Michigan Avenue

Michigan Avenue is the major business-lined route running east-west through downtown Marshall, Michigan.

History

Prior to the Interstate Highway System, US Highway 12 was the major thoroughfare from Chicago, Illinois, westward to Detroit, Michigan. The old highway ran through various cities and towns where it was often known as Michigan Avenue.  In the 1960s most of the highway was replaced by Interstate 94.

Marshall originally identified this road as State Street, but Carver says the State of Michigan later required “all cities and towns on the route from Michigan Avenue in Detroit to Michigan Avenue in Chicago change their name of their main street to Michigan Avenue [1]. Marshall complied with the request in 1923.

The city gained its first stoplight in 1926.

Bellairs Corpus

Main Street in New Zebedee is described as being "only three blocks long" but full of "drug stores and ten cent stores and clothing stores and restaurants and bars" (The Figure in the Shadows).

Reference

1. A History of Marshall; Richard Carver (1993); pg.15.

John Bellairs Walk | Locations