Looking Back: Kiddos, concrete roads and condo booms

CHARLEVOIX — One hundred and fifty years ago, Charlevoix Sentinel editor Willard A. Smith was congratulating the town on the arrival of two more additions to the population.

March 21, 1874: “Two darling little babies in Charlevoix since our last issue, and more coming. Let ‘em come!” The 1870 census listed 454 people here; by 1880 that had grown to only 512. But after that we took off like a rocket, with fishing, lumbering and the resort/tourism businesses all beginning to really prosper. By the turn of the century the population of Charlevoix stood at just over 2,000.

An interesting sidelight to this 1874 item is Smith’s increasing usage of the word “Charlevoix,” rather than our first name, “Pine River.” It would take five more years until the State of Michigan incorporated the settlement of Pine River as the official Village of Charlevoix in 1879, and the decades of confusion over our dual identity finally relegated to a thing of the past. Twenty-six years after that, in 1905, we became a city. Sort of like graduating from junior high up to high school.

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Fifty years later, the March 19, 1924 Charlevoix Courier published, on the front page, a letter from Norwood summertime resident and Chicago millionaire/inventor George van Pelt, a brilliant and farseeing mind, who was touting the superiority of concrete roads as the pavement of the future. “Uncle George on G. C. R. Tell Taxpayer if He Don’t Get Concrete Fever Now, He’ll Catch Germ Later. As an ardent booster for and advocate of G. C. R. (Good Concrete Roads) I’m telling the world, from Canada to the Gulf and from Boston to Los Angeles. My committee work showed me resistance to wear and the least upkeep expense—and then delivered. I followed the examples closely; Charlevoix county, Michigan, my summer home, built a concrete road, and in thirteen years now the maximum wear is 3-32 of an inch, mostly caused by iron horseshoes and steel tires while horses and wagons were still being used.

“And now the results (of multiple tests) are available. Sixty-five types and designs of pavement were built and destroyed by traffic, by day and night for months. Concrete proved itself superior to all others.

“In my own county, Charlevoix, where I paid heavy taxes, I soon learned that G. R. C. are an asset while G. and S. S. (gravel and soft stuff) are a liability. It’s dead sure if the taxpayer doesn’t learn it from me he’ll learn it from some other enthusiast. So they’ll save themselves a lot of grief if they take it from me now.”

“’Uncle’ George is right. Concrete roads are our one best bet. Never mind the first cost—look at the upkeep saved. That’s the way to figure.”

George van Pelt’s name appears on two buildings downtown in the 200 block. Stand facing Van Pelt Alley in the middle. On the right is the one George built, saying Van Pelt 1909 at top; across the alley stands the one he bought, the 1898 structure built by Horace S. Harsha, father-in-law of our builder in stone Earl Young, now Cherry Republic. Gone is the name “Harsha” at top. “Uncle” George remodeled the façade and put his own name and date up there, Van Pelt 1910.

Fifty years after that, the March 13, 1974 Charlevoix Courier devoted a full page to the explosive growth of condos here.

“Condominium Era Dawns in Charlevoix. 7 Developments Offer 159 Units. More Planned.” They began with the 12-unit Wharf, on Belvedere Avenue close to Bridge Street, a year prior. In 1974, these would start to fill up: Chez Charlevoix, on Petoskey Avenue/U.S. 31 at the golf course, six two-story units built by Dean Eby; the 24-unit The Dunes, at the bend of Michigan Avenue above Lake Michigan, originally planned to have 32 units, but pared back to provide better parking and grounds (initial price offer, $58,900); the nearby 6-story LaCroft with 62 units on West Dixon, also overlooking the lake, built by Ralph Hess, Jr.; the original portion of Earl Young’s 1964-65 Weathervane Terrace motel on Pine River Lane was “condominiumized,” adding 36 units (the 3-story addition on West Dixon came later); the Sandcastle on the Park Avenue bluff, eight units; and LeHavre on the south side of Round Lake, holding 11 units, with more planned, including the 12-unit (and recently severely burned) Captain’s Watch on Park Avenue which would go up not long after.

Except for the completed Wharf and Weathervane Terrace, all of these were going up at the same time.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Looking Back: Kiddos, concrete roads and condo booms