LOWELL AREA HISTORICAL MUSEUM
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Exhibits

The first automobile in Lowell was built by Carl E. English in 1900.
English is pictured here in the car with his family.
​The Lowell Cutter Company built the car body.

Permanent Exhibits

Early History Room

Showcases Native American history, the stories of early settlers, a railroad exhibit, logging and milling in the Lowell area.
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Retail & Industry

Explores the histories of businesses and industries that made Lowell their base. From a cutter factory, to a button factory that used clam shells from the river, to local dairies, to telling the history of the Lowell Showboat, the symbolic heart of our community. This room shows the stories of Lowell’s businesses.
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Fur Trading

Examines the fur trading adventures of the Odawa and voygeurs along the Flat and Grand Rivers that were the backbone to the growth of Lowell.
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Victorian Dining Room
​& Parlor

Is furnished to show how homes in the 1870s would have looked. This house was built by Robert Graham in 1873 in a duplex style for his family on one side, and his in laws on the other. It later became home to the Library and then Lowell’s YMCA as well before becoming the Lowell Area Historical Museum.
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Traveling Exhibits

Traveling exhibits are created by the Museum for the purpose of bringing history into the community. Local venues including the library, banks and schools host the exhibits. Traveling exhibits are available to reserve. Topics are: Cutters to Corvettes, Where We Worship, Seeds of Innovation, and Ghost Towns of Lowell.

From Wheat To Flour
​Lowell's 
History in Milling

Sponsored by Lowell Area Community Fund.
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From its earliest beginnings, the gristmill has been a significant part of the fabric and history of this community.  Lowell’s waterways and its bountiful wheat crops have played a central part in developing the needed cooperation between farming and industry,  urban and rural and  township and City.
Lowell is also fortunate to have one of only five gristmills left in the state of Michigan, which is also the oldest continually operating mill in the state.
This exhibit explores the history milling in Lowell.
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Cutter to Corvettes
The History of the Automobile

Sponsored by Lowell Area Community Fund, Good Chevrolet
This traveling exhibit highlights the history of the Lowell Cutter Company and many automobile dealers located in Lowell.  Using a four panel freestanding exhibition form, the exhibit develops a historical overview of the dealerships, gas stations, and garages, plus photos that show the evolution of the automobile.  Over the course of one year, this exhibit spent approximately one to two months at each location:  Good Chevrolet, Grand Chrysler Dodge, Zeigler Ford, Wittenbach Pontiac-GMC, Lowell and Vergennes Townships Halls, Lowell City Hall, Englehardt Library, Lowell Area Elementary, Middle & High School.  Locations are chosen to maximize exposure to the greatest number of people within our community.  The exhibit is then available to travel to various secondary locations throughout the community such as the Senior Center, banks and other high traffic areas where more of our residents can have access to this history.
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Ghost Towns of Lowell

Sponsored by The Lowell Area Community Fund
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Ghost towns are not cities populated by ghosts. In fact, they are places where real people once lived and dreamed. Several ghost towns around Lowell have since dissolved into nothing more than crossroads for one reason or another.  Fallasburg, Bowne Center and Alton faltered when proposed railroads bypassed them altogether.  Waterville and South Boston died when populations shifted to other locations.  The booming railroad towns of Elmdale and Moseley later faded as the railroads gradually became obsolete and their grain elevators were no longer needed.
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These are the stories of those places we drive by without noticing... remnants of another time, occupied not by ghosts, but by those who came before us.
View Stories

