The Dearborn Historical Museum’s book compiling the best Dearborn stories from residents and former residents will soon go on sale, a perfect gift for the holidays.

The book, the first of its kind ever compiled by the museum, is titled Best Dearborn Stories: Voices From Henry Ford’s Hometown. The book will be sold at the museum’s gift shop at the McFadden-Ross House, 915 Brady.

Profits from sales of the book will go to the museum, which has begun a membership drive to help keep its doors open after city funds run out during the current fiscal year ending June 30, 2012.

We will feature excerpts from the new book over the next couple of weeks. This second excerpt is from a piece written by Freda Berce who has lived in Dearborn for 65 years. The 87-year-old resident compiled a list of her favorite place of yore. Unfortunately, many of her favorite places have long since been replaced or no longer exist. Longtime residents will instantly recognize the names and locations. It’s a great list.

Berce’s story below is one of more than 100 that appears in the Best Dearborn Stories: Voices From Henry Ford’s Hometown.

 

Favorite Places in Dearborn

By Freda M. Berce

 

East Dearborn

• Woodworth House – great dining and dancing.
• Circle Theater – Warren Avenue.
• Checker Inn – Schaefer Avenue. Great large elevated dance floor.
• Carmen Theater – Schaefer Road. Soda fountain on second floor.
• Wyoming Drive In Theater – Wyoming. Still there.
• Harry Miller Flowers — Michigan Avenue. The place for buying flowers.
• Korte’s Bar – Michigan Avenue. Dancing and dining outdoors.
• Dearborn Youth Center — Michigan Avenue. Roller skating.
• U.S. Naval Barracks — had sailors galore.
• Michigan Avenue & Schaefer — traffic officers directing traffic.
• The Rotunda — exhibition hall on Schaefer Road. Sadly burned down.
• McMahon’s Cocktail Lounge – Schaefer Road. Beautiful. The place to go on dates.
• Ford Foundation — the place to live in East Dearborn.

 

West Dearborn

•  Eurich Furniture — Michigan Avenue. Had old fashioned soda fountain and sold penny candy.
• Meyer Seafood Restaurant — Michigan Avenue. Great food.
• Holiday Inn — Michigan Avenue at Outer Drive.
• Chambertin’s — located in the Holiday Inn. Great food.
• Calvin Theater — Michigan Avenue.
• Twin Ponds — Oakwood Boulevard by Ford engineering buildings. Great skating.
• Muirheads — Michigan at Military. Best toy store and Santa with Sleigh for children’s memory pictures.
• The Maples Bowling Alley — Michigan Avenue.
• Michigan Avenue — beautiful Christmas decorations and crowds of shoppers.
• Ford Field — Brady Street. Ice skating and Class “A” baseball games which brought hundreds of spectators every weekend, sitting in the stands and hillside.
• Greenfield Village — Oakwood Boulevard. Most memorable when Henry Ford I passed away. My sister and I waited for hours to view his body. The line was miles long (and we wore high heel shoes then—whew!).
• Dearborn Hills — the place to live in West Dearborn years ago.
• Michigan Avenue & Monroe — traffic officers directing traffic!

 

This entry was posted on Friday, November 25th, 2011 at 5:45 am and is filed under Around Town, Arts & Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.