Lenawee Historical Society

10/16/2026

Remember the Party Center on S Center at the corner of Frank St. on Adrian's east side ?
It moved to this site in 1948 as the Adrian Fruit Market, originally located on N. Main downtown.
(A Gulf gas station was across Frank St.)
The first operators were Bill and Lulu Daly, followed by Jack May, Bob Naylor, Al Henning, Cary and Evelyn Underhill and Ray and Mike Casey.
The business closed in the mid 1980s and is now an apartment building.

The Museum will host its 1st ever Frame and Book sale Friday and Saturday Nov 6th and 7th. See our previous post on this site for more details.

10/15/2026

Many of you know that Page Fence manufactured thousands of miles of woven fence in Lenawee County that was distributed worldwide. Before the massive industry moved to Adrian in 1888, the company began operations, first in Rollin Township and then Hudson.
Pictured is supposedly the first fence woven by Page in Rollin.

Coming soon is the Lenawee Museum's 1st ever Frame and Book sale, see our previous post for complete details

10/14/2026

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The Lenawee Historical Society will be soon holding its first Frame and Book Sale at the Lenawee Historical Museum.

Picture frames of all shapes and sizes, ranging from 5”x7” to large wall frames will be available. Frames from bare-bones basic to the carved and ornate, from simple rectangular to oval with curved glass, will be sold at very reasonable prices.
Mark your calendars for Friday and Saturday, November 6 & 7.

The Lenawee Historical Museum receives donations of all sorts of historical, antique, and just plain old books and pictures to sell for the purpose of raising operating funds for the museum. Many of the books are duplicates of items already in the museum’s collection. We also have old comic books and bound science fiction magazines (pulp fiction type) for sale. Portraits and artwork are often removed from their frames for preservation and storage, leaving the frames to be sold.
The sale will take place in the Frazier Auditorium on the second floor of the museum from
10 AM on Friday and Saturday, Nov 6-7th.
Accepted methods of payment are cash, check, or credit card, and, of course, donations, although not expected, are always welcome.

The Museum is located at 110 East Church Street in Adrian.
Hope to see you there.

Call now to connect with business.

10/14/2026

Today's photo shows the Barnum & Bailey Circus parade in Adrian June 1904. "The Greatest Show on Earth"
Before we discuss the circus, let's talk about the photo. The circus paraphernalia likely was unloaded near the DT&I freight depot near Race Street just north of W Maumee. (near where the Dollar Tree now sits) The parade likely occurred while workers were preparing the circus tents and such at the former Lawrence Park grounds (later called Adrian Plaza)
The 10am parade wound through downtown. Our photo shows the beginning of the procession on W Maumee just west of Winter St.
On the right side one can see just a bit of the "Clem Finerty"building (top right) further down is the steam laundry. Still on the right side bottom, we see the awnings of the Gibson House (now the Armory)
On the left side of Maumee (south) near the top of photo is the Riverside Creamery (now Comstock Park). Then in the middle there is a small one story building with the sign "Adrian"- that's the old Streetcar station. Next are two buildings (2-story and 1-story) Both are the Maple City Sanitarium operated by Professor Wallace.
The Lawrence Park circus grounds would have been just beyond the buildings shown at the top of the picture.
This circus featured over 700 animals (mostly horses), 30 elephants, 12 camels, and 4 giraffes, plus 50 cages of smaller animals.
92 special train cars were needed as it moved from town to town.
The Big Top seated 14-thousand, plus there were14 smaller tents.
There were two shows, 2pm and 8pm- tickets ranged from 75 cents for a single to $12 for a box of 6. There were 100 different acts with 300 performers.
The circus (different companies) came to Adrian a number of times in the early 1900s; later moving the set up to Mulzer Field on Division St.

Visit the Historical Society page daily for an illustrated story of Lenawee's past. We also look forward to seeing you at the Lenawee Historical Museum in Adrian, open every Friday and Saturday from 10am til 2pm.

10/12/2026

The Striped School (Rollin Township #2) was built in 1855 on a half-acre of land leased from William Derbyshire, great-great-grandfather of former Lenawee Historical Museum volunteer Keith Derbyshire. The 27' x 32' schoolhouse was clad in alternating wide and narrow wooden boards, with the wide boards painted white and the narrow ones red, hence its name. It replaced an earlier schoolhouse which had been constructed in 1844 and later moved to the site.

