Time flies, especially backwards when you’re having fun delving into history. And Marshall, Mich.’s, primary instruction to visitors is “Delve! Delve!”
You know how it is. You go to a place you’ve never been before and you start talking to people and suddenly the place is alive with interesting aspects.
At the American Museum of Magic you meet Elaine Lund, who explains that her husband, Robert, a journalist who died in 1995, had a lifelong passion for magic, and the museum houses his collection.
The Lunds opened the museum in 1978 in the town of 7,000, a few miles east of Battle Creek. It’s not a place where parents can park children for a spell while they go antique-browsing in the shops along Marshall’s Michigan Avenue, however; the owner is quick to explain that. It’s more of a treasure trove and research archive devoted to the art of illusion and sleight of hand. But once everyone agrees to the ground rules, Lund will begin to spin out the story of the magicians whose equipment and other memorabilia occupy the building. Robert Lund knew the famous and the not-so-famous, from Harry Blackstone to a magic showman named John Green. There’s Houdini equipment in the museum — and hundreds of posters, including one advertising a performance by Marjorie Waddell, who — turnabout is fair play — sawed a man in half. A tour of the American Museum of Magic runs $4 for adults and $2 for children.
Mike Schragg’s another Marshall resident who can fill a couple of hours with tales of his particular interest in life — all things postal. Schragg’s the postmaster in Marshall, and his museum in the basement of the post office — its collection acquired mostly through donations, including Schragg’s — intrigues visitors with memorabilia such as a scheme cabinet, a box with many small slots representing the stops on a particular mail route. In the days before ZIP codes and bar codes, a mail carrier might lose his job if he couldn’t memorize that scheme and sort mail according to it quickly and accurately. Children can climb up on the cart once pulled by horses and, if Schragg shakes the cart a little, imagine what it was like to jostle along a mail route long before the advent of priority mail, let alone e-mail. Postal Museum tours are free.
Doug Sink, an electrical contractor and former Marshall firefighter, owns and operates the small but interesting Wolverine Fire Co. Museum, 3 miles west of Marshall. The museum’s several fire trucks include a circa 1880 hand-drawn horse cart made by E.B. Preston & Co., Chicago, and a bright red 1918 American La France specimen, Marshall’s first gas-powered fire truck. Tours are free, but donations are accepted.
Lucy Franke’s interest in Marshall’s history centers on the home she shares with her husband, Tom, and which will be one of eight historic homes on Marshall’s annual Home Tour Sept. 12 and 13. Lucy Franke said she enjoys participating in the home tour because it shows that these 19th and early 20th Century homes can be lived in comfortably today. The Frankes’ Italianate home was built in 1858 by Chauncey Brewer, owner of a dry goods business, and his wife, Emily. It remained in the Brewer family until 1968, and many of their furnishings — including the huge bookcase in the entry hall — have stayed with the house.
There are other people whose names you hear again and again in Marshall whom you will not meet, but who have left their stamps on the community. One is Harold C. Brooks, mayor from 1925 to 1931, whose family made its money in the Brooks Rupture Appliance Co. Brooks poured a lot of that money into the town he loved. It was he who saw the value in preserving Marshall’s past, from its founding in the 1830s through its ultimately unsuccessful effort to become the state capital, through its boom times of railroad expansion and big-home building, and even the bust times that allowed the town to sit quietly for years and not change.
One of Brooks’ most valuable “saves” was Honolulu House, now a museum and headquarters of the Marshall Historical Society. The house was built as a home for Judge Abner Pratt. In 1857, Pratt was appointed U.S. consul to the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands. When he returned to Marshall in 1859 because of his wife’s ill health, he had Honolulu House constructed to resemble their home in the islands. Pratt’s wife died a year after the house was completed in 1860. The former consul died in 1863 of pneumonia.
Sue Van Zandt and other volunteer guides can be contacted through the Marshall Chamber of Commerce to provide guided tours of Honolulu House and other small museums.
For shopping, about a dozen antiques emporiums on and around Michigan Avenue beckon those who like to take history home with them. Other shops feature gifts and gourmet food items. And when your feet give out, but you want to keep looking, you can head for McAuliffe’s for an ice cream cone and more collectibles ogling.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Weekend expenses for two: %%
National House Inn (two nights) $168
Meals $95
Admissions, donations $16
Gas $20
Total $299
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IF YOU GO
– GETTING THERE
Marshall, Mich., is about 180 miles from Chicago, just south of Interstate Highway 94. Depending on traffic, road construction on Interstate Highway 80/94 in Indiana and the driver’s nerve in pushing the speed limit, it’s approximately a 3- to 4-hour drive. (Michigan is on Eastern time, so you lose an hour going, but gain it back returning.)
– LODGING
We stayed at the National House Inn (102 S. Parkview; 616-781-7374), a 16-room, bed-and-breakfast that in the 1830s was a stagecoach stop. Restored in 1976, it’s centrally located across from the Greek Doric-style Brooks Memorial Fountain and within walking distance of many of Marshall’s attractions, including a walking tour of the exteriors of more than 130 houses. Rates vary according to room and day of week; we paid $168 for two nights, with Sunday being cheaper. Light breakfast and afternoon tea or coffee service are included.
There are several other inns and bed-and-breakfasts in and around Marshall, from the two-room Italianate Joy House in town to the 14-room McCarthy’s Bear Creek Inn on scenic grounds at the edge of town. Several motels and hotels also are available.
– DINING
Finding a pleasant restaurant is not a problem in Marshall. Among those available are:
Malia, 130 W. Michigan Ave.; 616-781-2171. This fine-food Italian bistro seats 40 inside and an additional 16 on the patio in summer. Chef Jeff Samson’s lunch entrees range from $5 to $10, and dinner entrees from $10 to $20. Closed Sunday. Reservations are required.
Schuler’s, 115 S, Eagle St.; 616-781-0600. Serving German and American cuisine, this lodgelike restaurant has been family owned since 1924. Its dark-wood open ceiling beams carry mottos such as “A light heart lives long” (Shakespeare). Open daily. Lunches are in the $8-to-$10 range, dinners $18 to $23. An expansive Sunday brunch, served 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., is $13.95 ($16.50 with coffee). Reservations recommended.
Cornwell’s Turkeyville U.S.A., 18935 15 1/2-Mile Rd.; 800-228-4315. All-turkey menu, entrees for lunch and dinner $5 to $10. Open daily. Cornwell’s includes an ice cream parlor, a fudge shop, a bakery and gift shop. Dinner theater also is available, with matinees Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and evening performances Friday and Saturday. And there’s a special events calendar as well.
For a quick lunch while shopping in Marshall: the Dug Out, 107 W. Michigan Ave.; 616-781-8373. Lunches, $3-$5, dinners $6-$7. Open daily. No smoking.
– TOURS, ETC.
Marshall’s fall Home Tour (Sept. 12-13) brings thousands of visitors to town every year; reserve accommodations now. Tour tickets are $10 in advance, $12 on tour days. Call the Marshall Area Chamber of Commerce (number below), which also can arrange other guided tours in advance.
Honolulu House Museum is open from noon to 5 p.m. daily through Sept. 30. Marshall’s other museums may have weekend summer hours or may be toured by appointment.
– INFORMATION
For the Marshall Chamber of Commerce, call 800-877-5163.
