New Quarterly Newsletter Available!

Dear TAHS Members (and future members!),

Please enjoy the latest TAHS newsletter, which you can download by clicking on the link below:

May 2018 Newsletter

We recap our awesome 2017-2018 program series, and hear from the President, our various committees, and archivist! This newsletter also contains our summer calendar of TOURS! Don’t forget to add these dates to your calendars, they’re the hottest tickets in town!

Colored photographic postcard of Grand Traverse County Courthouse, undated. From the Local History Collection, Traverse Area District Library.

In this newsletter, we also debut our new feature, The Preservation Corner, by Peg Siciliano. The Corner will provide updates on various preservation issues of interest to TAHS and its supporters. In the future, after member input and Board consideration, TAHS could take public stands and action concerning pertinent issues. Such actions are certainly a part of this group’s history. For example, in the 1970s the organization was integral in the actions that saved the Grand Traverse County Courthouse from demolition.

This first installment presents updates on three current issues: The use of the Sixth Street Carnegie Building; the status of the City of Traverse City’s Con Foster Museum three-dimensional artifact collection; and plans for Traverse City Area Public Schools’ Central Grade School complex. If readers have other preservation concerns they would like to see addressed, please e-mail your ideas to contact@traversehistory.org.

May 2018 Speaker Event: ‘These Are A Few of our favorite’ Local History Stories, part of the History Series

After the fire on Front Street, Traverse City, November 1896. Image from the S.E. Wait Glass Plate Negative Collection, Traverse Area District Library.

In anticipation of our upcoming season of walking history tours, please join members of the Traverse Area Historical Society and a few of our regular tour guides as they share some of their favorite pieces of local history in short story form.  This event will take place on Sunday, May 20th, 1-2 p.m., and is part of our ongoing History Series.

Have you heard about The Hannah Rifles — a group of local boys from the class of 1899 who answered Teddy Roosevelt’s call to join the Rough Riders in Cuba during the Spanish American War?

Did you know that the south side of the 200 block of Front street was devastated by a fire in November of 1896? This stretch of wooden buildings included a hotel, two saloons, a cigar store, and a grocery, among others.

Sharon Jennings, Richard Fidler, and Larry Hains will present for this last program in the spring history series for TAHS.

Our monthly History Series meetings take place in the McGuire Room at Traverse Area District Library, 610 Woodmere Ave., Traverse City. These events are free and open to the public.