The Striped School served until 1948, when it consolidated with Addison. Possibly its most famous pupil was Bert Chandler, a justice on the Michigan Supreme Court. Effie Alexander, namesake of Alexander School in Adrian, taught the Striped School.

The frame building still stands today and is visible (albeit barely) on the northwest corner of Rollin Highway and Raymond Road.

Here we see multiple generations of photographs (and paint jobs) of the Striped School, highlighting the distinctive stripes that gave the building its name. The first photo shows the school when it was in use; the second was taken in 1959. The color photo is how the school building site looks today.

Visit the Historical Society page daily for an illustrated story of Lenawee's past. We also look forward to seeing you at the Lenawee Historical Museum in Adrian, open every Friday and Saturday from 10am til 2pm.

10/11/2026

A parade of Knights Templar marches down East Maumee Street in these two late 19th-century Adrian photos taken from just east of the Croswell Opera House. In the topmost photo you will see a rare view of the frame home which once stood at 135 East Maumee Street, prior to the construction of the Lenawee County Savings Bank (now City Hall) in 1907. This house was built by Adrian pioneer Dr. Parley J. Spaulding in 1834, and it was considered a high-class residence at the time.

Dr. Spaulding served as one of Adrian's first mayors (succeeding Addison Comstock himself) in 1854. For much of his career, Spaulding and his colleague Dr. Edward Barnard operated their medical practice out of the Spaulding home. Barnard's daughter Helen later married Emmet Densmore, a millionaire physician, inventor and businessman inn New York, London and Pennsylvania.

Dr. Spaulding died in 1882. When his house was demolished in 1906 for the construction of the Lenawee County Savings Bank, Lenawee County historian John Knapp carved a small chest out of lumber from the Spaulding residence, which he presented to the new bank as a memorial to the historic home. Knapp lived next door in the Colonial House (visible on the right of the lower photo) on the current site of the District Library.

Visit the Historical Society page daily for an illustrated story of Lenawee's past. We also look forward to seeing you at the Lenawee Historical Museum in Adrian, open every Friday and Saturday from 10am til 2pm.

10/10/2026

The original Baptist church in Cement City was built in 1848. It was originally known as the Columbia Baptist Church. Methods of construction involved joining the timbers with wooden pegs; even so, the church still presented a sophisticated New England-like appearance with its Greek Revival architecture. The church building likely came down in the late 1930s.

Images from the David V. Tinder Collection of Michigan Photography. William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan Library Digital Collections.

Visit the Historical Society page daily for an illustrated story of Lenawee's past. We also look forward to seeing you at the Lenawee Historical Museum in Adrian, open every Friday and Saturday from 10am til 2pm.

10/10/2026

During the Depression in the 1930s, budgets were tight. Here the 5th grade Kitchen Band at Lincoln School in Adrian rehearse on the front lawn of the campus. Instead of traditional instruments, funnels, pots and pans plus other home made utensils produced the sound. This band was under the direction of teacher Edith Haviland, great niece of Laura.
The photo also shows 3 houses across Scott Street that still remain. Plus, in the deep background between the two houses on the left, one can see a glimpse of the once prominent nursery of Elmer Smith, king of the chrysanthemum flower (Mums)

10/09/2026

Quite the hangout, this popular general store in Weston was operated for many years by Henry Lucas. Even though he continued to run the store in his later years, Lucas sold the building to his son in law Harold Tolford.
Weston died in 1909 at the age of 74 and is buried in Morenci.
Visit the Historical Society page daily for an illustrated story of Lenawee's past. We also look forward to seeing you at the Lenawee Historical Museum in Adrian, open every Friday and Saturday from 10am til 2pm.

10/08/2026

One of downtown Adrian's mainstays for over 50 years. Maurice's served area women with the latest in fashion. It was founded in 1937 by Morris (Maurice) Weisberger, former manager of Kline's Department store. It was located at 122 North Main for the majority of its operation. Pictured below is their first ad and then how it looked at the end of its run in the 1980s.
For most of its years, Maurice's was managed by Emily and husband, Leo (Isaac) Klein. The Klein's were not related to anyone at Kline's Dept Store. (different spellings)
Be sure to click on each image for a better view.