Historic Greenville

Historic Greenville. . Earliest History , Before John Green settled in 1844, Indians were the only inhabitants of the area, living on land near a bend in the Flat River at Shearer Road and Industrial Drive Two well-established Indian trails crisscrossed the area. The blue trail, at left, was the Saginaw-Pentwater trail, and the red trail at right was known as the "Up-river" trail which came up from Belding and Lyons-Muir on its way north to Turk Lake., John Green arrived in 1844 from New Work and built his first cabin where Tower Park is located on Frankdn Street. He and his brother-in-law Samuel Demorest but the first sawmill on the Flat River. Lumbering and the Flat River played an important role in the development of the town., Lafayette Street , This is the earliest known photo of Greenville, taken in 1868. The workers shown are laying a wooden crosswalk to span across Lafayette Street at Washington Street. Growth in the village happened rapidly. Within 10 years of John Green's arrival, Greenville boasted 2 sawmills, 3 blacksmith shops, a sash and blind factory, a grist mill, planing mill, tanner, foundry, wagon factory, printing office, 6 general stores, 3 groceries, a drug store, a book store, a clothing store, a furniture store, and 3 saloons., This photo shows Lafayette Street, looking south, in the early 1900s. The three-story Eriksen building at right was built in 1875 and sat at the northwest corner of Lafayette Street and Montcalm Street. The third floor of the building housed a 600 person capacity opera house for speakers and performances. Susan B. Anthony spoke about women's suffrage in 1879. The building was torn down in 1969., The northeast comer of Lafayette and Grove Street has been home to a hotel since 1855. The first hotel on this site, the Rossman House, burned in a fire in 1867. It was replaced by the Northern Hotel, which burned down in 1900. In 1901, T.B. Winter commissioned the Winter Inn to be built. The Winter Inn remains the longest-standing hotel in Greenville's history.