About Us
Genesee County Historical Society
The Genesee
County Historical Society was first formed in 1863 and has operated on and
off ever since. Most of the
Society's energy was spent collecting and displaying artifacts in hopes of
some day having a museum. Over time they displayed their collections in
business windows along Saginaw St, most often at the Hubbard Hardware
store. For many years they worked with the Flint Board of Education and
displayed artifacts in a museum type setting in the rooms of the old Oak
Grove Sanitarium. As we have witnessed in the last 50 years, it was hard
to maintain interest and volunteers, so it was not unusual for the
collection to be tossed back and forth between the Society and the Flint
Board of Education. Most of the collections were stored above members
storefronts on Saginaw St or in members garages.
After World
War II, The Society was reorganized, being lead by Leonard MacKinnon and
Charles S. Mott. They took control of the museum collections then in the
possession of the Flint School board and created a new society complete
with Curators for their various collections. Initially they again
displayed the objects in storefronts but by the mid 1950's obtained room
in the upper hallways of the Genesee County Courthouse for display of some
of the collections. Thanks to the support of other community groups, large
collections related to Indian artifacts, lighting, and guns were collected
with funds from such groups as the Kiwanis and Rotary. This time,
determined to have a real museum, the society became a key player in the
development of the Cultural Center and kept pressing the need to have a
historical and transportation museum as part of the College and Cultural
Development.
In the Mid 1950's Dr. Roger Van
Bolt was hired by Flint Jr.
College as a Social Science instructor, leaving a job with the Henry Ford
Museum. Roger became a consultant to the College and Cultural Center and
worked closely with the Society on the development of the new museum which
combined history and transportation. Roger became the first Director of
the museum.
During the
1950's and 60's the historical society took the lead under the leadership
of Mary Manley to identify and promote Centennial Farms with support from
the Consumers Power Company.
The Society
donated their complete collections to the Sloan Museum in October of 1966
and had a very close relationship to the museum until Roger's retirement
in 1978. The Society acted as the Museum's . Friends Board., holding monies collected by the
early Summer Fair Committee and providing general support to the museum
as the Friends of Sloan
Museum would do in the 1980
and 1990's Roger served as Secretary to the Society for most of the years
he was the Director of Sloan. Over time the relationship between Sloan and
the Genesee County Historical Society has changed. However, the Historical
Society continues to support the Sloan Museum and houses its papers and
bequests at the museum.
In the fall of
1975, The Genesee County Historical Society joined six other
community organization to open the Robert Whaley residence for the USA.
Bicentennial. Volunteers spent hours cleaning, painting, and preparing the
house to be open to the public. Each group was given a room on the second
floor as their own. The Society's first contribution to the Whaley House
Association was the purchase of a burglar alarm. The Society remains a
founding member of the Whaley Historical House
Association.
The Society
also became involved with the creation of Crossroads Village, making one
of the first financial contributions to the project. Many of the Society's
members were actively involved in getting the village open to the
public.
The USA
Bi-Centennial brought new life to the Society with a flurry of activity.
Most notable were the bus tours. The Society traveled back to Genesee
County New York to explore the community's roots. Such a good time was had
that the Society soon sponsored weekend bus tours of Western Michigan,
visiting historical sites in Grand Rapids, Lansing, and Marshall,
Michigan. In the 1980's the
Society, working with emerging historical societies across the
county, put on a day long tour of Genesee County. It was so well attended
that two buses were needed.
In 1976, Larry
Gustin, then an Editor at the Flint Journal, stood up at a historical Society
meeting and asked what we were going to do to save the birthplace of
General Motors which was falling in disrepair on Water Street. The next
year the Society became involved with the restoration of the Durant Dort
office building after it was donated to the City by an anonymous donor.
The building was boarded up and waited for funds to be raised for its
restoration. In 1979 the rear wall collapsed which compelled the Society
to do something if the building was going to be restored. A fundraising
campaign was begun. Mrs. Francis W. Thompson, a board member of the
Society, pledged funds toward the restoration. In total she would give
$450,000. toward the $850,000. restoration. Other funds came from federal
grants and a Buick car raffle held at the Buick plant. The building was
finished in time for the 100th anniversary of the Durant-Dort
Carriage Company in 1886. The Society formed the Durant Dort Carriage Co.
Foundation, a 501C4 organization, to oversee the operation of the
building.
The
restoration of the Genesee County's only National Landmark, the Durant
Dort Office Building inspired the Society to become more involved in
historic preservation. The
society put on numerous Preservation Conferences in the 1980's bringing in
the President of the National Trust, the Owner of Bradbury Wallpapers, and
other such notable speakers in the Preservation field. The Society
worked with developer Gerald Yurk
to restore the Carriage Factory and the Northbank Center, obtaining
the facade easement of both buildings for the Society to assure their
preservation into the future.
The Society
created the Clarence young Essay Contest to promote original local history
writing by local college students. Professor Robert Schafer at UM-Flint played
an important role by encouraging the History classes to write on local
history topics. The archives at Sloan, UM, the Flint Public Library, and
GMI all supported the project by giving special presentations on the value
of their collections as resource material.
During the
1990's the Society became involved in the preservation of the Vernon's
mural when it was feared that the building would be demolished after the
fire at Peerless Furniture. The Society played a key role in the initial
fundraiser to save the building before the Greater Flint Arts Council joined
the cause and agreed to take on the renovation of the building as its new
home.
Popular
programs put together by members on Flint theaters, auto dealerships, and
Flint Coney Islands brought
standing room only crowds to meetings. The Society printed a
booklet on the Flint Theaters and is working on another about Flint's
Coney Islands. As part of Flint's Sesquicentennial, a Committee of the Society, working
with Arcadia Publishing put together a book called Postcard history of Flint 1890-1960. It was so well
received that the same committee
produced another postcard history entitled Genesee County,1900-1960 in
2006.
In 1998, the
Society joined the new Automobile National Heritage Area along with Sloan,
Flint Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, Genesee County Parks, Kettering
University, UM-Flint.. They became involved in the fundraising for the
arches after two local foundations turned down requests for funding. The
Society remains the fiscal agent for all funds for the
arches.
In 2003 the Flint MotorCities Stewardship Board agreed to a
cooperative effort to open the Durant-Dort Office Building to the public
on a more regular basis as part of the auto heritage initiative. The Flint
Area and Convention Bureau agreed to rent the second and third floor
leaving the first floor available for public use and tours. The Historical
Society agreed to lease two offices at a modest rate agreeing to oversee
volunteers to open the buildings to tours. The partnership has enabled
numerous community groups to use the meeting rooms on the first floor.
That same year the Society began encouraging the City of
Flint to put on a Sesquicentennial Celebration and stood ready to do it
themselves if needed. Many of the Sesquicentennial Commission members were
Historical Society Board members as a result. As part of the
sesquicentennial, General Motors contributed funds for an arch in front of
the courthouse and the City and County agreed to share the cost of an arch
between the County and City Building. The Sesquicentennial Commission
later contributed the funds to match the county's contribution. The Arches
should be installed in 2007.
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