1824 September 22, Perry Hannah, “father of Traverse City” is born

1847 Captain Boardman purchases land

1847 June 13, Horace Boardman and crew enter the later named Boardman river.

1851 April 7, Grand Traverse County was organized and became a legal entity.

1851 August 4, First election of Grand Traverse County officers

1851 Boardman sells land to Hannah Lay Company

1852 First steamer to enter Traverse City: side wheeler Michigan. First steam sawmill: Hannah Lay mill on the waterfront.

1852 First planting of cherry trees on Old Mission.

1853 Post office established in Traverse City

1857 First road to Acme built of cobblestones, clay and gravel

1858 April 11 First church organized, Methodist Episcopal

1860 Steamer Alleghany began weekly service from TC to Chicago

1864 First road built to the south, Northport-Newago State Road

1866 North Bridge on Union Street built by Hannah & Lay for $750

1867 January 12 First Congregational Church dedicated at 302 Washington

1867 Schooner Harriet Ross is first ship to run aground at TC

1867 October 18 First church building dedicated, Methodist-Episcopal

1867 Iron foundry built by Broadfoot and Travis

1867 First photographic gallery opened by C.W. Andrews.

1869 Hannah, Lay built gristmill on Boardman river near S. Union Street bridge

1871 Steamer City of Traverse begins regular runs to Chicago

1871 Post office moves to the new Petertyl building on 152 West Front

1872 November 15 first railroad, Grand Rapids & Indiana arrives in TC

1873 Hulburd Bros. Closed. Hamilton-Milliken opens in the same building 226-228 E. Front

1873 Campbell House built later called the Park Place Hotel

1874 Michigan Bell telephone line comes to T.C. from Charlevoix.

1874 July 20 Baptist Church dedicated at 244 Washington Street

1876 Steamer Clara Belle opened passenger service to Northport, New Mission, Suttons Bay and Bowers Harbor

1876 Ladies Library moves to the Leach Building at 202 W. Front

1876 November 12 Grace Episcopal church dedicated on State Street between Cass and Union

1877 First Traverse City High School built. (Replaced in 1886.)

1878 April 4 “The old blockhouse” burned to the ground

1878 Fire station built on corner of Union and 7th Street

1878 New building for Ladies Library in at 205-207 E. Front

1879 March. Susan B. Anthony delivered lecture in Traverse City

1879 Steamer City of Grand Rapids starts service to Petoskey and Mackinaw

1880 Park Place annex built

1881 Trotting Park opened

1883 Hannah & Lay big general store opens at Front and Union. A basement generator provides the first electricity in town.

1884 Steinberg’s Opera house opens on Dec. 11

1884 New jail on courthouse square replaces log jailhouse.

1885 First National Bank opens in the Leach Building at 202 East Front

1885 State Hospital built and opened in Nov.

1885 First city electricity furnished by Henry D. Campbell & Sons. Many building on Front Street lighted.

1886 Hannah Lay sells lumber interests.

1886 Hitching posts on Front Street replaced by rings in board sidewalks

1886 Traverse City High School replaced with brick building on the same site.

1887 Street numbers on Front and Union streets renumbered. Front and Union intersection is established at the base point. East on Front street had Odd numbers on the north side, west of Union it had even numbers. On Union Street east and north of Front numbers the numbers were even with the reverse south of Front street.

