Tuesday, October 26, 2010

A small rural Michigan city, Belding

2010 10 25 Today Belding. Why Belding,  no one really knows- maybe because it is near enough to do a day trip, it's a new-to-us place, we like road trips sometimes.

We visited all of their parks, mostly city parks with the exception of Lightning Bend, which has 100 acres of mostly woods. The parks were nice but there were several old and impressive buildings in town.  I was surprised by these large brick buildings in the small town, who built them and why go to so much work?

This is what I learned about Belding. Settled in the 1850's, Belding's growth was the result of silk manufacturing established by Hiram H. Belding and Alvan N. Belding, for which the community was eventually named in 1871.

 From 1860 to 1890, the area flourished as a lumbering town with the Flat River playing a vital role in the economic development of the entire region of northeastern Ionia County.

This large factory building is known as the Jolly Kid plant,
which manufactured children's clothing. It was formerly
the Richardson's Mill, Belding's first silk factory
started in 1887.





Flat River
                                                            Along the way in Ottawa County
                                                 On the way Friske Drive in Kent County
 
We also had some good soup at Millie's Restaurant in Belding.

4 comments:

  1. Why Belding, indeed. It was fun exploring Flat River places. The dirt road beckons...
    Your photo of the farm on a ridge in Ottawa County is pure art - evocative, moody, pensive!
    Thanks for another great day. M

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  2. The Flat River is so pretty! Cool building pictures too. What kind of soup did you have?

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  3. Flat River is Flat, yes cool buildings, Chicken Cheddar was the soup, thanks B

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  4. what neat pics. Always amazes me what you can find in west Michigan. I am getting more interested in the Trans-Pecos region and the Llano Estacado in TX-NM. See an upcoming blog. Fall in Mich looks so nice... that is a really cool bld, they should turn it into lofts or a bike factory.

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