Greenfield Village - Part 1: Brave Old World.

November 11, 2018 by Dave Gottwald

The following observations and photos are culled from two separate visits to The Henry Ford museum complex in Dearborn, Michigan. My first visit was on July 15, 2017 and the majority of the photos featured in this post are from that day. Most recently I visited again on May 26, 2018 with my colleague Greg Turner-Rahman.

"History is more or less bunk." — Henry Ford, 1916

Industrialist Henry Ford—founder of the Ford Motor Company and perfector and popularizer of the mass production assembly line—was also an obsessive collector, and by the late 1920s he had amassed perhaps the largest collection of Americana in the country. Ford was fascinated by two notions; first, the preservation of ordinary, useful objects such as machinery and household goods, and second, an appreciation for pre-industrial times (quite ironic, given his most profitable efforts to hasten that very industrialization). Most of Ford’s vast accumulation of objects were deposited in a former tractor assembly warehouse while he planned for a larger display project.

The resultant museum was designed by Robert O. Derrick and resembled Independence Hall in Philadelphia; dedicated in 1929, it opened to the public in 1933, and was mostly built out by the 1940s. The museum was initially called the Edison Institute in tribute to Ford’s friend and mentor Thomas A. Edison (the 1929 dedication marked the 50th anniversary of Edison's electric light).

Greenfield Village, satellite view. Click for link. Map data: Ⓒ Google.

Although interesting on its own, the purpose of my two visits was the adjacent Greenfield Village property, an outdoor living history museum noted by the National Register of Historic Places for being a model for subsequent types of museums (along with Colonial Williamsburg which was restored and re-created with funding from John D. Rockefeller at roughly the same time). At its time of opening, a re-creation of Edison’s Menlo Park Laboratory Complex was a key highlight of the Village experience.

Souvenir map of the Greenfield Village property, 1951. The David Rumsey Map Collection. — Souvenir map of the Greenfield Village property, 1951. *The David Rumsey Map Collection*.

In History Is Bunk: Assembling the Past at Henry Ford's Greenfield Village, Jessie Swigger offers perhaps the best description of the park and its intentions. Calling it "an imagined place" she notes that it was named after the township where Henry Ford's wife was born, and that the

village was constructed in Dearborn, just a few miles from the farmhouse where [Ford] grew up and a short drive from downtown Detroit. Only a few of the buildings represented local history, however; several were moved to the village from across the country or, like the Menlo Park buildings, built on the premises. The homes, artisan and industrial shops, and businesses were not linked by geography or time period but, as the replica of Menlo Park suggests, by Ford's personal interests. [emphasis mine]

If this sounds like Walt Disney’s intentions in building his park, it’s no coincidence.

Walt Disney with his daughter Diane at The Henry Ford museum on April 12, 1940. Ⓒ Disney Enterprises, Inc. — Walt Disney with his daughter Diane at The Henry Ford museum on April 12, 1940.
Ⓒ Disney Enterprises, Inc.

The Henry Ford records two visits by Walt Disney to the Edison Institute and to Greenfield Village, the first being in 1940, and both times he took a tintype souvenir photograph. Given the broader timeline of his ruminations for the concept which became Disneyland, this is somewhat premature for a ‘scouting’ trip. Officials remarked that Walt was much impressed by all he saw, particularly showing “a great interest in everything mechanical.”

Walt Disney with animator Ward Kimball at The Henry Ford on August 3, 1948. Ⓒ Disney Enterprises, Inc. — Walt Disney with animator Ward Kimball at The Henry Ford on August 3, 1948.
Ⓒ Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Disneyland Origins: The 1948 Chicago Railroad Fair

By his second visit in 1948, however, Walt’s ideas for Disneyland were beginning to solidify, and he was surely paying closer attention this time. Walt had travelled to Chicago that summer with Disney animator Ward Kimball to visit the Chicago Railroad Fair. Kimball had grown close to Walt over their mutual love of trains, and when the Disney Studios nurse, Hazel George, suggested that her boss was in dire need of a vacation to relieve stress (despite having just returned from Hawaii a few weeks prior), Kimball was pressed into service as his companion.

Vintage postcard, Chicago Railroad Fair.

The Chicago Railroad Fair is a curious chapter in the development of Disneyland all on its own. Several themed environments that would later become part of the Disneyland concept, such as an Indian Village and a Gold Rush-era ghost town, were highlights of the Fair.

The historical re-creations and thematic design which Disney and Kimball ate up during their visit served as the perfect appetizer for their visit to Henry Ford’s own take on Americana.

Disneyland Origins: Main Street Muse

After visiting the Railroad Fair and gawking over the massive spectacle of locomotives and rolling stock on display, Walt and Ward spent two days at Ford’s Edison Institute and Greenfield Village on their return trip to California. The one-two punch of the Fair and the Village managed to reignite Walt’s imagination and pushed the visioning for his park into overdrive. Kimball later said that it was all Walt talked about during their entire trip.

Left: Village Green, Greenfield Village. Right: Main Street U.S.A., Disneyland. Map data: Ⓒ Google. — Left: *Village Green,* Greenfield Village. Right: *Main Street U.S.A.*, Disneyland. Map data: Ⓒ Google.

During both my visits, it became quite clear that Walt Disney took some very direct planning cues from the Village. Greenfield's Main Street aligns with a long symmetrical lawn, or Village Green, flanked on either end by two structures Henry Ford had in mind for his Village since the very beginning—a town hall and a chapel. The exact same vantage and dual “weenies” would later employed at Disneyland—the train station at the park’s entrance and then down Main Street U.S.A. to Sleeping Beauty’s Castle.

The Town Hall at the opposite end of the Village Green from the Chapel.

