http://ypsinews.com News and views of Ypsilanti, Michigan Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:17:23 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Less than one month on the job, John Hansen has resigned as Interim City Manager effectively immediately. According to a press release sent by Mayor Paul Schreiber this morning, Schreiber did not give any reason for the resignation but did thank Hansen for his service. City Clerk Frances McMullan will become ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201202-ypsilanti-interim-city-manager-suddenly-resigns/ We walked up the three grey wooden steps of the stately-on-a-small-scale Grecian-style home and opened one of the narrow, tall storm doors. We’d come to the right place: lights yellowed the windows in the chilly March dusk. We pressed down the thumb-latch of the heavy inner door and eased it ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201103-a-talk-on-ypsilantis-vanished-gardens/ “Say there, brother, don’t mean to interrupt your threshing. Got a minute? Nice to lean on this fence for a minute after going around the township all day. “Now, sir, what would you say if I told you that these here seeds in this little vial could get you ten ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201103-dont-fall-for-the-bohemian-oats-swindle/ [caption id="attachment_2624" align="alignleft" width="242" caption="The Ark stood across the street from the present-day Deja Vu."][/caption] Think back for a moment to the long-ago days of Sunday school. Quiz: Name a large and ancient wooden structure that had something to do with water, that contained extremely varied contents, and that moved from ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201102-ypsilantis-venerable-ark/ [caption id="attachment_2612" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The west side of North Huron, 1893."][/caption] Could we time-travel to 1892 Ypsilanti and stroll around town, we’d notice differences in the streetscape and in the fashions. But the single largest difference would be in the sphere of work. For example, almost no one commuted out of ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201102-weird-vanished-and-forgotten-jobs-from-1892-ypsilanti/ At first it was just a job in the candy store at 15 North Huron, and an easy and safe one for a girl in 1911, compared to the jobs for girls in the recently-closed knitting mill over on Forest Avenue or even those in the box company around the ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201101-the-candy-mans-shotgun-divorce/ Some of the Depression’s hardest-hit victims in Ypsilanti were its youngest. In 1933, the city’s municipal Welfare League and the Red Cross provided needy families with food, stove fuel, small emergency stipends, ready-made clothing, and cloth yardage with which to sew clothes. Occasional shipments of federal flour arrived, and many area ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201101-depression-era-ypsilanti-cooperates-to-combat-its-childrens-rickets/ Right before Thanksgiving Forrest and I sat down and discussed what to do with the café, and with tears in our eyes, we decided it was finally time to close our doors. It was an extremely hard decision to make. When we looked at the numbers our sales were up ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201012-goodbye-from-cafe-luwak/ [caption id="attachment_2586" align="alignleft" width="256" caption="Depot Town-area grocer George Neat's ad touted a variety of sugars and canned goods."][/caption] In the days before online people-finding search engines or even the yellow pages, yearly city directories offered information on business and residential addresses. For many years the Detroit-based firm of Polk’s compiled directories ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201012-the-trials-of-a-city-directory-writer-in-1883/ [caption id="attachment_2577" align="alignleft" width="209" caption="Archibald's signature on his 1874 patent application for "McNicol Cement.""][/caption] The Scottish-born immigrant contribution to 19th-century Ypsilanti life is undersung. Farmer-poet William Lambie published numerous poems in the Ypsilanti Commercial and shared a correspondence with Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier. Helen McAndrew was a doctor maintaining her ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201012-ypsilantis-glaswegian-cobbler-inventor/ Shirley E. (Moser) Barnes born:  August 1, 1929, Bassano, Alberta, Canada died:  November 26, 2010, Sun City, Arizona graduated:  Harbor Springs High School, Harbor Springs, MI 1947, Cleary College, Ypsilanti, MI, 1948 married:  Gilbert T. Barnes, June 25, 1950, Harbor Springs Methodist Church preceded in death by her husband, June 5, 1996 retired from:  High Scope Educational ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201012-obit-shirley-e-moser-barnes/ YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) – Eastern Michigan University head baseball coach Jay Alexander announced the signing of two top high school recruits to National Letters of Intent today. Next year's class will include Chad Witkowski (Tampa, Fla.-Steinbrenner) and Ian Ham (Tampa, Fla.