Lakewood Lore

Old-timer recalls when city was rural

Among Lakewood old-timers who witnessed the transformation of our city from a rural to an urban community is 90-year-old Albert C. May.

Some of his fondest memories hark back to the 1900-1910 decade when there were still scores of farms in the area.

"As a boy, I went to the Bayes farm south of Madison between Warren and Belle to pick strawberries, for which I was paid the handsome price of two cents a quart," May said, adding that there also were raspberries, gooseberries and currants.

He remembers the Albert Hall farm in what is now downtown Lakewood between Lincoln and Marlowe avenues, and the high board fence along Detroit, where Lakewood Hospital now stands and behind which acres of produce were grown.

He recalls, too, how another member of the Hall family, John, who drove a one-horse trap, would take him on trips to "the country" (Brown Road south of Madison) where they would buy live spring broilers for 25 cents apiece.

"Planting season was a favorite time for us kids," May said. "Spring plowing always turned up arrowheads, and these were much sought after as trading items."

May was born in Cleveland on Oct. 21 1899, and a year later his father, Albert M. May, brought the family to Lakewood. The elder May was director of a land developing concern called Lakewood Realty Co., and our subject's uncle, Charles Wieber, was president and prime mover of the firm.

The Mays bought the first home on Belle Avenue, north of Detroit, so they could better evaluate the company's housing allotment and encourage others to buy there.

"Houses on the street at that time sold from $5,500 to $6,500," May said. "And when I was only 5 years old, I was entrusted with carrying the house keys that would permit prospective buyers to inspect the new homes."

By the time young May was ready to go to East Rockport (an early name for Lakewood) Elementary School on Warren Road in 1905, the family moved to 14300 Detroit, where the Westerly Apartments are now.

"Our neighbors there -- The Blumenstocks -- obtained a few lambs each year to keep their grass cut," May reminisced. "We, too, would get in on the act, using the animals to help out on our own property. We also borrowed the Blumenstock's cow for the same purpose.

"One day while the cow was in my custody, it broke loose and disappeared, much to the amusement of my friends. After scouring the neighborhood, I finally found it on Belle."

Though a nonagenarian, May still works every day. He operates the Peerless Automatic Machine Co. at 1970 W. 77th St., a family-owned machine shop founded in 1908.

He has been married to his wife (Elizabeth Ann Goehring of Pittsburgh) for 64 years, has lived on Homewood Drive in Lakewood for the past 47 years, and has three children, seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

This article appeared in the Lakewood Sun Post December 14, 1989. Reprinted with permission.

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