1887 Beitner mill built on Boardman Lake

1887 West Front Street bridge by Hannah, Lay

1888 New St. Francis church built on corner on Cass and Tenth Street.

1888 New bridge built at Eighth and Boardman streets

1889 Hamilton-Milliken built new brick building on south-east corner of Front and Cass

1889 H.D. Campbell started generating electric power for T.C. by steam power.

1889 First brick residence built at south-east corner of 7th and Elmwood for Christian Peterson

1890 Civil War Soldier’s Monument erected near county jail

1891 Post office moved from Cass Street to new Masonic Building

1891 Construction of Opera House started

1892 February 4 City Opera House opened

1892 Wells-Higman Basket factory built on 8th and Wellington on 5 acres

1892 Beadle building on northwest corner of Cass and Front St.

1892 Oval Wood Dish Company moves to TC from Mancelona

1893 Munson building at 156 E. Front and Wurzburg building at 118 E. Front are built

1893 Leach building moved so it opens onto Park St.

1894 F.A. Earl Jewelers moved into Munson building

1895 Traverse City Incorporated

1894 We-que-tong clubhouse built near mouth of the Boardman

1894 Whiting hotel opened on 150-154 E. Front

1894 November, Boardman River Light & Power Company opened

1894 December 11, Steinberg’s Opera House opened

1895 Mrs. Hannah dies

1895 J.C. Morgan cold storage plant completed on the Bay at foot of Union St.

1896 Old oak trees removed from corner of Front and Union

1896 November 11, Big fire destroys most of the wooden building on the south side of the 200 block of E. Front

1896 Fire destroys Oval Wood Dish factory, rebuilt the same year.

1897 August, Ringling Brothers circus here

1897 Rosenthal building finished 140 E. Front, called “Glass Block” because of wide plate glass windows

1898 About this year telephone lines on Front Street are put underground By Citizens Telephone Co.

1898 Dr. James Munson built brick building at 237-239 Front

1898 July 19-August, Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild West Show performs

1899 July 27, The Herald reports the first automobile in Traverse City

1899 Tonnelier Building completed at 212-218 E. Front. Original damaged in 1896 fire.

1899 Michigan Starch Company opened on the bay

1899 Cutler Hotel building removed from the southwest corner of Front and Union by Perry Hannah

1899 July 7, First automobile in TC driven by R. B. Cobb of Charlevoix

1899 Traverse City Lumber Company sold to Ott Lumber company of Chicago

1899 First golf course, 9 holes opened on land made available by Perry Hannah, west of St. Francis church

1899 January, Fire on North side of Front Street ruin Steinberg Grand to Huellmantel bldg (215)

1900 February, New City Directory issued

1900 Emanuel Wilhelm completes 3 story building on Front and Union, later the Traverse Hotel

1901 Gas is turned on for the first time Oct 16th. Initially on Front Street.

1902 People Savings opened at 134 E. Front

1902 First canning factory built on Hall Street Traverse City Canning Co.

1902 Front St paved from Union and Cass Streets

1903 June 20 Cornerstone laid for Traverse City State Bank building

1903 First brick paved residential street Sixth St. between Union and Division.

1903 Traverse City Iron Works built on Lake St.

1904 Bridge on West Front built by Hannah, Lay

1904 City Library built on Sixth St. with grant from Andrew Carnegie

1904 August 16, Perry Hannah dies

1904 Palace Theatre movie house opened at 128 E. Front

1904 Traverse City State Bank opened on northwest corner of Front and Union

1904 Petertyl Wagon Works built at 120-126 State Street

1905 Straub & Amiotte building at Hall and West Front

1906 New Methodist Church on 14th St. dedicated

1906 Immaculate Conception Church on Division St. dedicated

1906 Cigar Box Factory opened at 8th and Boardman

1907 TC pastor condemns dancing “Men don’t marry the women they dance with”

1908 First National Bank opened in the new building on the northeast corner of Front and Cass

1909 October 17, first flight of glider in TC by Charles Augustine

1910 October 27, First auto fatality.

1911 Boardman Hospital opens on Cass.

1911 Ford dealership established by Ford’s brother-in-law, M.D. Bryant at 132-134 W. Front

1912 South Side Lumber Company on Boardman Lake at foot of Boardman Ave. destroyed by fire

1913 July 8, Fire destroyed old Beitner mill

1913 Boardman River planted with 56,000 rainbow trout

1913 March 23 Mayfield Dam washout

1914 July 16, Fire destroys Columbia Transfer barns at 305 E. Front, 10 horses died

1916 First Chamber of Commerce organized

1917 Boardman River dam destroyed. New one built

1917 Marion Island sold to Henry Ford

1917 Oval Wood Dish Company moves to Tupper Lake, New York

1917 March 2, First snow machine on steel drums on a Ford Chassis driven to TC from Cadillac in 5 hours

1918 City government moves offices to new McNamara building at 127 E. Front

1918 October, all schools closed due to Spanish influenza epidemic

1918 March 19 Tracy Lay died in Chicago

1918 Rennie Oil Company opens first gas station at northwest corner of Union and State. They display one of Traverse City’s first Napoleon autos

