Firsts

Firsts. . , A Place of Firsts (east side) , The northeast corner of Rose and Michigan looms large in Kalamzoo's pioneer saga. It was here that Hosea Huston built the town's first frame structure and store, in 1831. Pioneer physician Jonathan Abbot established a practice above Huston's store and operated the first post office here in 1832. Kalamazoo's first bank, a State Bank branch, opened here in 1834. , , Famous Hotels (south side) , After an 1850 fire leveled much of the block west of Burdick Street, the site gave rise to a series of celebrated hotels. The first, the Burdick House, opened in 1854 and was destroyed in a spectacular fire in 1909. From its ashes rose the 250 room "new" Burdick Hotel in 1911. For nearly six decades, the red brick Burdick remained the "most beautifully appointed hotel in Kalamazoo." , , The Federal Land Office (west side) , In 1834, the local U.S. Land Office moved from White Pigeon to Kalamazoo, then called Bronson. Register Abraham Edwards located his office one block east of here, at the northeast corner of Edwards and Michigan. Boom times followed as land-hungry frontiersmen thronged the streets. The land office sold a record $2 million worth of Michigan property in 1836, at $1.25 an acre. , , A Vital Downtown (north side) , In 1931, John E. Fetzer launched Kalamazoo's first radio station, WKZO, in the Burdick Hotel. Fetzer Television, Channel 3, began broadcasting from the hotel in 1950. The Burdick and adjoining buildings were razed to make way for the Kalamazoo Center, completed in 1976 as a joint venture between the city and private developers. The modern structure helped revitalize Kalamazoo's downtown. . This historical marker is in Central Business District in Kalamazoo in Kalamazoo County Michigan