A WINTER SCENE FOR CHRISTMAS

A very Merry Christmas to all my readers of this column! It's an awkward position to be in this Christmas, which falls on a Sunday this year: Do you go to church at 10 a.m. (or 11), or do you stay home and open presents with your family? Even if you play keyboard? Anyway, thank you for your support of this column during the past year by supplying me with old photographs and historical information. This has provided our readers with some interesting topics. My historical Albion articles are republished on the www.Albionmich.com website. Look through some of these 500-plus articles while you are sitting around at your computer waiting for Christmas dinner to cook.

I see that some work is being done at the former Ivanski Tavern building at 702 N. Albion St. across the street from the old Albion Malleable Iron Co. location. I'll write about that building in a few weeks.

Every year at this time I dig through my archives and try to find an historical winter scene photo for Christmas. This week from our Historical Notebook is a postcard circa 1908 which I'd like to title "Digging Out." It pictures downtown Albion following a snowstorm. Were snowstorms worse 100 years ago than they are today? The workers are shown shoveling a walkway across W. Porter St. using small shovels. Otherwise, downtown Albion looks bare of shoppers.

In the distance is a snow-covered electric Interurban car sitting in front of the passenger depot on S. Superior St. (the small building just south of where Fedco is today). Just to the left at the rear of the Interurban is a sleigh. In the distance of course is the landmark Stone Mill (presently Citizen's Bank), and the Albion Elevator just to the north of it, which was later moved back into the Market Place.

	Frank Passic — Albion Historian An Albion native and 1971 graduate of Albion High School, Frank Passic has been researching and writing Albion history since 1976. He is the creator of the Albion Historical Notebook, with hundreds of articles appearing weekly in the Morning Star and The Recorder. Frank maintains an extensive personal archive including Riverside Cemetery records, family surname files, genealogies, photographs, city directories, and high school yearbooks. Support his 2026 research at the Historic Albion Michigan Facebook page. Historical Notebook \| From the Archives \| Subject List \| 100 Years Ago \| Alphabetical Index \| Frank Passic Home Page \| Albion History Books \| Contact Frank
	Michigan Prints by Maggie LaNoue Michigan Prints offers limited-edition archival Giclée prints, miniprints, notecards and boxed sets featuring Michigan landmarks, nature, resorts and nostalgia. Each print and card includes a legend on the back with stories about Michigan history. Albion scenes include the Kalamazoo River waterfall and the Blizzard of 1978. Find Michigan Prints online and at local shops. Michigan Prints \| Albion Scenes \| Custom Cards \| Zazzle Gifts
	AlbionMich.net — General Guide to Albion AlbionMich.net is a hub for community life in the greater Albion area, featuring current news, city council updates, river restoration stories, parks and trails. See Albion's beautiful Kalamazoo River waterfall as it looks today — and follow the story of its future restoration. Includes news from The Recorder and stories about Albion's 17 parks. AlbionMich.net \| Albion Blog \| Frank Passic on AlbionMich.net
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	Robin James — Indices Unlimited Robin James is the editor of the Albion Historical Notebook and has kept Frank Passic's thousands of articles organized and searchable for decades. A trained librarian and archivist, Robin specializes in back-of-book and online indexing, multimedia collection management, and corporate information distribution. He also enjoys strange music and is a contributing editor for Igloo electronic music magazine. For more about his indexing services, visit Indices Unlimited.
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