*Population 11,304 (2000 Census)

*Located on Lake Huron in Michigan's Lower Peninsula.

*Seat of Alpena County

 

These pictures are from August but last weekend I visited again for the Great Lakes Lighthouse Festival.

 

Ha! My last post was perfectly timed. For a town I've never heard of it has quite a few nice things like the IOOF flatiron and a narrow, landscaped commercial street.

I've heard Alpena mentioned often, probably in connection with Air National Guard, but haven't been there. Thanks for posting the photos.

 

It looks like a pleasant town with a good CBD. It's time they restored the cupola to city hall.

 

That bear/wolverine thing at the top of your historic markers needs some Jenny Craig stat!

I've seen this town on the Delta flight board at DTW and wondered who flies there?

 

Also, I think it used to be regularly shown on the Cleveland or Toledo TV stations' weather maps (maybe it was to make us feel a little better since it was always colder in Alpena).

 

Thanks for posting the photos.

Haven't been up here in awhile.  Actually the last time was for this 1 week summer camp thing I did about 10 years ago at the National Guard base.  Really it's the biggest thing they got up in that part of the state which is why you'll see flights there.  It's weird cause when I watch the news here in Chicago and they put up a weather map, Alpena is always on there. 

Been there.  I think there is one flight in and one out per day.  It is a big spot for people who like to dive.  Lots of shipwrecks to explore off of the coast, apparently . 

This is a photo thread I did of Alpena in 2005 over at www.cyburbia.org

 

A little history of Alpena:

 

The area was first settled in the 1850s as a fishing village, but later became a major lumber producer because of the direct access to the virgin White Pine forests of northern Michigan and a navigable river and harbor on a large (mostly) sheltered  bay.  The lumber industry produced many wealthy people who then built many large houses that have left a decent legacy. 

 

By the beginning of the 20th century, the forests were pretty much exhausted, so the lumber industry began to decline.  Luckily, though, all of Alpena and Alpena County has a couple hundred feet of quality limestone about 10 feet below grade.  This allowed for the creation and development of the local cement/concrete industry (then Portland Cement Co., now LaFarge Corp.).  This is the industry that has mostly sustained the economy for the last 100 years, alongwith a particle board plant, a paper plant (that just recently closed), quality community college, major hospital (with cancer center), manufacturing companys concrete block machine producer, etc.

 

It is a city that has maintained itself fairly well over the last 150 years, and doesn't really show signs of declining, though there may not be a boom in the near future. 

 

Btw, I grew-up in Alpena and it was a great place to be a child.  You had the Lake and River, 150 years of industrial infrastructure (therefore, alot of abandoned/leftover areas to explore as a pre-teen), and walkable/bikable size.

 

Enjoy

 

Downtown Alpena - north and south sides of Thunder Bay River (the river divides the downtown)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That was most of Downtown Alpena, which has a nice "main street" scale, but has been eroded with parking lots on primary frontages and on the backs of the main downtown blocks.

 

Now that you've seen some of Downtown, let's move into the neighborhoods surrounding downtown.  These are the areas with the largest number of grand houses from Alpena's lumber era, alongwith many smaller, comfortable houses.  I'll even show you 2 of houses I used to live in.

 

Here are two aerials of typical residential neighborhoods in Alpena:

 

 

 

We'll start at my brother's house, and walk toward downtown:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that we have arrived again in Downtown, let's move to the other side of downtown and see the grand houses on Washington Ave.:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the previous two are the house my family owned when I was in high school.  It was a almots completely orginial 1903 late Victorian Queen Anne.  It had all the orginial (never painted) oak woodwork, chandeliers, leaded-beveled first floor windows and front parlor French Doors.  It is five bedrooms, 1 & 1/2 bath with a 2 car attached garage.  Plus, it had alley access, nice.  I loved this house.

looks nice enough. some great homes.

 

when i was in college at bg this town was always the benchmark of cold weather on the toledo news programs, "you think it's cold here today? up in alpena...!"  :laugh:

Yeah, the Alpena on other region's news weather maps is interesting.  I recently moved from Chicagoland and Alpena was prominent on the local news weather maps.  I figured it was mainly due to the where Alpena is in relation to other "big" cities in the western Great Lakes, and font size and map layout.

 

In Chicagoland, the local news weather maps generally showed all the major cities (Minn, Gary, Madison, Green Bay, Detroit, Grand Rapids, etc.), but due to how much space the name Green Bay occupied on the map, they usually eschewed Traverse City and used Alpena instead.  It was always interesting, because of all the cities they'd have the map Alpena was generally the smallest by a factor of 3 or more.  Though, it is the largest city for 100 miles in every direction in Northeast Lower Michigan.