kalamazoo history

As my son and I were poking around in the back of the building at work, we found a room that looked a like a small bathroom, just a toilet and a sink that probably hadn't seen any water in at least half a century, probably more. And there was a medicine cabinet.

What many people may not know about the Kalamazoo/Portage area is the fact that we were on our way to becoming the Mall capital of Michigan. During the 80’s Kalamazoo had a minimum of 4 malls. Today, there is only one. Is the Crossroads Mall going to be the exception, or will it too join these abandoned and demolished malls of Kalamazoo’s past?

Is there a Kalamazoo music curse? In addition to Bobby Hatfield and tenor Richard Tucker actually dying in Kalamazoo, The King of Rock and Roll,, Elvis Presley, and Stevie Ray Vaughan died soon after performing in Kalamazoo, Vaughan just two days later.

This final week of 2021 saw the BO Interlocking Railroad Control Tower 1 razed.

"Beautiful Day. Great to be Alive." If you were old enough in the 1990's and were anywhere near a radio signal that originated in the Kalamazoo area, those words bring back memories and a smile. The words were spoken by Scott Jett.

As Kalamazoo residents and others, like tourists, begin to return to normal life, a little sprucing up is taking place as part of the welcome back. Bell's Eccentric Cafe has a new mural that is on display on its west side wall.

The Kalamazoo Public Library has invited locals to share their memories surrounding the library and participate in their 150th Anniversary Celebration

I love finding items like this. I guess maybe I should be an American Picker. I was poking around on the Library of Congress digital collections site, and ran across this find, a 1908 drawing of a birds eye view of Kalamazoo.

Nearly 150 years later, Kalamazoo continues to look to the future to provide a more just and equitable community with initiatives like Imagine Kalamazoo, which would have been on the forefront of an out-of-the-box experiment like a tax funded high school.

If we did a Mount Rushmore for Kalamazoo, whose faces would you put on it? That’s where this gets to be fun. The narrowing down process would probably start a good bar or classroom argument or two.