Warren

Photos offer glimpse of Warren’s past

By Brian Louwers
C & G Staff Writer

» click to enlarge « Photo by Brian C. Louwers The Warren Historical & Genealogical Society recently took delivery of a large collection of enlarged reprints of historic photos previously displayed in a local bank. Photo by Brian C. Louwers The Warren Historical & Genealogical Society recently took delivery of a large collection of enlarged reprints of historic photos previously displayed in a local bank.

WARREN — The images are stirring, bearing expressions captured in time and sites that once were.

Those who’ve taken it upon themselves to preserve Warren’s history said there are more than 60 — all enlarged reprints of historic local photos — they hope to share with the public in the weeks to come.

“They were all at Huntington Bank, which acquired them after Warren Bank (closed),” said Sue Keffer, who chairs the Warren Historical Commission and serves as the treasurer of the Warren Historical & Genealogical Society. “We were grateful that they turned them back over to us.”

Keffer said the photos hung in the banks for years before they were recently given back to the city when the bank was refurbished.

Several depicting days gone by have already been turned over to the Warren Police Department for display, while others are destined for places of honor at the Fire Department and other city offices.

Included in the collection are shots of historic farms, former businesses that once graced Van Dyke, Nine Mile Road, and Warren’s Village Historic District near Chicago Road and Mound.

There are photos of classrooms and old school houses, holiday parades from years gone by, and of course, faces from the past.

Hubert Leech, curator of the Warren Historical Gallery at the Warren Community Center, said city historians are hoping to display the photos prominently at some point.

The shots are reproductions of originals held in the collections of the city. Some of the earliest photographs captured scenes from the frontier days of the late 1800s. Others chronicle Warren’s early years as a village and township, its birth as a city and its growth as a suburban center of manufacturing.

Keffer said several photos of places outside of the city would be gifted to Warren’s neighbors, including Center Line, Roseville, Utica and Mount Clemens. One of the photos has already been given to historians in the city of Richmond, Mich.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Brian Louwers at brianlouwers@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1089.