T.O.P.S. Group Leads Walk of History

Sturgis Journal

STURGIS | CLUB NEWS

Walking is good exercise, and one reason TOPS is hosting it at Experience Sturgis Saturday, but TOPS is offering more!  While participants exercise their body, they can have the added bonus of exercising their minds by remembering the past or learning about the town as they walk, said Pat Quirn of TOPS.

Participants should register at 8:30 a.m. at the fire station from where the group will leave from at 9:00 a.m.   Each walker will get a copy of Mary Lou Falkenstein's, narration of "The Way it Was."

The way Mary Lou remembers several blocks of Sturgis:

In the parking lot, south of the fire station, was Sturgis' first equivalent to the Dairy Queen, where you could buy an ice cream cone on the sidewalk without even getting off your bike.  

The fire station has undergone several add-ons over the years as the town grew and there was a need for more trucks and equipment.  

Across the street, Bandholtz Paint (which was originally on Pleasant Street in the parking lot north of Crusader Arms,) was all homes and businesses lining Nottawa.  

The most famous hamburgers in town were to be found at Hanselman's "Castle Quik" just north of the present paint store.  You could order your burger at a sidewalk window, pay for it, and be on you way.   

Next to the fire station was the First Presbyterian Church, but now houses the public library and the Sturgis city offices.  

The second block north holds what was Union Elementary School which later became Sturgis Junior High and High School and now Sturgis Central Commons.  

Across the street where the Sturges-Young Auditorium is, was once residential homes, up to what was then a Christian Science Church.  

Beyond that, on the east side, was Bing's Restaurant and Judy's Beauty Shop.  

Then there was the Stone Bait Shop where you could buy anything you needed for hunting, fishing, etc.  
Next, was City Dairy where Boland Tire is now.  

Across the street was mostly residential, but there was Leister's Electric Shop and Royer's Auto Shop.  

Crossing the tracks, on the east we find a store that was Zimmerman's Grocery Store.  

On the corner of Main and Nottowa, was Jack's Auto and on down was the old New York Central Railroad Station which now houses the historical society's museum and the chamber of commerce office.  

Where the gazebo stands, there used to be a water tank for the trains.  

There was a wealth of businesses on the south side of the tracks.  Starting at the corner of Nottawa and Hatch, where the party store is, there was a coal yard where the trains unloaded coal for the public to buy.  Next, was Blue & Gilham's Feed and Grain where farmers could get most of their supplies.  

Then came the freight station and stockyard where animals were shipped and received.  

As we go down Clay Street, we come to the Sturgis Journal building, which was originally on the corner of Chicago and Jefferson.  

The empty lot on the corner of Chicago Road and Clay our Carnegie Library once stood.