Seeds of Inspiration
Spirit of a Community

Sponsored by The Lowell Area Community Fund
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This traveling exhibit highlights the vision and spirit of our community.  Using a four panel freestanding exhibition form, the exhibit displays the vision that was brought to life by the spirit and support of our unique community. Over the course of two years, this exhibit spent approximately one to two months at each location:  Lowell and Vergennes Townships Halls, Lowell City Hall, Englehardt Library, Lowell Area Elementary, Middle & High School.  Locations are chosen to maximize exposure to the greatest number of people within our community.  The exhibit is then available to travel to various secondary locations throughout the community such as the Senior Center, banks and other high traffic areas where more of our residents can have access to this history.
Various panels explore the founding of the Lowell Area Historical Museum, LowellArts!, the Gus Macker Tournament and the Lowell Pink Arrow Game. Each of these institutions and events originated in Lowell. In there own unique ways they have made significant impacts on the community. Learn more about these innovators with this exhibit.
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Where We Worship
​The History of Lowell Churches

Sponsored by: First Baptist Church of Lowell, First Congregational Church, First United Methodist Church, Lowell Church of the Nazarene, St. Mary Church and the Lowell Area Community Fund.
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This traveling exhibit highlights the pioneer churches of the area and includes the new churches we worship in now.   Using a four-panel freestanding exhibition form, the exhibit develops a historical overview of where these churches were and where they are now, and showcases some of the important works churches do for our community.  Over the course of one year, this exhibit spent approximately one to two months at each location:  Including many of our local churches, Lowell and Vergennes Township Halls, Lowell City Hall, Englehardt Library and Alto Library, and Lowell Area Schools. Locations were chosen to maximize exposure to the greatest number of people within our community.  The exhibit is available to travel to various secondary locations throughout the community such as the Senior Center, banks and other high traffic areas where more of our residents can have access to this history.
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Past Exhibits

Why we have special exhibits
  • Showcase special artifacts from our collection – We use many artifacts from our collection to do a new exhibit, but more importantly we borrow some from the community members.  This helps our patrons feel a part of our organization.
  • Tell a unique story about our history
  • Enrich people with a new way to learn about history – experience the history by watching an old movie or even seeing a silent movie for the first time, etc.
  • To uncover more history about a subject – interviews with the families gave us stories about the Strand that we never knew…without this exhibit we may never had uncovered them.
  • To give our members another reason to come back to the Museum.
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Explored the wealth of tools and inventions that make life easier. From Grain boards to bean sorters, from barn tools to egg beaters, gadgets are a part of our lives and history.
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Grain Board

“This was a piece of wood the grain used to go over in the old mill at Lowell, Mich. when the mill was first new and owned by William Hatch.”
This wood was a piece of the chute onto which grain dropped and rolled over day after day, year after year. It was a part of the mill on the east side of the Flat River when the mill was owned by William Hatch and later by Hatch and Craw (1856 – 1880). When John Pike remodeled the mill, he gave this board to James Hatch who was a nephew of William Hatch and the grandfather of donor, Larry Cahoon.


Sprayers

Imagine living around the turn of the century…you must grow your own vegetables to feed your family. The problem? Pesky bugs! The solution? Hand-held sprayers!
The Lowell Specialty Company began in 1905 with the idea of making money by eradicating pests. Hand-held sprayers were invented for household use and different models were developed for every need. The company grew, especially with the advent of the Nu-Day Sprayer in the 1920s. The popularity of this new design, along with the market share it commanded, led the company to be purchased by its largest competitior, the H.D. Hudson Mfg. Company.
​Known as the Lowell Sprayer Company, it became the world’s largest supplier of household sprayers, producing 100, 000,000 sprayers between 1946 and 1952! After merging with Root Mfg. Company of Ohio in 1953, Root-Lowell Mfg. continues to this day, over 100 years since its humble beginnings here in Lowell.


