Bird Bath House - digital images and Box 31
Photograph
Images of the Old Bath House at Oval Beach, built and run by Charles E. Bird, circa 1900. Images with a code like "89-1-23" in the file name can be found in box 31.
This building was also called Bird's Beach House.
![HM75BirdBathouseWinter.jpg 977KB; This image was featured as History Mystery #73 with the solution: The Bird Bathhouse shown here ca 1907 was located where the Oval Beach was created thirty years later.
Hi Sally, This beach house was located in the area of the present day oval. When the Forward Movement [later the Church Camp/Camp Gray] opened in the early 1900s a road was constructed from the Kalamazoo River ferry landing to the FM camp. The road also created easier access to the Oval area. And the access led to use of the beach area followed by creation of the Bird Bathhouse. See attached photo. The photographer was out on the ice, making the bath house look further from the waters edge. Note the tower atop Mt Baldhead on the upper left. Jack [via email, 5 Apr 2023]](https://d8e7jbdw4fu0e.cloudfront.net/4124/eb3f5fe0-da3e-11ed-ae40-0d1c74fe3a03-umcXBrt.lg@2x.jpg)
2023.10.44
Digital scan
Bird, Charles Edmund Sr. 1855-1941Bird Bath HouseMoore, Emily ThorpeOval Beach 1936-present
1880 Tourism steamship era -1930
Winthers, Sally
Digital data in CatalogIt
These image(s) were copied from the SDHC photo blog [or the Jack Sheridan drive if that was a superior version] in preparation for updating the SDHC website in 2023. The location of an original or printed version of these photos was unknown at the time of cataloging.
04/13/2023
08/22/2024