Muir-Lyons

Two years in, I’m still finding a few towns in West Michigan–increasingly broadly defined–to photograph. As always, what draws me is the mix of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century Midwestern architecture and the signs of socio-economic stress and resilience in them. On Friday, I took the day off and spent some time photographing in Muir and Lyons, Michigan, two villages a few miles east of Ionia. The Grand River runs between them and curves through Lyons.

Lyons Township was first settled by European Americans in the 1830s, its economy first involving trade with local Native people. Lyons was platted in 1836 and appointed a postmaster and got a post office in 1836-1837. The town got a charter in 1867. Muir, a mile or so to the north, was founded and platted in 1856 as Montrose, and got a post office in 1860, when I changed its name to Muir, to avoid confusion with another town called Montrose. It was incorporated in 1871.

Both towns soon had a variety of churches and grist and timber mills. But the railroads bypassed both, limiting their potential for growth. Ionia, a few miles west, did get the railroad. Sometimes fickle decisions by big corporations determined their fates.

Timber and agriculture drove wealth in Lyons Township in the nineteenth century, and you can see it in some of the grand old, Victorian houses in the area. Today, buildings in the business districts seem mostly closed, or at least there are few signs that tell you want businesses the buildings might house. This is true in Muir especially–though I did see active renovations in one building there. The towns have populations of about 800 (Lyons) and 600 (Muir) living in them today.

Here are a few images from Muir. The image above also is from Muir. I like how it looks like a map. I processed the straight-up images to have a gritty, sort-of-postcard-like look. I gave the reflection images a more painterly look.

And a few from Lyons. The first one is a bar-restaurant that is open a few hours a day Tuesday through Saturday. The second is a post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The last is a grand old post office. (Both villages have post offices. Lyons has a public library and, as one photo shows, a historical society.)