Lowell Innovations
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1932: In 1931, C. H. Runciman organized the General Bean Co. and erected a new three-story brick building next to the bean elevator in which 100 electric powered bean picking (culling) machines were installed. One hundred women were hired to operate these machines and manually pick out the bad beans. One year later, the first electric eye in the world was installed in this Lowell plant! Individual beans were picked up by an aluminum wheel and held there by a vacuum. The perfect bean, being of the same color as the wheel, permitted the same amount of light to reach the super-sensitive cell, while the discolored bean varied the amount of light and a trigger was set off which kicked out the bad bean. This sped up the culling process plus the work was done mechanically rather than with human labor.
Since then, the installation of electric eyes for sorting has been implemented by businesses all over the world to sort commodities such as wheat, rice, and even colored glass. This innovation truly revolutionized the world!
1905: The problem- pesky bugs. The Lowell Specialty Company was created in 1905 with the idea of making money by eradicating pests. Hand-held sprayers were invented for household use and different models were developed for every need. The company grew, especially with the advent of the Nu-Day Sprayer. The popularity of this new design, along with the market share it commanded, led the Lowell Specialty Company to be purchased by its largest competitor, the H. D. Hudson Mfg. Company. Known as the Lowell Sprayer company, the company continued to thrive. As noted in a 1920’s publication, “the future of the Lowell Sprayer Company is unusually bright.”
The Lowell Sprayer Company became the world’s largest supplier of household sprayers, making 100,000,000 sprayers between 1946 and 1952.
The company prospered and in 1953 merged with the Root Manufacturing Company of Ohio. The new company, known as Root-Lowell Manufacturing Company, continues to this day, over one hundred years since its humble beginnings here in Lowell.
Late 1940’s: Newell Manufacturing Co.’s primary business was to manufacture builders’ hardware, such as door closers, latches and stops. However during the late 1940’s they also began creating toy air rifles. Soon these toy rifles were “known the world around and made to withstand the wear which toys of this type must undergo.” Packed with three red ping-pong balls for ammunition, Newell shipped over 300,000 toy guns during the year 1949.
1958: Edwin Potter of Lowell patented a portable machine for orchard growers which could fight frost, spray insecticides and fungicides, spread fertilizer and seed grass. To fight frost, the windmill machine would keep the air moving above the crop to keep the colder air from settling down. Precision Products sold these units as far away as the Southwest and Argentina.

This exhibit explored the politics, fashion, music, and events that shaped this turbulent decade in our nation’s history. It explored what was happened in Lowell in the 1960s and how national and world events were experienced here. This exhibit is a distinctive reflection of what life was like in this decade. Even those not yet born in the sixties grew up listening to music from this era and can recall major events that shaped the decade like the assassination of Kennedy, the Civil Rights movement and the moon landing. Lowell had direct connections to many of these events and people who helped shaped the decade. Lowell itself changed dramatically in the 1960s. It went from being a small village to a city. Schools were consolidated, baby boomers entered school and sparked the building of several new schools, the interstate highway came through and the commercial and residential center of town spread to new suburban areas just west of town. This exhibit had something to interest all ages. We invite you to come explore the sixties! 
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The "Fabulous Furniture" Exhibit explored the history of furniture building in Lowell and the connection to Grand Rapids' furniture industry.