Upon his return to the studio, Walt passed on detailed notes to studio production designer Dick Kelsey that clearly show the influence of his time spent in both Chicago and Dearborn. According to Neal Gabler in his comprehensive and well-regarded biography, the memo to Kelsey dated August 31, 1948 described “a Main Village with a railroad station and a village green…a small town would be built around the green, with the railroad station at one end and a town hall at the other…there would be other sections too: an old farm, a western village, [and] an Indian compound” [emphasis added].

Vintage postcard, Suwanee Riverboat at Greenfield Village. — Vintage postcard, *Suwanee* Riverboat at Greenfield Village.

Disneyland Origins: Steamboat Sympaticos

There’s another key feature of the Village which Walt tucked in his back pocket and later deployed as a main attraction at Disneyland—a steamboat river ride. As with so many things at Greenfield, all things point back to Thomas Edison. While in Florida, Edison was fond of travelling on a 19th century steamer, the Suwanee. In time it was sunk and Henry Ford had the engine salvaged. In 1929 (the year the museum and village were dedicated) Ford hired Conrad Menge, who had once captained the Suwanee, to help rebuild it. In 1937 a loop of the adjacent Rouge River was dredged to create Suwanee Lagoon, and boat tours began around it.

Interestingly, ten years later the Suwanee was one of the last things Henry Ford saw on his final visit to Greenfield Village on April 7, 1947—the day he died. The Rouge River had recently been flooded by heavy rains, and the riverboat was submerged at its dock, disabled. Ford’s driver reported that with a laugh, he quipped “We’ll soon put it back on an even keel again.” The craft was indeed repaired and continued to offer tours to guests for decades until the Suwanee was taken out of service at the Village in 2004; she was finally dismantled, board by board, in 2011.

The Mark Twain Riverboat at Disneyland, 2008. — The *Mark Twain* Riverboat at Disneyland, 2008.

Although the vessel Walt had built for his park was far larger than the Suwanee, it was still smaller than an actual Mississippi riverboat—roughly 5/8 scale. Comparing the two from roughly the same vantage point, it’s evident that the Greenfield craft informed the Mark Twain’s central role in Frontierland, even down to the looped route of travel.

Left: Suwanee Lagoon, Greenfield Village. Right: Rivers of America, Disneyland. Map data: Ⓒ Google. — Left: *Suwanee Lagoon*, Greenfield Village. Right: *Rivers of America*, Disneyland. Map data: Ⓒ Google.

The Rivers of America at Disneyland is longer, narrower, and more elaborate, snaking back and forth around Tom Sawyer’s Island—but the DNA of the experience is right here at Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village.

Disneyfying Greenfield

For most of the Village’s history, the park had grown organically. There was no cohesive master plan, and this unplanned nature of the attraction became even more pronounced after Ford’s death. Ironically, Henry Ford’s obsession with historical re-creation and that influence on Walt’s Disneyland concept would come full circle by the late 1990s; Greenfield Village would be, quite deliberately, turned into something of a Disney-style theme park.

A history attraction uses the techniques of theater, drama, storytelling, pacing and crowd control of the themed attraction to address the important stories that matter in people’s lives [emphasis added]. — The Henry Ford’s “History Principles,” 2002

The Village entrance plaza and visitors center which were built during a massive 2002–2003 renovation reflect the Colonial look of the Independence Hall facade of the Henry Ford museum complex right next door, but these structures are even more elaborated planned and themed than that older “re-creation.”

Liberty Square, The Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World, 2007.

The renovation designers appear to have taken a very direct lead from the Liberty Square area of Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, which is themed to the time of the American Revolution. This land was wisely included on the opening day menu of that park in 1971 as a substitution for New Orleans Square (the real Big Easy was thought to be too close to Florida to be exotic), and five years later both the area and its signature attraction, The Hall of Presidents, were inundated with guests as the entire country was caught up in Bicentennial fever. Perhaps I digress; bottom line, Greenfield’s new entrance is more Disney than Ford.

Greenfield Village's full-size steam train.

Or perhaps I digress not. Even though the Disneyfication of the Village wasn’t complete until the early 2000s, I’d argue that it actually began much sooner, in direct response to that very opening of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in October 1971. It was not until the summer of 1972 that Greenfield received an antique steam train attraction, and just like in the fashion of Disney parks, it circled (and thus enclosed and provided a perimeter for) the Village on a three-mile course. The subsequent Main Street and Suwanee Stations was completed and operational for the 1974 season. Unlike the Disney Version, however, Greenfield’s Weiser Railroad is standard gauge and employs no reduced scaling.

Company leadership was very direct about these alterations to the Village (which included not only the new railroad but also Suwanee Park, a themed re-creation of a turn-of-the-century amusement area by 1974) and that the emphasis now needed to be experiential:

We must realize that the area in which we operate—the attraction of visitors—has become extremely competitive in recent years [meaning, among other things, Walt Disney World]… A major purpose of our development program is to add the means by which we can offer visitors a greater sense of personal participation—all within a historical context [emphasis added]. — William Clay Ford, July 1972.

Themed districts with their own title signage.

The ultimate extension of this desire to compete with attractions like the Disney parks and also to offer visitors a more immersive experience meant not just redesign in the late 1990s and early 2000s; it also meant reorganization.

Rather than an organic assemblage of buildings Ford had bought and moved, or had ordered constructed new “as old” on site, Greenfield Village took on the narrative approach of seven newly organized themed districts (much like Disney’s “lands”) during its 2002–2003 renovation. As indicated in colors and numbers on the above map, those areas in 2017 and 2018 when I visited were:

1.) Working Farms: This is a demonstration of traditional American farming. Produce grown and livestock raised here are served at some of the Village’s finer restaurants.

