Lapeer is a small city in southeastern lower Michigan, roughly forty minutes west of Lake Huron. It is located near the intersection of Interstate 69 and State Highway M-24, between Flint and Port Huron. Lapeer was settled during the 19th century, at a time when Greek Revival architecture was especially popular. The most notable local example of this style is the Lapeer County courthouse, the oldest courthouse still in use in Michigan. (It's reported that there's still a law on the books prohibiting the hitching of horses in front of the building.)
Though larger than any of its neighbors, Lapeer's downtown area still has the flavor of a small, midwestern town. The stores along Nepessing Street range from neighborhood drugstores to rural hardware, art and craft supplies, furniture, computers, bookstores and ice cream shops. The west end of town has a church on nearly every block, representing a wide variety of denominations. Just a few blocks away from Nepessing, blocks and blocks of houses stretch in all directions, many dating back more than a century.
By contrast, the M-24 corridor between downtown and the interstate is packed with fast food restaurants, gas stations, strip malls and supermarkets. The light industrial zone south of town houses a respectable number of manufacturing companies, warehouses, and fabrication plants.
At the intersection of these old and new worlds stands the Marguerite de Angeli branch of the Lapeer County Library. The north side of the building (seen from Nepessing) reflects the early 20th-century Carnegie library, which first opened it's doors in the 1920s. Well-known to the citizens of Lapeer for its children's literature, story hours, and historical collections, this aspect of the library is tied to the history of both library and community.
The south wing of the building, completed in 1984, reveals the changing mission of the library. It's a modern facility, with expanded space for collections, meeting rooms, improved access for the handicapped, a career resource center, networked information services, and services for local businesses. It was when this addition was completed that the library was rededicated and given its current name. (The library is named after the well-known children's author Marguerite Lofft deAngeli, born in Lapeer in 1889. Mrs. deAngeli, 95 years old at the time and living in Philadelphia, returned to Lapeer to attend the ceremony.)
Although it's the largest branch of the County Library, the deAngeli branch is but one of eight in the area. Combined, the libraries offer information resources and facilities to support the community's educational and business needs.
The Lapeer Community School District is among the largest in the state (based on enrollment), educating about 8,000 students of all ages, from pre-schoolers to senior citizens. Test scores are consistently above average among Lapeer students, particularly at the secondary level (junior high and high schools). The district operates two Class A high schools, one junior high school, and ten elementary schools. Additional services are provided by the Lapeer County Intermediate School District.
In addition to the public schools, the county is also home to several private/parochial schools.
Lapeer continues to be a community in transition. Formerly a rural, farming area, in the middle of the century large numbers of Lapeer's residents obtained employment in the automotive plants of Flint and Saginaw. In recent decades, the community has struggled to deal with the economic stress caused by the downsizing of the auto industry. Today, most Lapeer residents are employees in the industrial, service, or professional sectors. In the 1980s and 90s, large tracts of former farmland have been developed into subdivisions, many with very large homes occupied by new professionals. Education is, of course, critical to the community's business and development.
Downtown Lapeer has a wide variety of churches of many denominations. At the west end of the downtown area, the churches are large, stone edifices with ornate stained glass and bell towers. The Presbyterian Church at Nepessing and Calhoun, shown here, is a good example. (My family attends this church, and I attended a cooperative nursery school which formerly occupied the church's lower level.)
Elsewhere, churches dot the landscape irregularly, and appear in all sorts of formal and informal configurations.
Lapeer is overall a quiet city, far enough away from urban centers like Flint, Saginaw, and Detroit to avoid their high crime rates and decay, yet close enough to enjoy their cultural and economic advantages. New residents are attracted by the quality of education, low crime rates, and relatively low cost of living, as well as the growing business sector. Although I left Lapeer many years ago, visiting my family always brings back memories of a quieter, more peaceful time.
