Last Thursday was the first Thursday in June. That means it was the first Sounds & Sights of 2015! The beautiful weather brought a cheerful crowd to downtown Chelsea.
Once again, Thursdays in June are featuring comedy on the library lawn.
Perennial crowd favorite Creole du Nord was on South Street.
The kids in the crowd were having fun dancing to Creole du Nord’s music.
One of the major attractions of Sounds & Sights is the deliciously portable offering from Smokehouse 52: the Piggy Parfait.
Have you noticed the new art in downtown Chelsea? The 2015 Sculpture Walk is installed and ready to enjoy! Here’s a set of detail photos of each sculpture to entice you to explore this year’s Sculpture Walk. Go enjoy a walk around town and see which sculpture is your new favorite! (I’m including the location of each installation for your convenience.)
Main Street, just south of Van Buren
Main and Summit, next to the police station:
Main and Orchard (on the south side of Orchard, by the bank building):
Main and Orchard (on the north side of Orchard, on the library lawn):
The library parking lot (near the library’s main entrance):
Main and South (on the south side of South, across from the courthouse):
Park Street (on the east side of the Purple Rose):
Middle Street (the south side of Middle, next to the parking lot):
Main Street (on the west side of Main at the parking lot by Heydlauff’s):
Main Street (on the east side of Main, just north of the railroad tracks):
Clocktower Commons (near the gazebo):
Main and North (on the south side of North, across from the auto parts store):
The Monitor Base Ball Club opened its 2015 home schedule by welcoming Northville to town.
In the above photo it looks like it was raining. That’s not rain in the air. That’s spring in the air.
Northville has fun hats!
Vintage base ball is back! The Monitors started their 2015 season with a trip to Port Huron (alternate name: Almost Canada).
Before we headed to the match, we made a quick stop at a park to enjoy the view of the water and (a tiny bit of) Canada.
On to the match!
What do you do when you score a run? You ring the bell!
In 2014 I took a few photos of some stuff. Let’s take a look at some of the photographic highlights!
Winter on Main Street (2 January)
Snow accumulation on a Park Street bench (2 January)
Snow-covered bushes on Jackson Street (2 January)
Chelsea girls basketball (10 January)
Chelsea boys basketball (10 January)
Chelsea boys basketball (10 January)
Chelsea hockey (14 January)
Chelsea hockey (14 January)
Chelsea hockey (14 January)
Chelsea girls basketball (17 January)
Chelsea basketball student section (17 January)
Chelsea Chiefs youth hockey exhibition between periods of a Chelsea varsity hockey game (22 January)
Chelsea held its Christmas celebration a couple weeks ago. In contrast to those of the past few years, the 2014 events were not held in frigid temperatures and snowstorms — a welcome change for my fingers!
Friday’s fun kicked off with the tree lighting ceremony.
A choir from CHS led the crowd in a few Christmas songs…
…the fair queen threw the switch to light the tree…
…and then some guy with a lot of facial hair and a distinct fashion sense showed up to address the crowd.
After the tree lighting ceremony, the Common Chords bell choir played its annual show at the Chelsea Library.
They always draw a good crowd.
When I arrived at the livery on Thursday, I found…no livery. In fact, I arrived just as the crew was leaving.
This was the livery when they started demolition:
And this was the livery eight days later:
The crew left a few of the old blocks.
Aside from those blocks, the livery was gone.
The loading dock platform is still there, but the ramp was filled in to make the site level.
With the site open and quiet, I took a peek into the Mack.
(The garage doors opening onto Jackson Street are just to the right of the frame.)
Wait, wait, I misspoke earlier. Not all the livery’s blocks had been taken away. A few were left to patch up the Mack’s damaged chimney.
Some of the bricks were left on a nearby windowsill.
The Mack needs plenty of work, but it has plenty of potential.
The livery demolition had lasted longer than I’d expected. After watching the Wolverine disappear in just a few hours, I thought the livery might be gone in a couple days. When the project extended past the weekend, I stopped wondering every day if THIS might be the day the building would be just a memory.
Then on Wednesday I showed up to find the final wall on the ground and most of the rubble gone.
The cleanup work drew a fascinated spectator.
Chelsea Farmers Supply has always been hidden by the livery. When the livery’s east wall fell, the farmers supply building became a lot more visible.
As the rubble removal progressed, the view north improved.
Come back tomorrow for the final post in the livery demolition series.
I showed up to the livery on Monday to find…a lack of activity. (Apparently I have bad timing.) However, I did notice the Mack’s chimney had sustained some damage.
I came back Tuesday to find…a lack of activity. This time it was because the excavator was having problems.
That didn’t stop Jon and Henry from checking out the scene.
With the back wall mostly down, the church behind the livery got a new view looking north.
It started to rain, so I shot a couple more photos of the rubble and left.