2.) Liberty Craftworks: Pottery, Glassblowing, Metalworking, Milling, and Printing are demonstrated in period-appropriate settings, with wares available for sale.

3.) Henry Ford’s Model T: A scaled down replica of a Ford manufacturing plant frames perhaps the park’s most popular contemporary attraction—the opportunity to ride in restored antique Ford automobiles around the Village.

4.) Railroad Junction: A reconstructed roundhouse from Marshall, Michigan was added to the Village in 2000 and became the heart of this area dedicated to Greenfield’s trains.

5.) Main Street: The area which probably required the least amount of reorganization as its theme was evident at the Village’s opening. Also includes the Suwanee Park amusement area which was added in 1974, and the Suwanee Lagoon (now lacking a riverboat).

6.) Edison at Work: This re-creation of Edison’s Menlo Park Laboratory Complex has been Greenfield’s signature attraction since the day the park was dedicated.

7.) Porches and Parlors: Essentially a residential district composed of historic structures which Ford had moved to the site, or re-creations constructed in situ at his direction.

Greenfield Village is one of those rare examples of a park which not only predated Disneyland but directly informed Walt’s design choices for his project—and then in turn was itself Disneyfied to remain a compelling and competitive experience in the wake of the success of the Disney Park Model.

Continued in Part 2.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Bronner's.

November 01, 2018 by Dave Gottwald

Before leaving Frankenmuth, there was one last stop to make (again, at the insistence of fellow traveller David Janssen, Jr.). Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland advertises itself as the “World's Largest Christmas Store” and it’s certainly big—a sprawling complex of landscaped grounds covering some 27 acres.

Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland, satellite view. Click for link. Map data: Ⓒ Google.

Wally Bronner had an earlier career designing window displays in which he met vendors that needed custom Christmas decorations. He founded Bronner’s in 1954 with his wife Irene, and the first location was in downtown Frankenmuth on Main Street. The store expanded in 1966 and again in 1971, as additional buildings were procured nearby the intersection of the original downtown location. Six years later, the entire business moved just south of town to 45 acres of former farmland. It has grown at that location ever since. The actual address? 25 Christmas Lane.

Vintage postcard of Santa’s Village, Lake Arrowhead, California. — Vintage postcard of *Santa’s Village*, Lake Arrowhead, California.

When I was growing up in Southern California, we often visited Santa’s Village at Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino Mountains come Christmas time. Opening a couple months before Disneyland in 1955, the park was franchised by its founder Glenn Holland; two other locations, one near Santa Cruz, California and the other in Illinois (which ended up a failure that sunk the company). By the late 90s, Santa’s Village was ailing and had to close. After years of dormancy and disrepair, it reopened in 2016 as an outdoor adventure area called SkyPark at Santa's Village. Many of the original structures from the 1950s have been restored.

Vintage Postcard of The Village, Lake Arrowhead, California. — Vintage Postcard of *The Village*, Lake Arrowhead, California.

Appropriately enough, given my discussion of Frankenmuth, Lake Arrowhead has carried an “Alpine Village” theme since the 1940s.

Vintage postcard of Santa’s Village, Jefferson, New Hampshire. — Vintage postcard of *Santa’s Village*, Jefferson, New Hampshire.

The “Santa’s Village” model cropped up all over the United States in the 1940s and 50s. Some, like the example above from New England, mixed general fairy tale and nursery rhyme iconography in with the elves and the reindeer and the gingerbread and candy canes. Perhaps this made them most appealing as year-round destinations (it sure doesn’t look like a New Hampshire Christmas in the photograph…more like June).

Which is all to say that I was a bit disappointed in Bronner’s, to be honest. I mean, I loved this castle of kitsch in its own way, but it was a lost opportunity, thematically speaking. None of the architectural detailing in the “Santa’s Village” style was evident, or even the “Alpine Village” look of the rest of Frankenmuth.

There’s some nice thematic typography however—very midcentury—in and around the complex. The painted Blackletter shows up on all kids of signage. Red and Green are, of course, in effect everywhere.

It occurs to me that the “Santa’s Village” North Pole theme might have been avoided rather intentionally as Santa Claus is such a secular representation of the Holiday Season in the United States. Bronner’s is deeply religious in its iconography—somewhat tackily, I might add. “Christmas” is always, always rendered CHRISTmas on everything from signage to merchandise. According to the Bronner’s website, this is because

[Wally, founder] always spelled Christmas, “CHRISTmas.” He never wanted his Savior to be hidden by the holiday's celebration and decorations. Wally Bronner celebrated CHRISTmas year-round, but his greatest joy was knowing Christ year-round and helping others know Christ, too.

The sincerity is certainly touching, but as on-site graphic design and theming, the result is less than classy.

Vintage Bronner’s postcard. — Vintage *Bronner’s* postcard.

As for thematic design? I’d say not. This is a space with a theme, for sure, but that’s not the same. There is no setting (time + place) and there is no immersion. Time and again, those are the qualities I refer to when describing (admittedly—postmodern, consumer-grade) thematic design. The exterior architecture might suggest the North Pole (if you squint) but it’s very nondescript—none of the Chalet or Bavarian trappings seen around the rest of Frankenmuth. It’s certainly nothing like the relatively lavish look of the Santa’s Village I grew up visiting.

But I did love it—camp doesn’t even begin to describe the excess of the interior retail spaces which is Bronner’s. It’s sort of like if Liberace owned a Christmas museum. Curated by John Waters. With everything for sale.

