Inimitable: Downtown Charm

Lively downtowns are destinations for shopping, dining and community charm

It might be easier for Jim Reid to operate his furniture store in a big new building with display space all on one floor. Easier, but not nearly the same.

For 83 years, Reid Furniture has had an historic foothold in downtown Petoskey on the quaint main thoroughfare through town, Mitchell Street.

“I like the tradition of the building, knowing my relatives were here, and I like being downtown,” said Reid, 33, the fourth generation to run the family business. “I’ve discovered that you don’t have to have a bigger building to grow.”

It’s a sentiment his great-grandfather must’ve shared when he started the furniture business just a couple buildings up the block in 1927. Within five years, he’d opened shop in the current 16,000-square-foot location. Reid’s dad, James M., took over the business in the 1970s, and five years ago, Jim took the reins.

In his office on the upper level, looking out over downtown and Little Traverse Bay, he appreciates how the family business has remained successful over eight decades, because of the mix of resorters, tourists and year ‘round residents who prefer quality furnishings. An active, younger retiree population here as well helps to support local businesses, he added.

“It helps local businesses to have that influx of higher-income residents. It stabilizes our area and helps protect us from the cyclical fluctuations,” Reid said. “We have something special here in Emmet County.

There’s no place else like it. In Northern Michigan, it’s about quality of life. You can do your job and work hard, and at the end of the day you can go and do so many things here.”

Such as, we might note, shopping and dining. And we’re not talking about just one quaint, out-of-a-storybook downtown:

Petoskey is the largest local downtown, with a main street lined with retail, clothing and gift shops, a hardware store and art galleries. The Gaslight District section exudes its own historic charm, with more long-established retailers alongside a number of restaurants suiting a range of palates, from fine and eclectic dining to cafes, a pub and Ernest Hemingway’s favorite old haunt, the City Park Grill.

In the center of downtown, Pennsylvania Park is a grassy expanse of parkland where outdoor concerts fill the summer air and where kids can spend a lot of time just being kids, balancing on the railroad tracks from days gone by and gobbling ice cream cones.

In the tony lakeside enclave of Harbor Springs, the downtown is one-of-a-kind in its collection of boutiques, galleries, custom jewelers, gift shops, restaurants and cafes. It’s easy to spend a day wandering through the shops and walking along the water, stopping for a picnic and to watch the sailboats pass by in no hurry.

East of Petoskey, the Village at Bay Harbor has become a downtown in its own right, with an array of culinary, entertainment and shopping occasions that bring in visitors and locals throughout the year. Brick pavers line Main Street and stunning condos tower above street-level boutiques, cosmopolitan in their collections of fine clothing, galleries and gifts. Several dining options, from casual to upscale, are located in the Village.

The villages of Alanson and Pellston have their own emerging downtowns that add charm to these communities as well.

Further north near the Mackinac Bridge, downtown Mackinaw City remains one of the top tourist draws in the country. With ferry boats pulling out every 15 minutes or so to head to storied Mackinac Island, the town is constantly abuzz with tourists stopping by each novelty store, fudge and ice cream shop and taking in the sites of the Mighty Mac.

For well over a century, each of the region’s downtowns has developed its own style and identity, adding a further sense of charm to the Northern Michigan experience.

Emmet County Guide 2010 » Inimitable: Downtown Charm