View of the area in Norway known as Old Town

Nelson Street (Main Street – Old Town), Norway, Mich., 1908: Postmarked January 28, 1910, the area in Norway known as Old Town can be seen in this 1908 postcard view of Main Street (now Hillcrest Drive) looking north. The building at the end of the street, once the Gaynor Hotel, was located on Summit Avenue (which no longer exists) and marked the north end of Main Street. The intersection with Cyclops Avenue, one block south of Summit Avenue, was about two buildings north of where the wagon was hitched on the left side of the street when this photograph was taken. The four stores located at this intersection in 1907 fronted Cyclops Avenue and included Joseph Ruwitch & Son’s general store, M. St. Peter’s general store, Alexis Patenaude’s drugstore and Fred Rogers’ saloon. This photograph was taken from the intersection with Central Avenue. The settling of ground began in Old Town in about 1902, especially on Nelson Street (now Main Street and located one block east of Old Town’s Main Street) between Summit Avenue and Helen Street. The business district gradually moved to its present location south of the viaduct for the Chicago & North-Western Railway tracks on South Nelson Street (now Main Street). [William John Cummings]