There is a series of large scale tree ornaments to greet you on your drive and and again on your drive out of the parking lot. And again, it’s always CHRISTmas. If you’re in the region, I recommend stopping by. Just don’t expect to be immersed in anything but tinsel.

Anytown, Europe.

October 27, 2018 by Dave Gottwald

The last stop on the first leg of my summer 2017 road trip was the themed “Alpine Village” town of Frankenmuth, Michigan. Again it was at the suggestion of my travel companion David Janssen Jr. who (rightly) declared it as something I had to see.

Frankenmuth, Michigan, satellite view. Click for link. Map data: Ⓒ Google.

Frankenmuth—known as the “Little Bavaria” of the region—is a tourist destination of less than 10,000 people nestled along the Cass River about ninety miles northwest of Detroit.

Vintage postcard of Alpine Village, Torrance, California. — Vintage postcard of *Alpine Village*, Torrance, California.

The Alpine Village Model

European themed “villages” like Frankenmuth are common throughout many parts of the United States, and much of their thematic design dates to after the opening of Disneyland. Southern California’s Alpine Village, for example, opened in 1968.

Vintage postcard of Solvang, California.

When I was growing up my family often visited Solvang in the wine country of the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County. Solvang has a Danish theme and, like many such towns, was actually founded as a community of settlers from a particular part of Europe, but by mid-century had begun to embrace an enhanced, Disneyland-like form of design to further attract tourists. In 1958, Paul Kuelgen, a scenic artist at RKO Studios, was commissioned to construct stylized gables and dormers on buildings downtown, and when done commented—quite satisfied—that Solvang now “looked like a movie set.”

Vintage postcard of Leavenworth, Washington.

Another such famous town is Leavenworth, Washington which adapted a Bavarian theme in the early 1960s as part of a larger economic revitalization plan. Planners for this project actually travelled to Solvang, California for inspiration. In his history masters thesis The Origins of the Recreational Theme Town in the West (University of Idaho, 1996), Jake Sudderth notes that Solvang was the prototypical model for the “Alpine Village” themed town, utilizing what he calls “contrived architecture.”

In this way, many such towns developed “traditional” brand identities like any other product or company or service. Frankenmuth is very loud and proud about this—the banners above, complete with a (R) registered trademark—are hanging from every street lamp. It’s certainly not subtle and it’s not in any way clever; as a result it’s fairly off-putting.

Frankenmuth is the kind of place where the public trash cans thank you personally—in German.

Historian Richard V. Francaviglia suggests that this move towards regionalization was indeed a marketing tactic, and a way for communities to survive (and perhaps even thrive) as out of the way, off-the-beaten-path tourist stops. Again from his Main Street Revisited:

There are signs that Main Street design reflects a need to recognize diversity in the face of overwhelming assimilation. This has been become apparent in the late twentieth century, when regional or ethnic identity is marketed by communities. On Main Street, the search for regional identity has taken on a touch of the fanciful or bizarre as certain towns have deliberately attempted to create townscapes that recapture the original ethnic heritage of their residents.

The “Alpine Village” look of the Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland, 2008. — The “Alpine Village” look of the *Matterhorn Bobsleds* at Disneyland, 2008.

The original concept art for Disneyland featured highly detailed and stylized European theming, a true ‘village’ look surrounding the courtyard of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. However, the project ran out of funding in the long march to opening day, and Walt Disney had to settle for a “Medieval Royal Pageantry” look of tents, festive flags, and shields which barely disguised the steel sheds containing the land’s dark ride attractions.

A year after Disneyland opened, Walt got his wish for an “Alpine Village” theme with the addition of the park’s Skyway attraction; aerial tram buckets departed from a traditional chalet-style building. And in 1959, the Matterhorn Bobsleds debuted, featuring a queue building straight out of the Swiss Alps.

The 1983 redesign of Fantasyland at Disneyland, 2008. — The 1983 redesign of *Fantasyland* at Disneyland, 2008.

In the early 1980s, Fantasyland was largely demolished, and the former festival sheds were replaced with a highly realized European village which was a much better fit for both the Matterhorn and Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. In this sense, the “Alpine Village” had come full circle, returning to the park which spawned the popular look of towns like Frankenmuth.

As Francaviglia points out, a great many towns in the Midwest embraced an Alpine theme in the wake of Disneyland’s enormous success. He notes that “merchants in Sugarcreek, Ohio, added Alpine motifs, including detailed porches, balconies, and gables to their Main Street to achieve a Swiss theme; some communities in Minnesota perpetuate their Finnish and German ethnic heritage through themed architecture on Main Street.”

It’s clearly the influence of Disney, as “this type of themed remodelling as been taking place since the 1950s and 60s.” Francaviglia could easily have been talking about Frankenmuth; note the resemblance here.

Very much like the Old West, the “Alpine Village” theme is often expressed liberally and abundantly through typography. The average American tourist is unlikely to be able to identify the various European regional forms of Blackletter script (Textura, Schwabacher, Fraktur, Cursiva, Hybrida/Bastarda etc.), so anything appearing to be “calligraphy” fits the bill. Again, Disney certainly popularized these uses throughout the twentieth century.

Sometimes this lettering is painted, but often it’s cut out of wood as well. Frankenmuth is also the kind of town where you’ll find a Haus instead of a House.

Generic Blackletter lettering is also rendered in 1950s–style neon, as here on the marquee for the very locally famous Zehnder's chicken dinner restaurant.

The original property dates back to the decade before the Civil War, was remodeled in the 1920s, and took off in its current incarnation after World War II. During the late 1950s, the family-owned Zehnder’s company started buying other properties around town. Curiously, the current restaurant looks very much like this postcard from the 1940s—no attempt has been made to retheme it, and it retains this sort of New England colonial flavor.

