​A Letter from Melissa Talmadge-Cox...

March 11, 2013

​

When I first came to Muskegon to join the International Buster Keaton Society (the Damfinos) at the Buster Keaton Convention honoring my grandfather, it was autumn on the Michigan peninsula. I was swept up in the festivities that included a trolley ride to the Actors’ Colony in Bluffton, where we saw the summer home site of my great grandparents and the ball field where the community gathered for baseball games near Pascoe’s restaurant. I fell in love with the whole area, with the Farmer’s Market on crisp Saturday mornings and the hardwoods turning red, yellow and orange.

​

The area has a wonderful history as the home of the Actors’ Colony, and Muskegon and Bluffton played an important role during the vaudeville years from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. I have many family pictures showing the depot in Muskegon and the Actor’s Colony activities in Bluffton and I feel such affection for the area where my grandfather spent his youth.



  I’ve always loved the fact that this was important enough history to be in tourist books and to be honored by an annual silent film screening in the beautiful Frauenthal theater. This festival brings people from all over the world to your little corner of the world, and they stay in the local hotels and eat at the local restaurants. It would be such a shame to demolish the part of this history where we still gather to play softball each year. Two years ago, I brought my mother, who was then 86, and she got out on that softball field with the rest of us and played ball where her father-in-law played a hundred years ago. It was quite moving for me to be connected to that spot. Pascoe’s is gone and it would be very sad to see the rest of the history of that spot disappear, especially since I plan to return to Muskegon in the future and play ball on that field.



Melissa Talmadge Cox
Buster’s Granddaughter



 

Lake Michigan Homes Could be Built on Muskegon's Bluffton School Property
Published: Thursday, October 18, 2012, 12:07 PM     Updated: Thursday, October 18, 2012, 12:41 PM

​

MUSKEGON, MI -- A new subdivision just steps from Lake Michigan is being explored as a future use of Muskegon Public Schools’ Bluffton Elementary School property.​

​

School Superintendent Jon Felske said he has been in talks since last August with city officials about the possibility of razing the school and making it available for residential development with some adjacent city-owned property.
The school is near the city's Pere Marquette Park.​

“We have walked the Bluffton property two or three times and have included in those walks the city Planning Department to discuss the future use of the Bluffton school property and potentially parcels of land the city owns and (ask the question), ‘Can we do something collaboratively?’” Felske said.​

Muskegon City Manager Bryon Mazade said the school property is currently zoned residential and he believes residential development would be the “highest and best use” for the land. Mazade termed the discussions as “real preliminary.”​

The city owns about a four-acre parcel of land between the school and the beach, and about two acres of that could be combined with the school property for residential development, he said. The other two acres are across Lakeshore Drive from the school, he said.​

The school, located at 1875 Waterworks Rd., is just off Lakeshore Drive near the corner of Beach Street. The school district had talked with the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District about using the closed school for a regional math and science center, but that idea fell through.​

The school property encompasses about eight acres, bringing the total possible residential development to 10 acres that Mazade said could probably allow space for 20 houses.​

After the last school year, Muskegon Public Schools closed Bluffton Elementary -- one of three schools closed as part of a district reorganization and downsizing.​

“That’s a nice, valuable piece of property and so is the city’s piece,” Felske said.
Among the issues that need to be considered are rules regarding development on dunes, Felske said. The school is nestled behind a wooded dune that separates it from the beach.​

The last time the city was involved in development of housing near the lake was in the late 1990s, when the Bluffton Bay Estates subdivision was developed near Lakeshore Drive and Beach Street. The city’s consideration of selling 4.7 acres of property to the developers of that subdivision led to public outcry and a voter-approved ballot issue requiring the sale of certain public property be put to a vote of the people.​

In the end, the city didn’t sell the property but swapped a much smaller parcel with the developers, who ended up developing 35 lots on about 15 acres. Mazade said many property owners bought multiple lots so that there are about 20 homes in that subdivision.​

The same scenario could likely happen if the Bluffton school property is developed, Mazade said.
As a result of a battle over the Bluffton Bay Estates, the city now must get voter approval before it sells property with a “charter parks” designation. Mazade said he doesn’t believe the city property being discussed carries that designation.
Regardless, he said, the school property could be developed on its own.​



Link to Story Here:  

http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2012/10/lake_michigan_homes_could_be_b.html





Buster Keaton's Favorite Place on Earth -

Seeking Michigan by Ron Pesch - Sept. 14, 2010



It was a fairy tale come true, at least for a child of vaudeville performers.

