Sultry Warm & Bright. Inclined to rain. A little rain at night. Arose 7 A.M. Father, Brother & I washed and greased the car. Breakfast in Nellie's room. We three men went thru the Reo Motor Car Company. Very interesting. Most expensive machine, that which makes fenders, cost $57,000. Strongest machine had pressure of 1000 tons. Average wage .75 an hour. Over 90% American employees. Some cars shipped abroad in huge boxes. Output about 180 cars a day. Very educational trip. To Nellie's office, Michigan Children's Aid Society. The five of us to dinner at The Bohemian Shop. To State buildings and library to look around. Then to the receiving home of The Children's Aid Society. We were shown all through it. Everything was very lovely but not like home. I was more thankful than ever for a home and good parents. To Michigan Home For the Blind where Nellie has a little Indian girl. This especially made me thankful for good eyesight. What a great affliction it must be to be deprived of the use of these organs with which one takes in the wonders and beauties of Gods great world. Back to house took a much needed sleep. All out for a ride. Had oil changed at Jewett service station. Picnic lunch of ice cream & cake in Potter Park. The pestiferous mosquito was very much in evidence. A small zoo in the park. H.H. & I to Y for shower. To house. The Shields away to their camp so all of us stay here at the house and have the run of the whole ranch. It makes it very pleasant to all be together. Talked & visited. Wrote in diary. To bed 12:15 P.M. Thank God for all blessings.
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Well, they had quite a busy day! Below is a photo of the Reo Motor Car Company plan, taken in 1918. It looks rather large, I think. I wonder if some of their work was done in support of WWI?
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| Reo Motor Car Company Plant, Lansing, MI - 1918 |
Potter Park Zoo in Lansing is still going strong. It's much bigger now, and more modern. Below is a little excerpt from the
Wikipedia article about it.
Lansing's zoo originated in 1912 with the donation of 58 acres (23.5 ha) of land to the city by J. W. and Sarah Potter, a prominent Lansing couple, for Potter Park. The James M. Turner estate donated a herd of elk to Lansing in 1915. The city's supervisor of parks, H. Lee Bancroft, initially moved the elk to nearby Moores Park. The same year Charles J. Davis transferred deer to the park, creating the city's first zoo. Moores Park continued to grow, and eventually the elk and deer, along with a bear, two raccoons, and other native animals, were moved to the more spacious Potter Park in 1920.[3] Potter Park was dedicated on July 5, 1915, and added 27 acres (11 ha) more land in 1917. With Potter Park Zoo's official opening in 1920, it became Michigan's first public zoo.[2] The next year a pavilion was completed, one of the zoo's first buildings. Lansing resident Sophie Turner donated 17 acres (6.9 ha) to Potter Park Zoo, increasing the park's size to 102 acres (41 ha).[4]
Here is a photo of the front entrance today:
Stanford wasn't too impressed, however, with the zoo as it was in 1923. He likened it to a county fair having ordinary farm animals and such as you would see in the country. Of course, he wasn't thinking about people who may have never seen animals like skunks in the wild. You can read his impressions of the zoo and other places he visited in Lansing in the letter he wrote to Mary Leah on June 3rd, posted on the
Letters: June 1 & 3, 1923 page.
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