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Any photos not otherwise credited are from the personal collection of Frank Passic, Albion Historian.
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Morning Star, December 18, 2011, pg. 15 For those who may be visiting Albion this Christmas, you may like to know that these articles are republished on the www.albionmich.com website, going back to the early 1990s and even before that! Check it out. My Albion history books are also available at the Albion Chamber of Commerce. Consider a gift of Albion history this Christmas season. We were glad to see the Albion Aglow parade tradition has been continued. Albion has had many Christmas parades through the years. They seemed to reach their peak during the 1950s when Albion's population of course, was at its highest. This week from our Historical Notebook we present a scene from the 1954 Christmas parade. The view looks southwest towards the intersection of S. Superior St. and W. Ash St. On the right is the Albion Theatre, which closed in 1959. In the foreground is a tractor pulling a float entitled "Twas the Night Before Christmas." The two men on the tractor are unidentified. Behind it on the corner at 500 S. Superior St. is the small Sinclair Gas Station called Paul's Service Station, operated by owner Paul Rabakon. The big house behind it of course is the Colonel Joseph Duckworth home. Behind the float is the large Christmas tree being hauled down the center of Superior St. as part of the parade, to its final resting place for the holidays. This was a tradition here in Albion for many years. High above across the road is a circular Santa Claus decoration. There's one other thing I noticed about this parade: It is moving from South to North. Normally parades in downtown Albion head the other way. How many of our readers participated in Albion's Christmas parades when they were young?  1954 Christmas parade looking southwest towards S. Superior St. and W. Ash St. All text copyright, 2024 © all rights reserved Frank Passic
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