The Lowell Furniture Company, also known as the Kopf Furniture Factory, was located in Segwun, just across the Grand River from Lowell. The Kopf Factory began production in 1867 and produced over 20,000 pieces annually. Cane seat chairs of cherry and walnut were a specialty. Other items produced were stands, drop-leaf tables, desks, bed-steads and caskets. The power source for the factory was from a dam on Kopf Creek.  “The spring in the creek flows 2 cubic feet per second and never dries or freezes up. The mill pond also supplied the water for the Lowell & Hastings Railroad and the Tucker WoodImplement Factory upstream.” Sales, both wholesale and retail, and shipping were handled in town in the Kopf three-story building at 212 E Main Street.
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Kopf Furniture Company
​John Kopf (1828-1888) was a German cabinetmaker who immigrated to America in 1848. He married Mary Jane Lang in New York, and they moved to Lowell in 1855.  Active in civic affairs, Kopf was co-founder of Loan National Bank, served on the Lowell Board of Education, was a trustee for the Congregational Church when it was being built, and a member of Hooker Chapter Royal Arch Masons and the Knights Templar. John and Mary Jane Kopf’s house was built in 1857 on 12 acres of land purchased from Daniel Marsac, founder of Lowell. It still stands on Grand River Drive on what was the eastern boundary of their furniture factory. Kopf descendants remain in the area.
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Superior Furniture Company
Superior Furniture was founded in 1936 by William S. Lee in the small West Michigan town of Lowell, just 20 miles from Grand Rapids, known as “furniture city” since the 1860’s. It was only natural that the company be named Superior Furniture Company, a name that reflects the quality design, craftsmanship, and materials that go into every hand-finished product. Superior Furniture offered nine different product lines with over 200 models, in infinite variation—made of solid cherry, maple, pine, and alder, as well as exceptional wood veneers where appropriate. Each piece is made the old-fashioned way—hands-on, patient, and crafted—utilizing 40 different operations on a typical table, from cutting, boring, and shaping, to dovetailing all drawers, carvings, and the incomparable multi-step, hand-rubbed finish that has been the hallmark of Superior Furniture.
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Tuckertown
​Erwin W. Tucker built and operated a grain cradle, wooden hand rake and bed bottom factory a couple miles southeast of Lowell from 1862-1872. His first mill was a 3-story frame building, adding a new mill or shop in 1868. “In the one item of grain cradles they have facilities for manufacturing 1,200 dozen per year, besides bed-bottoms and harvesting implements, such as hay-rakes etc.” This was run by an overshot water-wheel and employed from 20 to 60 workers.
After the Tuckers sold their factory to Warren Babcock, they moved to Grand Haven and then to Indianapolis, Indiana. Mr. Tucker died there in 1878 and Mrs. Tucker in 1919. However, they are buried in South Boston Cemetery, Boston Township, five miles southeast of Lowell.
Mr. Gary Hammond of Long Island, New York, owns the original model of the bed bottom patented by Erwin Tucker, U.S. Patent #53,706 on April 3, 1866. Hammond describes his model as “constructed just like a full-size piece of furniture, including mortise and tenon construction of the legs and head/foot rails, with miniature brass gears for adjustment.” The novel thing about Tucker’s invention is it would fit into any frame and headboard and allow the head of the bed to be elevated or lowered substantially.
 Mr. Hammond also has the patent papers and diagram of a revolving horse rake by Erwin W. Tucker of Grand Haven, Michigan, filed in 1873, granted in 1874.  The current owner of the property operates a hobby blacksmith business, which he calls “Tuckertown Forge.”

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Before there were mega-stores like Meijer, Walmart, and Target, main streets of America were lined with shops that carried limited quantity and type of product.  However, the merchants always stood ready to serve the needs of each customer who entered their store.  Most were friends whom they knew well. The storekeeper’s motto was “If we haven’t got it, we’ll get it for you.”  Such was the case here in Lowell.
This exhibit brought those days of yesteryear back to life, using the Lyon Block as our point of reference.  Journey back to that simpler time; visit Hazel’s Hat Shop and Hill’s Shoe Store.  Get a feel for an era when vendors knew their customers by name and catered to their needs.
Come remember the past as you visit and study the timeline of the eight stores fronts that were in the Lyon Block.  You will see the following stores Gee’s Hardware, Hill’s Shoes, Hartman’s Drugs, Coons Men Store, and Hazel’s Hat Shop.   This block is located where Cousins’ Hallmark and Dr. James Reagan are located today. This exhibit captured what it was like to shop in Lowell during an earlier time in our history. Using artifacts from the Museum’s collection as well as borrowed objects from community members and institutions, graphics and text call out the story behind retailing in Lowell. This exhibit highlighted the advancements, marketing, and the many businesses located on this block.  
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admission

Members, Free
Adults, $3.00
Children, $1.50
Children under 5, Free
Families, $10.00 max.

Hours

Museum Hours:
Tuesday 1-4pm
Thursday 1-4pm
Saturday 1-4 pm


Contact Us

Lowell Area Historical Museum
325 W. Main Street ~ Lowell, MI 49331
ph: 616.897.7688 

history@lowellmuseum.org
Lowell Area Historical Museum © 2013 • Privacy Policy
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