Wyoming Michigan History Room

Wyoming Michigan History Room The Wyoming Historical Commission maintains a Local History Room in the Wyoming, Michigan Library. This is an online extension of our room and it’s archives.

Those interested in more details are encouraged to visit the Room during open hours. Members of our Wyoming Historical Commission are on site during open hours to assist you as well as learn more about your experiences in Wyoming. We are open on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of each month from 10 am until 2 pm, and every Tuesday from 4:30-7:30 pm.

06/16/2026

Sorry, no photos for this one. Just an interesting and slightly twisted saga from nearly 100 years ago, as recorded in the Grand Rapids Press.

During the evening of Sunday, June 10, 1928, in the middle of Prohibition, officers from the sheriff’s department, along with federal agents, raided a home on Beals Road (28th Street SW) west of Buchanan Avenue (near Wykes Avenue) and discovered a cache containing 49 gallons of alcohol, 24 quarts of whisky, and 110 pints of beer. Reportedly, the locale had been identified as a liquor rendezvous for high school students. The authorities took Mrs. Margaret Bieber, age 33, into custody for violation of the liquor laws. A group of high school boys and girls quickly dispersed when the raid was made. The Sheriff at the time was Byron J. Patterson and Arthur Q. Scully was serving as the federal prohibition chief of this district.

During the raid, 41-year-old Frank Palmer, despite being detained at the time, excused himself into another room for a moment, spotted an open window and took a “flying leap for liberty.” From that moment he was considered a fugitive, and later that week he got mixed up in a brawl at Burton Heights landing himself in the third precinct police station. The following morning, Palmer was forced to appear in justice court to face a charge of violating the prohibition laws. Adding to the mystery of Palmer and Bieber is the fact the 1928 R.L. Polk city directory for Grand Rapids lists Frank and Margaret Bieber residing at the Beals Road home that was raided back on June 10. What makes this interesting is the fact Margaret had been granted a divorce from Frank back on November 3, 1925.

The plot thickened five months later when Palmer and Bieber were discovered in Denver, Colorado using a new alias as Mr. and Mrs. George Wilbur. Apparently the two had jumped bond and skipped town here, borrowing a car from Palmer’s mother to head out west. Adding to Palmer’s woes was the fact that along with the liquor charge, he apparently had slashed the wrist of an 18-year-old while attempting to take a diamond ring from his finger in a pool hall at 2011 S. Division Avenue. The couple were fighting extradition in hopes of avoiding a return to Grand Rapids. Regardless, Palmer, who had been living on Allen Road (36th Street SW) was returned and sentenced to nine months at the Ionia Reformatory.

In May of the following year, despite only having four months remaining on his sentence, Palmer and another fellow broke away from a prison road camp at Orleans, along M43 between Belding and Ionia. By August, he was back in circuit court, charged with breaking out of prison. In November, he changed his plea to guilty and was sentenced to an additional term of 3 to 6 years at the Jackson state prison. As for Margaret, she was still living in Colorado and shows up in Denver in the 1930 U.S. census.

Hope to see you there!
06/15/2026

Hope to see you there!

The photo below appears in an "Images of America" booklet titled "Wyoming," published in 2010 by Norma Lewis and Jay de ...
06/13/2026

The photo below appears in an "Images of America" booklet titled "Wyoming," published in 2010 by Norma Lewis and Jay de Vries. The caption identifies a young man named Frank "Spike" Schultz as being the "fourth from the left in the second row." The authors claimed that he was "a boxer and was killed in a barroom brawl in Texas where he was chasing Pancho Villa." The only thing accurate in that statement is that yes, he had been a boxer (amateur) and was killed in Texas. The rest of it is embellishment.

According to the 126th Regimental Association Archive & History Center, Frank, born in March 1891 in Chicago, Illinois, was the oldest of eight children born to William John Schultz and Cornelia Kate Smit. They came to Grand Rapids about 5 or 6 years later. The family resided in a number of locations, most of which were around the Galewood and Urbandale areas (Godfrey-Lee) of Wyoming Township. As a teenager, Frank went to work for a furniture company first as a "sawyer" and later as a cabinet maker like his father, William. Speaking of his father, in 1909, he pummeled another man to death along Plaster Creek after seeing the victim exposing himself to his two young girls, the only sisters of Frank. A series of quick hearings ruled William was justified in doing so and that was the end of that. This may have been what motivate Frank to go into boxing and he began engaging in amateur bouts as early as 1911, being described as a "husky lightweight from the Clyde Park Avenue district." He won a number of bouts over the course of the next year but in August 1912, his father, William, dropped dead at the family supper table at 53 years of age. At the time, they were living on Burton Street SW.