The Bavarian Inn Restaurant

“Strong regional identities persist, if not as an authentic part of their character then as almost theatrical sets,” notes Francaviglia. This theatricality—this thematic design—is perhaps best executed at the Bavarian Inn Restaurant.

Originally Fischer's Hotel, Zehnder’s bought the property as part of its post-war expansion in Frankenmuth. In 1959, it was renamed and rethemed in a very Disney-esque style.

Although the town is popularly known as “Little Bavaria,” the architectural details featuring X’s and diamonds on the buildings in Frankenmuth are actually Franconian.

The signage resembles the original Fantasyland voice of the Disney parks—circa 1950s, given the casual advertising style of brush script type. If this sign has been redone since Kennedy was in office, I can’t tell.

The complex is far larger than it appears from the exterior—three levels of shopping and dining.

From the side alley, the illusion is clear; the castle-like structure which faces the primary thoroughfare (South Main Street) hides the true depth of the building—again, a trick borrowed from Disney’s designers.

The castle tower out front is also designed with forced perspective, making it seem far taller than it actually is. Of course, in Frankenmuth medieval architecture like this isn’t authentic in any historical sense, but it adds a touch of Disney-esque fairytale fantasy—despite the American flags fluttering in the breeze above the ramparts.

Another trick borrowed from Disney is having a single structure appear to be different things from different angles. Looking south from Main Street, the castle is dominant. Looking north, it’s more of a haus presentation later in history.

The entire complex appears to slowly morph along Main Street, becoming more domestic and rustic, less regal and imperial.

To the south side of the Bavarian Inn is another massive facade featuring a decorative clock based on the The Rathaus-Glockenspiel of Munich which performs on a regular schedule.

After eating at one of the Inn’s German restaurants, we strolled the Holz Brücke (German for “Wooden Bridge,” as the sign indicates), a 239 foot, 230 ton covered span across the Cass River traditionally designed to look like it was built in the 1870s, but was of course actually erected in the 1970s.

Apparently folks walk the bridge, and then they walk back.

The Bavarian Inn Lodge

The Holz Brücke also is drivable over to the Bavarian Inn Lodge on the other side of the river, which is—you guessed it—owned by the family company behind Zehnder’s.

Bavarian Inn Lodge, satellite view. Click for link. Map data: Ⓒ Google.

Again Frankenmuth demonstrates design cleverness at subverting scale (and thus expectations). From above you can see how extensive the complex actually is.

The Bavarian Inn Lodge was part of a 1985–86 resort expansion in Frankenmuth, and it shows. While the theming has more of a master plan approach, a bunch of Las Vegas (ala Vail) components hang off the lodge like these waterslides—giving the whole thing something of a silly Willy Wonka vibe.

The hotel entrance is clearly designed to harmonize with the original, late 1950s Bavarian Inn on the other side of the Cass River.

Part of the newer, Walt Disney World-style theming that is not evident in midcentury Frankenmuth is the concept of constructing a single large facility which appears, outwardly, to be a natural conglomeration of smaller local businesses.

In Europe, you’d likely be paying an actual small-time proprietor named “Oma,” but here the cash registers all ring for the owners of the Bavarian Inn Lodge—Zehnder’s.

The Bavarian Belle Riverboat

After walking across the Holz Brücke, we bought our tickets to take a cruise down the Cass River on the Bavarian Belle Riverboat, a fully restored 150-passenger paddlewheeler.

It was neat to go on a “ride” which added a theme park element to the town experience—very much like the Mark Twain Riverboat at Disneyland.

The River Place Shops

The newest thematic addition to Frankenmuth are the Frankenmuth River Place Shops which were built in 2001 and are dripping with late 90s theming. The website proudly proclaims “OVER 40 SHOPS AND ATTRACTIONS” and invites you to “SPEND THE DAY AT FRANKENMUTH’S VERY OWN GERMAN THEMED OUTDOOR SHOPPING MALL.” I thought it curious that the term ‘German Themed’ was emphasized.

Frankenmuth River Place Shops, satellite view. Click for link. Map data: Ⓒ Google.

The shops are a stand-alone, integrated complex along Main Street on the south edge of the Cass River. The Bavarian Belle Riverboat can be seen docked at the right.

I was struck by the strong likeness to the Mackinaw Crossings retail district which I had recently visited on this same trip; they could have been designed by the same company by all appearances.

The architecture—as typical of these types of outdoor malls—is an eclectic mix, in this case, of “European-ness.” Not just German but also French, Dutch, and Scandinavian forms are evident.

Some of the shops are a very drastic departure from the Bavarian/Franconian theming which was introduced to Frankenmuth at midcentury.

Also typical of themed developments from this era are cost-cutting measures that impact the immersive qualities of the design—here most distinct in the windows, which could be from any late 90s McMansion track housing neighborhood. The painting schemes are also more garish and less carefully considered than you’d find at a Disney park; this is Disney on the cheap.

One of the hallmarks of late 1990s to early 2000s thematic design is the indoor painted sky. You can see this kind of treatment everywhere from Las Vegas casinos to Dubai shopping malls. I think Disney realizes how tacky this looks—they’ve only ever attempted “indoor for outdoor” in a nighttime setting, which can be quite stunning. Painted white clouds on powder blue just look cheap, like a children’s hospital daycare center.

I have a different appreciation for these kinds of spaces, a kind of ironic appreciation, like a guilty pleasure. Late 1990s to early 2000s theming—shopping malls, but also dining and casinos—is the b-movie equivalent of thematic design. I kind of love it because it’s so shabbily executed, because it’s so cheesy. The architecture is clearly planned and built to be appropriately referential, but the environmental immersion falls apart in poor materials choice, slapdash color, and an overall lack of detailing. All negatively impact verisimilitude.

