Published by The History Press
Charleston, SC
www.historypress.net
Copyright 2017 by Gary Flinn
All rights reserved
Front cover: An early 1920s photo of downtown Flint. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
First published 2017
e-book edition 2017
ISBN 978.1.43966.100.0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017934925
print edition ISBN 978.1.62585.841.2
Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Preface and Updates
This is the second book I have written with stories from the Vehicle City. History is a continuing process and because of that, there have been a few changes regarding people, places and institutions since my first book, Remembering Flint Michigan: Stories from the Vehicle City, was published in 2010. With this introduction, I will provide updates from my previous book.
BANKS FROM FLINTS PAST
In 2013, Citizens Republic Bancorp, parent company of Citizens Bank, was sold and absorbed into Akron, Ohiobased FirstMerit Bank. FirstMerit was, in turn, sold in August 2016 to Columbus, Ohiobased Huntington Bancshares, parent company of the Huntington National Bank, which entered the Flint marketplace when it bought the local operations of Bank of America in 2014. Huntingtons Flint-area bank branches went by several names over the years, and their story can be found in .
WHEN MASS TRANSIT USED ELECTRICITY
Since that chapter was written, the Mass Transportation Authority (MTA) began building up a fleet of diesel/electric hybrid buses in 2013, beginning with fifteen buses with additional buses added to replace older diesel buses. The MTA also has a fleet of buses that run on natural gas and a fleet of Your Ride vehicles, which run on propane, along with a couple buses that run on hydrogen.
REMEMBERING FLINT CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL
While the school is still closed, there is talk, if money becomes available, to build a new middle/high school on the site of Flint Central and the adjacent old Whittier Middle School to eventually become Flints only high school. In what became the first sign that my first book was becoming outdated, in October 2010, when the book was first being published, the owners of WFBE radio vacated its former studio location in the lower level of Central. I had mentioned in my previous book that WFBEs owners had built new transmitting facilities in Burton on Bristol Road near Dort Highway at the co-owned WTRX transmitter location, utilizing WTRXs tall north tower mounting WFBEs transmitting antenna on the WTRX tower. After the new transmitting facilities became operational, the owners not only removed the transmitting equipment, they had also taken down the old WFBE tower, cut it up and put the pieces in a large dumpster. They had neglected to plug up the holes where the transmission line and electrical conduit passed through, making the old transmitter room into a possible habitat for critters. In 2011, WFBE/WTRXs parent company was sold to Cumulus Media, which already owned four Flint radio stations. As a condition of the sale, Cumulus had to dispose of WRSR The Fox 103.9 FM, which moved from Cumulus Flints studio cluster location on Taylor Drive in Mundy Township to the former WFBE/WTRX studio location on Miller Road across from Genesee Valley after WFBE and WTRX were moved to Taylor Drive. A trustee operated WRSR until it was sold to Krol Communications in 2012.
A TASTY PART OF FLINT HISTORY
In 2010, the Thomas family sold the Halo Burger chain to local Subway franchisee Dortch Enterprises. In 2016, the chain was sold again to a Michigan group, forming Halo Country LLC as the parent company to Halo Burger, which changed the Halo Burger logo.
GOODBYE, WFDF
In 2014, Radio Disney changed its focus and sold nearly all its terrestrial radio stations, including WFDF. WFDF was sold to the Word Network led by Kevin Adell, which took over the station in 2015, still based in the Detroit suburb of Southfield. Under Adell, WFDF initially aired a religious format before switching over to an urban talk format in 2016 and started calling itself the 910 AM Superstation.
THE CAPITOL THEATRE
A Downtown Flint Jewel
While under private ownership, the Farah family was able to do a partial restoration of the Capitol Theatres lobby area with work underway to restore more of the theater building. But under private ownership, money was not available for a full restoration. So the Farah family sold the Capitol Theatre in 2015 to a nonprofit unit of Uptown Reinvestment Corp. The new owner is the Friends of the Capitol Theatre, which immediately announced restoration plans originally estimated to cost $21 million. Restoration work began in 2016. The group is partnering with the Flint Cultural Center Corporation and the Whiting Auditorium, which will manage the Capitol Theatre, including programming and marketing, with a planned opening date in late 2017. The marquee and blade sign were replicated by Signs by Crannie with aluminum using LED light bulbs, utilizing electronic attraction boards with the center board still using hanging letters. The plain-looking third-story addition was torn down, the offices and storefronts rehabilitated and the theater restored inside and out to the way it looked in 1928, with state-of-the-art stage equipment along with a digital projector and a new screen to show movies. Parts of the arcade are incorporated into the lobby with first-floor restrooms, an additional elevator and a relocated refreshment stand. The theater, meeting modern building codes, has a reduced seating capacity with 1,500 brand new retro style seats. Plans are to donate the old signs to the Sloan Museum.
THE HISTORY OF FLINTS ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPERS
The alternative publication Broadside invited this writer to contribute local history articles that would eventually be included in this book. After twenty-four issues were published, Broadside suspended publication in 2014. The reason cited was that the people involved had become too busy with other activities and projects.
FLINTS DRIVE-IN THEATERS
The Flint areas last remaining drive-in theater, the US 23 Drive-in Theatre, was equipped with digital projectors in 2013 and continues to draw moviegoers each summer. The Back to the Bricks annual August series of events is kicked off each year by Bricks Flicks, which features classic cars often overflowing the drive-ina DJ and a free automotive-themed classic movie showing at dusk. Meanwhile, all structures except the two screen towers and attraction boards were torn down in 2012 at the vacant Miracle Twin Drive-in Theatre in Burton. Vegetation is growing on cracks in the asphalt field where the speaker poles still stand. The property at this writing is listed for sale with the asking price of $1.6 million.
