Photographic Memories: Marshall

Photographer Lee Rentz recently visited Marshall, Michigan, and shares some of his thoughts and photographs documenting his tour of Michigan Avenue, including Hemmingsen Rexall Drug Store.

For those who think American small towns died soon after “It’s a Wonderful Life” was filmed, it’s a surprise to see that there are beautiful small towns all over the Midwest that look for all the world like Bedford Falls. These towns have two or three story well-proportioned brick buildings lining Main Street, and these days the drygoods stores and mom-and-pop groceries of a hundred years ago have been replaced by antique shops, styling salons, and lawyers’ offices. In many cases the old storefronts have been restored to something near their original look, and the space-age aluminum facades of the 1950s and 1960s have been removed.