Like many layered cakes I’ve seen on this journey, Frankenmuth is surprisingly complex, with multiple eras of theming, redesigns grafted onto authentic history, and fabricated history. From the late 1950s, Disneyland-inspired Bavarian Inn Restaurant (“Fake Real”) to the late 1990s Las Vegas casino-esque Frankenmuth River Place Shops (“Real Fake”), this classic Midwestern “Alpine Village” has it all. Even signs in German that bid you farewell.

Big Mack Attack - Part 2: The Island.

September 16, 2018 by Dave Gottwald

It was at David Janssen Jr's insistence that we visited both Mackinaw City and nearby Mackinac Island. When we were in the early stages of planning our summer 2017 road trip, I recall his words were something along the lines of "You've got to see Mackinac Island, man! No cars allowed! All horses." And indeed, in my above photo there are no cars—just a horse-drawn trolly and a ton of rented bicycles.

Mackinac Island, satellite view. Click for link. Map data: Ⓒ Google.

I was intrigued by Janssen's pitch. This fit snugly within the historical preservation / re-creation niche of thematic design, and the place sounded vaguely familiar. It was only in preparing notes for this post did I remember where I saw it.

As a kid growing up in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I was an avid reader. The Childcraft Encyclopedia Series was one of my many windows to the outside world via the written word. My very favorite book of the 1980 set which my sister and I shared was called Places to Know.

1980 Childcraft Encyclopedia Volume 10, Places to Know.

The rest of the books in this set are long gone, lost to moves and garage sales. But I still have this one.

Mackinac Island spread in Places to Know.

Places to Know was all about exploring the planet through geographical oddities and curiosities, whether interesting natural settings or human-made places. The headline for the Mackinac City spread nearly paraphrases Mr. Janssen: NO CARS ALLOWED. The black and white photographs (probably dating to the fifties or sixties) on the spread from Places to Know above followed me around like ghosts as I explored the small downtown district on the island. But more on that a bit later.

Mackinac Island is a great example of a place with a real historical legacy that has been elevated through layers of kitsch and camp to the status of Tourist Trap.

There are resort towns like this all over the United States, and they tend to go well with bodies of water and a strong Summer Spending Season.

Conversely Mackinaw City, which we had just departed by ferry, doesn’t have the same kind of historical claim. It was built up and kitschified simply because it’s the access point to the island—which is the real enchilada, tourist-wise. The layers of historicity, remodelling, and redevelopment are similar, but there was no “original attraction” in Mackinaw City to latch onto. It’s just second banana; a gateway to another place.

As is typical with these types of towns, Mackinac Island dials up its “historicity” in service of branding. There is contemporary signage all over, replete with Victorian-looking typography that badges certain sites as “official” and “historic.”

There are numerous buildings which, at least to my untrained eye, appear to be restored historical structures from some past era. The materials use is the most telling; the mixtures of brick work and wood, and the lack of metal framing. Also window size (smaller, before mass-produced plate glass technology).

In other instances (again, I’m no architecture historian) the buildings appear new “as old” more in the Disney theme park loose interpretation of turn of the century Victorian forms.

I have mixed feelings about this, design-wise. In some ways, the lack of Total Control like you’d see in a Disneyland-type environment—or the Mackinaw Crossings retail district I had just left behind in Mackinaw City—means that the experience is more authentic.

Not everything is clean, shiny, upkept; there is less fiberglass and plasticity and gloss.

But that same lack of central ‘design authority’ means a visual hodgepodge; a mess.

Here a block-length Western clapboard saloon lives side by side with a small domestic bungalow—a contradiction you’d be hard-pressed to find at a Disney theme park environment.

With national chains, however, at least Mackinac Island tries. Many restored “historic districts” or renovated small town Main Streets across the country provide visual standards to companies that wish to plop down next to much older structures. Here Starbucks is presented with the same Old West-style false front architecture as many other shops on the island.

You get pockets of beauty, sure—a restored house, a renovated business block.

And then you get souvenir shops selling awful cheap t-shirt designs and retail spaces crammed to the gills with tchotchkes and too much fudge and way more ice cream than you can handle. The strongest vibe I got was of Lahaina on the West Side of Maui, where I spent a lot of time growing up.

The very historic storefront, circa 1960. But the signage and facade rather suggest 1860.

That’s the real rub; the authentic “contradictions” of the urban experience—which legendary Imagineer John Hench often noted with pride were rather intentionally eliminated through the Disney design process—are, from a certain perspective, compelling. Some are also ugly as hell.

The Disneyland-esque Mackinaw Crossings development is the kind of design that many (mostly architecture critics) label tastelessly contrived. But there is a holistic vision, a single story, being executed—even if you think it’s too shiny.

Mackinac Island has no such sweeping, cohesive narrative to its structures and spaces. There are bits and pieces—Fort Mackinac which was built during the American Revolutionary War, the tradition of fishing and fudge-making, the grand Victorian hotels and rooming houses, the banning of automobiles.

What’s interesting about the island is that there’s more than one level of tourism going on here. By that I mean that Mackinac Island was a tourist town historically. The well-to-do have been vacationing here and eating fudge here and buying souvenirs here since just after the Civil War.

And Mackinac Island is also a tourist town today. The crowds it draws during the summer months these days are really only two groups: overnight guests and day visitors.

Those who stay overnight at the island’s restored hotels and Victorian bed and breakfast houses basically pay through the nose for the privilege. They are the contemporary, upmarket equivalent of the island’s traditional, 19th century tourist base.

