Extracted from, The Observer, dated 31 Oct 1960. This copy found in the vertical files at the Traverse Area District Library of Traverse City, Michigan.
To an old timer , Traverse City has taken on strange names and
designations and from their addresses we have no idea where people live.
It dosen't seem too long ago, but probably was, that Traverse City
was very definitely divided into areas which everyone knew and recognized.
South of 14th Street was Fernwood. East of Railroad Avenue was Oak
Park. From the Boardman River east to Railroad Avenue was the East Side.
East of Boardman Lake and South of East Eighth was Booneville. West of
Lake Avenue, south of West Front Street and East of Division Street was
the South Side. West Division and North of Front Street was the West Side.
Those were the fixed divisions and that's the way they stayed for
decades. When somebody said they lived on the West Side you had a pretty
good idea of their address.
Right here, let us take another swing at those sacrilegious folk who are constantly referring to streets in and around the old Central School as being the West Side. Them's fightin' words, stranger. South was South and West was West and never the twain met -- except to do battle. The line of demarcation was as definite as that between East Berlin and West Berlin.
If we let these Realtors go unchecked, there will be no South Side
after a while and they should lay off until all the old South Siders have
reached a new subdivision somewhere in the sky.
Now, we read and hear about a lot of new additions to the city, Pine
Grove, Brookside, Traverse Heights, Orchard Heights, Indian Woods,
Bloomfield Hills and a number of others.
We are reminded that between the South Side and Fernwood was quite a
stretch of open country from 9th Street to 14th and Billy Umlor on his
pony and the Wright brothers used to pasture cattle there. Also, located
out there was the most alluring, most interesting spot in the city, the
old City Dump. No great department store ever had such a variety of
interesting items as could be found there.
It was inevitable that Traverse City would grow and we have no
quarrel whatsoever with these new sections and their attractive names.
Trouble is that we haven't grown with the city and it's too late to try
and catch up with the nomenclature.
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