Glimpse history through old photos and vintage films of Lansing in Michigan, USA.
In the winter of 1847, Lansing in Michigan was just a hamlet of 20 settlers, surrounded by dense forest. Today it’s Michigan’s fifth largest city, with a resident population of over 117,000 people and more than half a million in the wider metropolitan area.
It’s an area which has seen great change over time, even in the last twenty or thirty years.
Old Photos of Lansing MI
Frandor Shopping Center Kiddie Rides In The 1960s
Lansing Michigan Frandor Kiddie Rides – Perry Mcdonald
A Drive Through Lansing 1968/69
In the early 2000s, Chad Hunter made an ebay purchase of three reels of S8mm unidentified orphaned amateur film of East Lansing, Michigan and Michigan State University. He donated it to the Center for Home Movies. It was subsequently uploaded to The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit.
Matt Borghi then digitised this fascinating vintage film of Michigan’s capital city filmed half a century ago. He’s also gathered insights and knowledge about the locations shown, from people who remember them first hand.
It starts on Clifford Street, goes down Kalamazoo Street, At 1:40, the car turns south on Cherry, into the old Oldsmobile plant along a stretch of Lansing that shows I-496 being built, and then through old downtown Lansing, north on Washington.
Washington Avenue was known as ‘the gut’.
The final section of I-496 opened in December 1970. It was still under construction in this film.
Also, the Michigan Theatre appears to be playing The Boston Strangler, with Tony Curtis & Henry Fonda, released in October 1968. So it’s reasonable to date the film to 1968/69.
Posted to YouTube by Matt Borghi
A Quiet Street in Lansing in the 1970s
A quick clip of two boys having fun in a quiet Lansing street in the 1970s.
Kyle Pierson & Roger Gregg – 1970s – Lansing, Michigan – Kyle Pierson on YouTube
A Quick Look At Lansing In 1984
In 1984, an older couple from the Netherlands came to visit their adult child’s family in Lansing.
They filmed a drive down Michigan Avenue, with views of the Michigan State Capitol. Then they stopped to film an outdoor event run by the Michigan Restaurant Association. There are lots of people on screen, some running the stalls, and many visiting them. Finally, we see people hanging about by the Capitol steps.
Although the footage only lasts for one minute, you get a sense of the 1980s city.
Lansing, Michigan circa 1984 – C.W. Burgers on YouTube
A Drive Through Lansing In 1987
With six minutes of footage digitized from a VHS tape, take a drive through Lansing back in 1987. Includes E. Saginaw Street towards Frandor and Michigan State University.
Lansing, Michigan in 1987 – Andrew Mackoul on YouTube
Trains of Lansing MI – June 1991
Dan’s video captures trains operating around Lansing on June 25, 26 & 28 back in 1991.
Trains of Lansing MI – June 1991 part 2 – Dan Cluley on YouTube
The History of Lansing Auto Production
This 45 minute video includes a photo of 1897 Lansing in the year the auto industry started here, along with the 18 mile per hour horseless carriages first produced.
The Detroit facilities opened shortly after. Timekeeper James Brady won $5 in December 1900 for winning a competition to name the new auto model. He suggested the name ‘Oldsmobile’.
A year later the Detroit factory burned down, so Lansing offered the vacant state fairgrounds land as a suitable site for the company to build its new production centre.
Packed full of information and image, this video brings the city’s auto production history to life.
The History of Lansing Auto Production – cadlvideos on YouTube
The Lansing plant was the longest-operating automobile factory in the United States when General Motors closed it on May 6, 2005.
Lansing Car Assembly Body Plant: Last Car 2005 – Posted to YouTube by cadlvideos
You might also like to see this amphibious truck built for the military in the 1950s by Reo Motors of Lansing, Michigan:
The Eager Beaver, 1950s – industryfilmarchive
Closing the Curtain: A History of the Lansing Theatre District
At one point, Lansing was home to nine theatres, in and around Washington Avenue. The Capitol Hall Theatre opened in the 1860s. The Strand opened in 1921, joining the Bijoux, the Colonial, the Empress, the Garden, the Orpheum, the Vaudette, the Plaza, and the Gladmer. They featured vaudeville and motion pictures. The first talkie, ‘The Jazz Singer’, opened at the Capitol Theatre in 1927.
One of the comments states that The Gladmer was not formerly Mead’s Hall, as is implied in the film. It was known as Buck’s Opera House, and had been empty for many years when it was demolished in the 1970s.
Students from Lansing Everett High School researched and produced this short film about the Lansing Theatre District. It’s illustrated by many fascinating old photographs.
Closing the Curtain: A History of the Lansing Theatre District – Michigan Humanities on YouTube.
This is a Picturing Your Community in America program developed by the Michigan Humanities Council in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Michigan Television.
Remembering Knapp’s Department Store
The historic J.W. Knapp Company Building in Lansing, Michigan was completed in 1939, and extended in 1949. It was a five-story, 190,000-square-foot (18,000 m2) Streamline Moderne building.
In 1970, all branches of the Knapp Department Stores closed. The building was redeveloped and repurposed in 1983, and again in 2010.
The landmark Art Deco architecture meant the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 21, 1983. During the 2008–2009 academic year, the Michigan State University interior design program used the redevelopment of the building as the basis for its senior thesis.
This 1996 look back at the popular department store Features memories from Barb Sutton, Sherri Wiegman, Helen Grimes, Evalyn Gidner, June Johnston, Sylvia Duda, Olivia Letts, Richard Letts, Tom Shiels, Linda Wegryn, Roger Boettcher, Delma Lopez, Betty Price, and George Petroff.
Remembering Knapp’s Department Store/Things Not Here Anymore – WKAR on YouTube
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