Frank eventually enlisted in Company L, 32nd Regiment, Michigan National Guard at the Grand Rapids Armory on Michigan Street and Ionia Avenue. This is the regiment that would later become known as the 126th Infantry Regiment, 32nd "Red Arrow" Division. In July 1916, Frank and his unit deployed to El Paso, Texas where it was billeted at Camp Cotton, just a few hundred yards from the border with Mexico. The National Guard units were there to prevent incursions across the border into Texas and New Mexico, but only regular army units under General Pershing actually crossed the border into Mexico. So Frank and his fellow Guardsmen were not at any time "chasing Pancho Villa."

On January 1, 1917, the 32nd Regiment's football team won the all-Army football championship in a game played on the El Paso High School football field. After that, the 32nd was preparing to head back to Michigan. On Monday evening, January 15, 1917, Frank, now a Corporal, and two other members of Company L were in El Paso heading back to camp when allegedly, Schultz had "jostled one of them." They later ran into the same three men and one of them drew a revolver and "without warning shot Schultz." He died shortly afterwards from his wounds, the sixth soldier from the 32nd Regiment to die while serving along the border. While the local police had begun a search for the trio, they were unsuccessful in locating them. Frank's body was shipped home and arrived in Grand Rapids for his funeral that Friday. Soldiers from the 32nd Regiment on furlough accompanied Schultz and performed a military burial service at Garfield Park cemetery.

There was no evidence of any "barroom brawl" and the incomplete certificate of death noted the cause from a "Pistol wound in neck inflicted by unknown parties."

The photo below was taken most likely at the Alabastine No. 2 plant that today is the site of Michigan Natural Storage. The gentleman on the far left with the suit coat and hat (arms folded) is identified by Lewis and de Vries as "William Schultz," which, if accurate, implies he's Frank's father and likely working at the plant, as well. That would place this photo as pre-August 1912.

The grainy photo of Corporal Frank Schultz is from the January 16, 1917 edition of The Grand Rapids Press.

Tragically, Frank's younger brother, William (junior?) died in the Stickley Bros. Furniture Factory fire of January 20, 1920 (Grand Rapids Press photo from same date). Seems the family, and in particular Cornelia, was snake-bitten.

The "Galewood" name appeared sometime in 1913 and at the time, it was thought to encompass the area bordered by Hall Str...
06/05/2026

The "Galewood" name appeared sometime in 1913 and at the time, it was thought to encompass the area bordered by Hall Street to the north, Clyde Park Ave to the east, Burlingame to the west, and along the Burton Street SW corridor. The boundaries shrunk later on when Urbandale on Chicago Drive and the Burlingame community were taken into account. While working on this story, I came across the full page ad, below and wanted to share it right away. It should bring back memories for many, and amaze those who did not realize the extent of the business community in Galewood. The ad is from The Grand Rapids Press, June 18, 1958.

We'll be back to revisit the birth and development of the Galewood community in the coming week. Stay tuned.

It was June 1936, when Dr. Allingham opened his Dentist Office in the Home Acres neighborhood on South Division. This ad...
06/03/2026

It was June 1936, when Dr. Allingham opened his Dentist Office in the Home Acres neighborhood on South Division. This ad appeared in the South Kent News

Galewood (the commercial area centering on Burton Street SW and Godfrey Avenue SW) was Wyoming Township's first governme...
06/02/2026

Galewood (the commercial area centering on Burton Street SW and Godfrey Avenue SW) was Wyoming Township's first government center dating back to the 1930s, until offices began moving up to 28th Street and DeHoop starting in 1948. Below are the rented buildings in the Galewood area that were used for this purpose. Each has been annotated. The Sanborn Fire Map pieced together for this was from 1950.

In a recent post about the 100th anniversary of Huizen’s Furniture, there was quite a bit of interest in the Fryling bui...
06/02/2026

In a recent post about the 100th anniversary of Huizen’s Furniture, there was quite a bit of interest in the Fryling building sitting on the west side. This post is only about about that particular business.

In the photo (below), which does not have a specific date, only the Fryling Jewelry business is shown. Later, an optometry business will open next to it.

In all the different directories, census, and newspaper reports, here’s what we know about the Fryling businesses.

In 1930, Frederick Fryling, his wife Hildah, and their infant son, Gordon, were living on Church Road in Paris Township. We haven’t pinned down what road today that would be, but Frederick was working on a carving machine in a furniture factory. It was not until 1937 that he shows up on Burton Street operating a barber shop and watch repair business. The 1940 city directory indicates the shop was at 1033 Burton Street next door to Huizen Furniture, and the family, now including a daughter named Esther, was living further west at 1045, next to the old Galewood Theater.

