit of the sign).
This site provides history, but no photos.
At this site you will find photos such as the one below of the Upjohn Company, a very important part of Kalamazoo for decades, in 1933.
This site is good for history and photos of Portage.
The Family Kalamazoo 
Those are great photos and links. I never saw the downtown Stanwood’s… gonna go look now!
Enjoy that Vanished Kalamazoo website!
It’s fun to learn more about Kalamazoo. The pictures are great.
Thanks, Sheryl. The more material that gets added online, the more fun it is to research online!
Luanne, thank you for the mini-tour and links! The photo of your Dad’s luggage shop made me nostalgic for 5th Avenue from 70th-86th Streets in Brooklyn as it was in my childhood. In the late 1950s and early 1960s many stores looked just like the Luggage Shop.
Yes, the small shops with the neon signs and the goods vying for attention! We saw the homogenization of retail happening–saw it from the beginning–and now we have the results–every city I go to–large to fairly small–in every state–has the same stores. It’s mind-deadening, I think.
Oh, how I agree with you on this.
The Portage Grocery looks like something out of an old Western movie – it’s great!!
My GrandFather Roland E. Lovelace worked at the Why Shoe Works when he first came to Kalamazoo in 1945. I was wondering if your family has any photos of the store, employees or anything else related to the business? I am working on my family genealogy and can’t seem to find anything about the business. Thanks. My email is brnwyn98@yahoo.com if that would be easier to contact me. Rita (Lovelace) Smallcombe
Rita, I will email you!
I do love your blog. Even though I have no links to your family or area (I’m in the UK), I’m a fellow family historian (though I haven’t done much for a few years) and really appreciate old photos and their links to our ancestors and past times. 🙂
Oh me too. I am fascinated by all historical and genealogical stories!