​

“The best summers of my life were spent in the cottage Pop had built on Lake Muskegon in 1908.” Famed silent film comedian Buster Keaton wrote those words in his autobiography, My Wonderful World of Slapstick. For the Keaton family, which then numbered five, Muskegon, Michigan was a place to call home.

​

“It was his favorite place on earth,” noted Keaton’s widow, Eleanor, years later. “He loved Muskegon.”



Born on the road in a little Kansas town in 1895, Joseph Frank Keaton had known only one life. Before the age of three, he was incorporated into the family act. By age five, he had become a regular and would soon be the feature member of “The Three Keatons.” It was a nomadic life filled with matinee and evening stage performances, travel, backstage banter, and hotel stays in big cities and small burgs scattered across the countryside. For a child, the upbringing was far from normal.

​
A booking in Muskegon would alter that life. While performing at the Lake Michigan Park Theater in July 1908, his parents, Joe and Myra, visited property that was for sale along the shore of Muskegon Lake. The Keaton’s arraigned a purchase, and then returned to the road, informing friends and acquaintances of the little slice of paradise they had found in Muskegon, Michigan.

​

The move laid the groundwork for a thriving community of actors that grew in Edgewater and the neighboring Bluffton area. It was known as the Actors’ Colony and thrived during the summer months, when performers relaxed as bookings on the vaudeville circuit were down due to the heat.

​

With Pigeon Hill, a soaring sand dune, serving as a backdrop, Joe had a cottage built for his family on a lot that faced the water. For Buster, his sister Myra and his younger brother Harry (nicknamed Jingles because of his “noisy way with toys”), Muskegon provided a chance to be kids.

​

​

Populated with a cast of regulars and an ever-changing collection of visitors, word is that the area served as home to over two hundred performers at its peak years. It was a true playground for residents.

​

Fishing, swimming and boating were, of course, favorite pastimes. A short walk away was Lake Michigan Park, featuring a theater, carnival amusements, dancing and fun (For images, click Lake Michigan Park images). Pascoe’s Place, located near the turnaround for the streetcars that brought visitors to the Park, sat nearby. Serving as the unofficial headquarters for the Colony, the menu featured succulent pan-fried perch and nickel beers. A baseball diamond situated behind the property came alive with contests against local factory squads.

​

Max and Adele Gruber lived just down the street. Their novelty animal act, “Oddities of the Jungle” featured the talents of an elephant, a trained zebra and a Great Dane. Max’s elephant, it is said, was often dispatched to provide taxi service for the reveler who enjoyed a little too much of his drink of choice at Pascoes.

​

Living next to the Keaton’s was Big Joe Roberts, who would later serve as the heavy in Keaton’s films. Ed Gray, known as the “Tall Tale Teller,” was also a friend of the family’s. Annoyed by regular visits to his property by patrons of the nearby Park, he dispatched Buster’s talents in building an outhouse with collapsible walls. With a yank on a rope, Gray could quickly identity trespassers, to the amusement of many.



Today, the delight of lakeside living is still enjoyed in similar ways by residents of the area. The neighborhood’s storied past is celebrated the first weekend of October each year when the International Buster Keaton Society descends on Muskegon for their annual convention. A visit to the baseball diamond, a trip through the neighborhood and discussions on Buster’s years as a performer are capped with a public showing of some of his classic comedies at the city’s restored movie house, the Frauenthal Theater. Featuring the sounds of a booming Barton theater organ, the theater’s silver screen glistens with Keaton’s antics, and is filled with fun and laughter – a fitting tribute to a man who, according to film critic Roger Ebert, is “arguably, the greatest actor-director in the history of movies.”