In early January 1940, the 1033 Burton Street location burned in a fire. Later that month, he sought approval to build a barber and beauty shop at the 1045 location to replace the one destroyed by fire. Fred’s World War II draft registration indicates both the home and the barber shop business are in that same location. By 1946, the city directory is showing Fred as a jeweler still at the 1045 address. Meanwhile, son Gordon is living at home and attending school at Grand Rapids Christian High School. In 1950, Fred’s jewelry business shows up as adjacent to Huizen Furniture with an address of 1035. Son Gordon has moved on, residing in Grand Rapids with his wife, Francis, and two very young sons – Marc and Gregory. Gordon is working as a timekeeper for a hardware manufacturing firm. His sister Esther is a student nurse in a hospital.

Five years later, the address of Fryling’s Jewelry shows up as 1045, leading us to believe that between maps and directories, mistakes were made. The 1955 Abrams Aerial section, below, shows the Fryling Jewelry building adjacent to Huizen Furniture, and the house still sitting next to it. Meanwhile, that same year, Gordon F. Fryling is graduating from the Chicago College of Optometry. By 1960, Dr. Fryling had opened his optometry practice in a new building erected along the west wall of the jewelry store.

A 1976 advertisement in The Grand Rapids Press shows Fred Fryling still operating what is now called the Fryling Diamond Company at 1033 Burton Street SW. However, it indicates he had been in the business since 1932, but we have not found evidence that dates further back than 1937. He retired from the business in 1979 and three years later, at the age of 81, while living at 784 68th Street SW, in Byron Township, Fred passed away leaving his wife, Hilda, son Gordon, and daughter Frances, along with 10 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

To further muddy the dates, a death announcement in the January 25, 1982, edition of the Grand Rapids Press stated that Fred had graduated from the Fox Barber College in 1927 and worked as a barber until 1945, when he went into the diamond business.

Perusing The Grand Rapids Press. This article and map (smaller one) from December 2, 1979 shows the layout for L.E. Kauf...
05/31/2026

Perusing The Grand Rapids Press. This article and map (smaller one) from December 2, 1979 shows the layout for L.E. Kaufman (aka, Palmer Park; aka, Veterans Memorial Park; aka, Picric Acid plant) for cross country skiing.

Wyoming has never had its own post office, neither as a township or city. In the very early days, a store operator servi...
05/31/2026

Wyoming has never had its own post office, neither as a township or city. In the very early days, a store operator serving as a contract station would be appointed as postmaster, and folks had to trek to that store to retrieve their mail. But on June 1, 1957, the Galewood Station opened at 1260 Burton Street SW, just west of the intersection with Cleveland Avenue, serving as a branch of the Grand Rapids post office. It replaced the former Roosevelt Station that had sat at 1500 Grandville Avenue SW but had lost out when its 10-year lease expired.

The Galewood Station moved into a building (shown below in the grainy, black-and-white newspaper photo) that dated back to at least 1939, when it was first home to the Galewood Fixall Shop, where you could get just about anything fixed there. The Fixall Shop operated about ten years, closing in 1949 when Mann's Plumbing & Heating opened up there, lasting only until 1956.

When the Galewood postal station opened, Stephen Fenwick served as superintendent and a celebration was organized by the merchants and postal executives. Warren Bischoff chaired the merchants' program and the Godfrey PTA served a meal. Two years later, the Galewood branch was renamed the Wyoming Branch, taking effect on November 1, 1959. The name change was to ensure that mail to folks around Wyoming would actually reach its destination. At this time, there were three Grand Rapids post office substations: Galewood, Southkent, and Burton Heights. Both Grandville and Byron Center had stand-alone post offices but also delivered mail to some Wyoming addresses.

Another two years passed and the decision was made to move the Wyoming Branch and triple the amount of space needed to serve the growing city. Bids for the new site at Michael Avenue and Colrain Street (now Prairie Parkway) were accepted in the fall of 1961 and construction was completed in early 1963. Plans included details on the effort it would take to move the post office from Burton Street without disrupting any mail deliveries. The new Wyoming Branch opened March 1, 1963.

The Burton Street building has housed several businesses since its days as a post office. These include the LaSalle Wines & Champagne Company, the Electro-Medical Services Company which sold and serviced medical equipment, and now Tacos El Caporal (shown below in a 2025 Google Earth view).

In 1926, one hundred years ago this year, Bert Huizen opened his furniture business on Burton Street in Galewood, right ...
05/30/2026

In 1926, one hundred years ago this year, Bert Huizen opened his furniture business on Burton Street in Galewood, right next door to the family residence he grew up at and current home to his parents, John and Kate Huizen. At first, Bert focused on furniture making, repairing and upholstery, but would soon include a sales area for new furniture. Today, Huizens occupies all three lots of the original Huizen Addition (plat). The old Huizen farmhouse is now their parking lot at the northwest corner of Burton Street and Huizen Avenue. The photo below is of the original Bert Huizen building.

Address

3350 Michael Avenue SW
Wyoming, MI
49509

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Saturday 10am - 2pm

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