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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, March 10, 2024, pg. 6 It was on March 6-7, 1908, that Albion experienced the worst natural disaster in its history: The Great Flood of 1908. The scenario began in February when over 60 inches of snow fell, followed by a heat wave. In early March came heavy rains, and the waters of the Kalamazoo River rose to record levels. An all-night rain on Friday, March 6 raised the rushing waters to 8 feet by Saturday noon. At 3:00 pm. the Homer dam broke, sending an additional five-foot wave of water and ice chunks 18-inches thick headed towards downtown Albion. Nine hours later at midnight in March 7, the water over the Superior St. bridge was a foot over the deck, and 18 inches over the deck of the E. Cass St. bridge. Dynamite was used to break up ice jams upstream and some water was diverted via the "black ditch," a tributary which flowed through the southwestern portion of town. This was in vain however, as six buildings over the River on N. Superior St. collapsed, resulting in over $125,000 in damage. All the bridges in Albion were either destroyed or damaged as the result of the Flood-except the Cass St. bridge. That bridge was known as "Dickie's Folly," named after Albion College professor Samuel Dickie (1851-1925), who had spent an extra $4,000 to reinforce the pilings when the bridge was constructed in 1896. With the advent of the Flood, Dickie was vindicated and received congratulations from city folk for his wise investment of a decade earlier. It should be noted that Dickie was the only president of Albion College (1901 to 1921) to serve as a Mayor of Albion (1896 and 1897), though not at the same time. Despite the tragedy, some entrepreneurs saw this event as an opportunity. Local photographers perched themselves on the roofs of downtown buildings, took photographs of the "flood of the century," and sold the images as postcards. These are easily available at postcard shows today. A handful of persons in Albion still have some of these in their old photo albums today. Do you? From our Historical Notebook this week we present two of the classic postcard photographs of the Flood of 1908. The first shows the E. Cass St. bridge in the foreground, with the view looking east. The waters have crested and are now receding. In the back is the "City Roller Mills" building, the present site of Lloyd Park. That mill was unable to operate for several weeks following the Flood, because the raceway control gates at E. Porter St. (which are still there today) had washed out and had to be replaced. Our second photograph looks west, and shows the buildings on N. Superior St. collapsing into the River below. Each merchant had their own individual story at the time about escaping from their collapsing building. One such merchant, Robert Cascarelli, quickly moved his business and family out before the structure collapsed. The Cascarelli's subsequently settled in their permanent location at 116 S. Superior St. where the business continues today as a restaurant operated by grandson Jim Cascarelli. Following the Flood, a new bridge was erected over N. Superior St. Replacement merchant buildings were also erected over the River, which is definitely something that wouldn't be allowed today. Replaced they were however, and thus we in Albion still enjoy businesses and parking over the River on N. Superior St. today. How many of our readers have heard about the Flood of 1908?  The Flood of 1908
 N. Superior St. Collapsing into the River Below
All text copyright, 2024 © all rights reserved Frank Passic
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