-Tampa Catholic) who hail from Tampa, Fla. and who Alexander feels ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201011-emu-baseball-signs-two-to-national-letters-of-intent/ [caption id="attachment_2550" align="alignleft" width="191" caption="Wiedman's Ford dealership stood in the downtown bus station parking lot on Pearl Street."][/caption] “Any prisoners confined in the jail on Thanksgiving Day will be served the usual menu of bologna and bread,” said the November 20, 1941 Ypsilanti Daily Press in an article about Thanksgiving Day ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201011-ypsilanti-thanksgivings-during-world-war-two/ When was the last time you were thankful to do laundry? Right after World War II, electric washing machines were an exciting new possibility for Ypsilanti families. Detroit Edison advertised them in its November 26, 1945 Ypsilanti Daily Press ad. Next to the image of a presumed housewife’s face, the ad ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201011-thank-goodness-for-laundry/ Ypsilanti is the nation’s birthplace of the Automatic Toast-Butterer, the breakfast cereal Wheat Hearts, and an improvement in stilts. All of these received patents. Though they may not have survived to the present day, they speak to the personality of their inventors and to an age of fervent experimentation. One tiny ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201011-2512/ On a summer evening nearly six decades ago, Ypsilanti went dark. It was a citywide blackout—on purpose. No cars moved on the streets. Homes and businesses were quiet. Families brought their newspapers, books, and sewing to their homes’ “blackout rooms,” whose windows were lined with heavy fabric to block any leaking ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201010-when-air-raid-sirens-sounded-over-ypsilanti/ With Halloween on the horizon, local author Laura Bien spins a tale of a skeleton--four, actually--in Ypsilanti's past. [caption id="attachment_2507" align="alignright" width="300" caption="As seen in this 1915 plat map, Belle Street began at the conjunction of Grove and Prospect roads."][/caption] On a chilly January day in the depths of the Depression, a ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201010-the-mystery-of-the-bell-street-bones/ [caption id="attachment_2500" align="alignleft" width="264" caption="A cartoon in the 1915 Aurora depicted boardinghouse "hash" as an appetizing blend of buttons, safety pins, and paper clips."][/caption] EMU students in 1907 didn’t have campus dorms, personal transportation, or on-campus meal plans. A humor article in the 1907 “Aurora” yearbook illustrates how different—and in some ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201009-2498/ Every Ypsilantian is familiar with the story of Indian artifacts and bones that have been found over the years along the western bank of the Huron River from roughly the location of the Museum to south of Michigan Avenue. Less well known are other discoveries of burial sites throughout the ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201009-native-american-graves-found-on-water-street-property/ Brandy's Market on West Michigan and Summit in Ypsilanti has been shut down by the city after a month long investigation by the City of Ypsilanti Police and the Michigan Liquor Control Commission. Brandy’s is located at 902 West Michigan Avenue and has been owned by the Cathy and Samir Hanna since 1999. ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201009-troubled-brandys-liquor-store-shut-down-by-city/ [caption id="attachment_2463" align="alignright" width="300" caption="William Cooper's device helped simulate a live frog swimming."][/caption] When in 1909 they read the will of Chicago businessman William Cooper, father to Ypsilanti photographer Charles Cooper, it turned out that Charles had inherited a dead frog. Or, rather, the rights to William’s patent: a complicated bit of ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201008-the-photographer-who-inherited-a-dead-frog/ With the Primary election on Tuesday, the Little Mayors are back. They are making a list and checking it twice. http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201008-political-cartoon-august-2-2010/ The Ypsilanti Police took possession of a new Patrol Cart this afternoon. The cart will be used during festivals and special events. It was a gift to the department from the Friends of the Ypsilanti Police. http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201007-picture-of-the-week-ypsilanti-police-get-new-patrol-cart/ [caption id="attachment_2416" align="alignright" width="349" caption="Lula disappeared in the summer of 1905."][/caption] When Lula Kohlasch abandoned her husband and children in the summer of 1905, the only thing she left behind was her wheelchair. The July 19, 1905 Ypsilanti Daily Press said, “If any question as to the metropolitan character of Ypsilanti is ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201007-the-disappearance-of-lula-kohlasch/ Angeline R. (Angie) Veigel passed away Wednesday, July 21, 2010. Angie was born in Tripoli, Greece the daughter of Peter and Priscilla (Anguras) Roopas. She graduated from Ann Arbor Senior High School in 1947, attended the University of Michigan Business School and Washtenaw Community ... http://ypsinews.com/index.php/201007-obit-angie-veigel/