1919 J. Ogden Armour of Chicago built a $50,000 summer home, Timbers on Long Lake

1919 Jack Dempsey featured with the Sells-Floto circus

1920 millions of grasshoppers infest the City on migration north

1920 Northern Creamery was established in new building at 719 E. Front

1920 State Park established on East Bay

1921 Brown bridge power dam built

1921 Chamber of Commerce bought Markham building at 129 E. Front

1921 First motorized bus service begins

1921 O-At-Ka Beach dance pavilion opens at Edwards beach on the west shore of East Bay later moved to Four Mileroad.

1921 March 14 Starch Factory on waterfront torn down.

1923 Michigan Bell bought out Citizens Telephone Company

1923 September 25 Home of four Negro women on the south side bombed

1924 August 9 Ku Klux Klan demonstration on Front St.

1924 Canning factory built at 8th and Lake by George Lardie

1924 Blessing of the Blossoms

1925 May 22 First Cherry Blossom Festival

1926 January 25 Hannah & Lay gristmill burned and not replaced.

1926 Bridge built over Boardman river at north end of Cass Street.

1926 Cobblestone fountain built in center of Cass street

1926 July 28, 29, 30 New Munson Hospital dedicated

1926 First traffic lights installed on Front Street at Park, Cass and Union

1928 Interlochen Music Camp opened

1928 April Montgomery Ward Store opens in Hannah Lay Building

1928 July 19 First Michigan Cherry Festival

1928 April 4 Knute Rockne spoke at high school auditorium

1929 Ransom Field, first airport open on Rennie Hill south of city

1930 June 2, the new Park Place Hotel completed and opened for business.

1930 January 14 First air passenger service from Grand Rapids lands at Ransom field on skis

1931 Morgan Canning plant built

1932 Cherry Festival becomes “National Cherry Festival”

1933 Sewage disposal plant built on Boardman Lake

1934 Con Foster museum built

1934 October 7 Central High School burns down. (Replaced with present building.)

1934 Miniature City placed on display at City zoo

1935 Dreamland Theatre reopened as Tra-Bay movie house on E. Front

1936 New city airport established on Garfield road

1938 Penn-Central Airline service opened service between Detroit, TC and Sault Ste. Marie

1939 New post office building (Union and State Sts.)completed at cost of $120,000

1939 Michigan Bell Telephone building completed on State Street

1941 WTCM established as first radio station by Les Biederman

1940-46 Cherry Festivals suspended during WWII.

1947 Traverse City Centennial

1944 Ford Island sold to Parts Manufacturing Company

1946 Capitol Airlines opens, successor to Penn Central

1947 Traverse City Centennial, Traverse City Osteopathic Hospital built on Munson Ave.

1949 Capitol Airlines took over air service from Penn-Central

June 30, 1950 First drive in theatre opened in Acme

1952 Northwestern Michigan College sets up in old Coast Guard building

1952 Nov. 11 Grandview Parkway opened and dedicated

1954 Cass street fountain removed

1954 TV station by Midwestern Broadcasting Company opened on county line road M-72

1955 Boardman river bridge on Union street rebuilt

1955 Cherry County Playhouse opened in a tent at the Park Place Hotel parking lot

1955 April Front and State streets talker about become one-way streets but not done.

1955 10/12 Artesian well landmark behind Wilhelm’s capped & removed

1956 First NMC Barbeque organized by the Wigwam Club

1956 Park Place Annex torn down

1966 May-Oct. State and front streets made one way for a trial period.

1967 Feb. State and Front streets one way voted upon, approved and in Apr. the change was made.

1961 Empire National Bank opened on Elmwood Street

1961 Mark Osterlin library dedicated at NMC

1962 October 5 First Civic Players performance

1963 Chef Pierre opened plant in Traverse City

1963 Traverse City public library remodeled

1963 ? 7th and 8th Streets made one way.

1964 All Faiths Chapel built on Northern Michigan Hospital grounds

1965 New Chamber of Commerce “blockhouse” building completed on Parkway

1966 October 29 last passenger service train leaves city for Manistee

1966 Giantway Plaza shopping center opened on Munson Avenue

1966 W. T. Grant’s store opened on US 31 South

1969 New National Bank and Trust building completed on East Front Street

1969 New Cherry County Airport completed

1972 Michigan Bell Telephone building completed on State Street

1975 July 12 Cherry Festival Parade led by President Gerry Ford

1977 May 24 Meijer opens in the former W. T. Grants building on US 31 South

1978 Cherryland Mall opened on northwest corner of Garfield and South Airport

2005 July 27-31 First Traverse City Film Festival