And then you have folks like me; we come out on the ferry for the day, take a bunch of pictures, buy some food and maybe a couple t-shirts of the “I Was Here” variety and some nautical-but-nice brass bric-à-brac from Ye Olde Candle Shoppe, and get right back on the boat to the mainland. This is the downmarket group, and I include myself in it.

The odd tension between downmarket and upmarket guests is expressed well in the spaces and structures seen on Mackinac Island.

Essentially, the nice, restored, well-kept stuff is mostly on the inland side of the streets of the downtown area. Or it’s far, far further down the water’s edge, like this restored hotel.

And the rest of downtown faces (and smells strongly of) the water. Here’s one such establishment—the obligatory “Western Trading Post” hocking cheap t-shirts.

In closing this brings me back to the book I read as a child, which gave me the mental pictures I carried along with me on my visit to Mackinac Island. I didn’t remember the text, not until I examined the book recently while preparing my notes for this post. But I had a vague sense of the photographs—they were pictures of the island as a tourist town historically. No tacky t-shirt shops and shabbily dressed (average) American visitors.

Photograph from Childcraft Encyclopedia’s Places to Know.

Although these photos hardly have people in them, I imagined them—in my mind’s eye—in historical costume. I imagined wealthy Victorian hotel guests. And although I’m speaking of pictures in a children’s encyclopedia, this is still the language of cinematic subsumption. I was let down ever so slightly that the Mackinac Island from the pages of my virtual childhood didn’t meet the reality. These heightened expectations are something I will return to time and again.

Big Mack Attack - Part 1: The City.

September 09, 2018 by Dave Gottwald

After spending some time in Wisconsin and taking an all-day letterpress workshop at the Hamilton Wood Type Museum in Two Rivers, it was time to make our way to Detroit. This would complete the first leg of the my summer 2017 travels. We drove up through Green Bay (stopping ever so briefly at Lambeau Field to pay tribute to the massive statue of Vince Lombardi) and into the wilds of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and then down across the Mackinac Bridge (sometimes called locally "Mighty Mac") to Mackinaw City.

Mackinaw City, satellite view. Click for link. Map data: Ⓒ Google.

I realize there is a bit of linguistic confusion going on. The original Native American place name for the region is Michilimackinac, which means "Big Turtle" in Odawa, a dialect of the Ojibwe language which is spoken by the Ottawa people of this part of Northern Michigan. When the French occupied this land, they shortened the name to Mackinac but pronounced it as "Mackinaw" in a way which was natural to them. The British then came after the French, but changed the spelling to match the pronunciation. Today the city itself insists on AW while the bridge, the straits, and the island insist on AC. All are pronounced the same: "Mackinaw."

Mackinaw Crossings

As it happened, we parked (quite accidentally) right next to a thematic design bonanza.

Mackinaw Crossings is a classic example of a mid-1990s to mid-2000s themed retail redevelopment project. Billed on the city's website as "a Victorian inspired center where unique shopping, dining & entertainment come together," Mackinaw Crossings includes such amenities as "over 50 specialty shops, attractions and dining. Exciting new children’s playground, free nightly laser show, Rock climbing wall, Archery shooting lane and a 10,000 gallon fish aquarium." The outdoor shopping complex was built in 1997 by Bill Shepler and co-owned for many years with his partners Mike Ryan and Jimmy Wehr.

We entered from the parking lot via Sharky's Mackinaw Outfitters which looked nothing like the "Victorian" description of the rest of the development I later found online. But it works.

The aesthetic here is the archetypal North Woods Lodge, although to my eye the building smacked more of the Pacific Northwest and perhaps the National Parkitecture vibe of Yosemite, Yellowstone, or Glacier.

The sporting goods and outdoor recreation equipment national chain Cabela's has a very similar look and feel, although Sharkey's hews closer to a more historic presentation with authentic materials and construction—it's more "lodge" like.

My route through the Mackinaw Crossings shopping development. — My route through the *Mackinaw Crossings* shopping development.

Sharky's was only the largest retail node on the perimeter of a much more involved district; it is indicated here as number 13 at the far left. The areas I walked through are the purple zone from the parking lot to the green sector which spills out onto the street. As we were in a hurry to get to the ferry for our Mackinac Island day trip, I completely missed the rest of Mackinaw Crossings! But that which I did see and photograph told me all I needed to know.

Looking back towards Sharky's from further inside Mackinaw Crossings, it's evident that there is some 'blending' with regards to the rooflines and materials use that permits this 'lodge' to anchor comfortably to the more gingerbread trimmings of classic Victorian architecture (or at least the contemporary American reinterpretation of it).

Looking forward from Sharky's into Mackinaw Crossings, the Victorian theme starts to slowly takes over. I was actually impressed by (some) of the subtlety exhibited by the designers here. You don't typically see that much restraint at retail developments like this, but there is—dare I say—a bit of a Disney-esque approach to the transitions between building styles.

I've quoted Richard V. Francaviglia from his Main Street Revisited: Time, Space, and Image Building in Small-Town America elsewhere before, and I'll probably continue to do so as encounter these types of streetscapes and townscapes.

One of his key points in Main Street Revisited is that our twentieth-century conception of American small towns is sort of frozen in a Victorian overdrive which is historically inaccurate—and, more pointedly, a direct result of the Disneyland conception of Main Street USA. Francaviglia also notes the differences between the design of Main Street at the original park and the later version at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom:

A comparison of the two streetscapes reveals that the architecture in the Florida park has a much more lavish, overly ornate, perhaps almost burlesque, quality. In fact, whereas the Disneyland Main Street USA is fairly credible, Main Street USA in Walt Disney World is almost bizarre in its architectural treatment.

