Drew Day

I'm talking in recent years after they turned it into subsidised housing. Maybe it was just an Urban Legend but people i know who lived there would avoid the Mez.

When you get on the elevator in the morton house there is a button that says that reads M . This is the Mezzanine or "the Mez". This was the floor that housed the more "mentally disturbed" tenants of the place.

So the old morton house was destroyed by fire and they built this i guess? Oral history tells us that the Doctor's where tired with the administration of the Hotel part of the business, and that they wanted to focus on the medical practice. Of course it is impossible to say now, but at this time Dr. Ward Ferguson, Dr Lynn Ferguson and Dr. James Droste left the Sanitarium to start their own hospital aptly named Ferguson-Droste-Ferguson, in Grand Rapids. The Sanitarium took the entire 12th floor of the Morton House hotel, and while the brochure pictures a giant sign outside the hotel. The only sign that where is physical evidence for is this one:

Well looks like the old morton house was the largest institution in the world for diseased rectums afterall. Bring your ass to Morton Sanitarium!

Wow can't believe what i just found about the morton house!

Wow ! very intriguing. I see a lot of prominent names on the list of Pythian ranks. Why did they tear that building down? Its a parking lot/walkway that leads to division right?

Oh is that what happened? I was thinking they just added on the other floors. Urban Renewal in grand rapids geez.

Sure was i remember that when i was a kid. there was also a wendys a subway and the honk kong inn where the art museum is. Any of you guys remember the city centre that closed in the 90's.? It was abandoned for several years. We used to climb on top of the skywalk that went across fulton and you could get right in there. Everything was pink and turquoise and there was a train that ran on a track on the ceiling and a glass elevator. Now its the police station so no more sneaking around there. The 90's was in my opinion the decline of downtown retail

Interesting History of the morton house. I read somewhere that in the old days the morton was a hotel , and at some point the owners leased out the top floors to the county insane asylum and continued using the bottom floors as a hotel. Could have been an intersting night stay at the morton. Looks a lot different in this postcard from 1911.

so what you are saying is it's ok to have a rich developer come take over an elderly womens property ??? Is there no injustice in that? whats going onfor real?

- Typical CRC hollander talk- You are to scared to come to wealthy- Your anscestors are (or should be) ashamed of you ...

http://atomicobject.com/pages/Wealthy+Street+History iNTERESTING HISTORY OF WEALTHY ST. My family settled on wealthy before the turn of the century and never left... to me it is a personal battle to define whether development equals what is best for the people who have endured so many bitter hands dealt by the city of grand rapids. This is more of a heritage then a hobby to me. Being from one of the last white (hungarian) families in the neighborhood during the 70's-80's unrest i can appreciate the re development of the area . At the same time i believe that some of the invesment is not true to the neighboorhood and its people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flight

I used to live on wealthy and james street back in the 90's and the elderly couple that owns the store has had it for many many years. At one point they where the last open business on that block besides the wild bunch and i believe they resent that the white community is "taking back" the area after letting it fall into ruin in the 70's-80's. They also own(ed)? the house directly across the street. This is the very definition of gentrification. Maybe some of you should stop in there and spend some money with them. (The lady is kind of mean though)