By JAMES MITCHELL
Sunday Times Newspapers
LINCOLN PARK — Longtime residents or newcomers interested in taking a look at Downriver in days gone by can get quite a view courtesy of nearly 100 historical photos collected in a new book.
Wallace Hayden, a Wyandotte librarian and local historian, will talk about and sign copies of “Images & Ancestors: Adventures in Local History” at the Lincoln Park Historical Society and Museum, 1335 Southfield Road.
The program begins at 7 p.m.
Hayden’s book includes a generous number of vintage photographs along with expanded versions of stories that he’s written over the past five years. Characters brought to life in the book include saloon keepers and lighthouse keepers, factory girls and professors, merchants and mariners, exotic dancers and ghosts that have been said to inhabit local haunts.
The book’s introductory page sets the tone: “As we walk down the street in the ghostly footsteps of those who have gone before … the endeavors of previous generations have not completely vanished.”
Veteran Downriver residents may enjoy memories of the Bob-Lo docks at Bishop Park, evenings at the Fort George Drive-In theater, and take pride in historic visits to the area which span a range from the fairly recent — President Bill Clinton — to as long ago as when Abraham Lincoln passed by on the Detroit River in 1848.
Hayden, a veteran librarian at Bacon Memorial District Library in Wyandotte who specializes in local history, is past president and current board member of the Wyandotte Historical Society.
Copies of “Images and Ancestors” will be available for $15 at the presentation, part of the Lincoln Park Historical Society’s ongoing series of free public programs. Light refreshments will be served following the talk.
For information on this or other programs contact the museum at 313-386-3137.
(James Mitchell can be reached at [email protected].)