That newer generation of Disney design reflected in the Florida theme park seems to have been carried away with architectural hyperbole: Disney World's Main Street USA is a caricature of Disneyland's Main Street USA, which is in turn is a caricature of the Main Streets of places like Marceline and many other towns.

It is in this "more lavish, overly ornate, perhaps almost burlesque" style that Mackinaw Crossings is designed, and in that respect it's like many such places across the country which flourished from the early to mid-nineties until about the Great Recession of 2008.

Curiously, the development was apparently offered for auction (either as individual retail shops or as a whole) in the summer of 2006. I was unable to find the results of that auction, but in November 2017 the entire Mackinaw Crossings complex was purchased whole by Mackinac Bay Properties, a company run by Joe and Enzo Lieghio.

The article from the time of the auction announcement in the local Mackinac Island Town Crier quoted founding partner Bill Shepler as saying that the only thing like his shopping mall are the experiences that Disney provides:

The Mackinac Island Town Crier, July 15th to July 21st 2006 edition. — *The Mackinac Island Town Crier*, July 15th to July 21st 2006 edition.

Mackinaw Crossings shopping development, satellite view. Click for link. Map data: Ⓒ Google. — *Mackinaw Crossings* shopping development, satellite view. Click for link. Map data: Ⓒ Google.

Central Avenue

We made our way fairly quickly through Sharky's to the side street which spills out onto East Central Avenue to the north. This is the main artery, or "Main Street" of Mackinaw City, despite the fact that the actual boulevard named Main Street is just south of the Mackinaw Crossings development (and does not appear to have been redeveloped). This quirk jives with Richard V. Francaviglia's observation that Disney's "Main Street USA" has transformed "Main Street" into its own brand identity which is employed by towns which don't even feature a Main Street, or, in this case, is played up through design on another avenue other than the actual Main Street.

This is the north side of Mackinaw Crossings which spills onto East Central Avenue. That main thoroughfare is lined with an eclectic mix of buildings old, new, restored, and re-created—just like towns such as Deadwood, South Dakota which I had visited earlier this trip.

In retrospect, I regret that I didn't spend just a bit more time milling around the Mackinaw Crossings development. But we had a ferry to catch out to Mackinac Island.

In keeping with Francaviglia's field observations in Main Street Revisited, the streetscape here on East Central Avenue is quite amalgamated in its historicity; it's a decoupage, and good luck determining a timeline of development here, even with a trained eye. Some storefronts are possibly older than the turn of the twentieth century, such as this general store.

Typical for American tourist traps like this, Native American iconography is exploited in the name of "authenticity." I ducked into the shop and the owners were white as white can be.

A few buildings appeared to date to mid-century, such as this post office. Very modernist; glass curtain walls, no fascia on the roof edge, etc.

Francaviglia points out that many smaller towns across the United States began retrofitting their Main Streets and environs with thematic touches in the wake of Disneyland's overwhelming popular success. These 'improvements' were often designed to heighten the ethnic heritage of a particular township or region. Here the blackletter typography suggests Germanic roots, although the name "Cunningham" is early medieval Scottish in origin.

Part of the archetypal design approach to these kinds of spaces means that 'Germanic' becomes a condensed and distilled shorthand for 'Old Worlde European.'

I don't know if I'd say "clever" thematic design—perhaps "effective" thematic design—leverages existing iconography, whether geographic, cultural, historic, or sometimes merely structural. For all kinds of seafaring peoples, a lighthouse can inspire perhaps not full genuflection but at least a kind of totemistic reverence.

This "Fudge Lighthouse" is definitely a more recent structure (I'd guess mid-to-late nineties) and it feels oddly grafted onto the Victorian gingerbread around it, but it anchors the corner where East Central Avenue terminates at the waterfront, so its location is at least somewhat conceptually appropriate.

Turning the corner there are even more fudge shops (I guess Mackinaw City is famous for its fudge) and great examples of "new as old" construction common to revitalized Main Streets. The saturated wall and roof tile colors are consistent with Francaviglia's field research, in which representations far exceed historical accuracy:

Regarding the subject of historic colors on Main Street, however, many architects in the 1970s and 1980s consulted contemporary guidebooks and style books from the period 1890–1910 to determine which colors were popular. They followed directions, accenting the elaborate trim with varied colors. Nevertheless, a careful look at historic photographs reveals that the buildings on real Main Streets were often painted in fairly simple color schemes; white, buff, and green being common. Thus, the renovation architects may have introduced colors more typical of the elaborate bay-windowed Victorian "painted lady" townhouse of San Francisco, or Walt Disney's version of the small town as seen in the Disney parks, than what Main Street actually looked like ca. 1900.

Oddly (or, perhaps, completely predictably) at the water's edge adjacent to the ferry docks—and across the street from the "Fudge Lighthouse"—we've come full circle from where we parked back at Sharky's Mackinaw Outfitters; the North Woods Lodge look.

There's plenty of confusing things going on here. "Dixie" of course is the traditional nickname for the American South. "Saloon" suggests a bar in the Old West, perhaps a 19th century mining town. But the architecture is sort of a Colorado version of National Parkitecture crossed with the Great Midwestern Hunting Lodge I saw back at Sharky's.

The interior had massive vaulted ceilings with exposed (pine?) beams. There were also smaller design touches that suggested proximity to the water, such as rope and hurricane lamps.

So the South, by way of the Old West, waterside in the Midwest. It was a confusing design statement to make; I was expected something that would perhaps transition more naturally to getting on the ferry and experiencing the (hopefully more authentic?) history of Mackinac Island. But that's also sort of the fun of theming—like a screenplay with carefully placed jump scares I occasionally get quite thrown.

Continued in Part 2.