The Triangle District

No one knows exactly how or why it happened, but the heart of Dundee - its town square if you will - is in the shape of a triangle. This unique shape, bordered as it is by well-preserved commercial buildings in the Italianate style, gives Dundee the distinctive character which helped it gain a position on the National Register of Historic Places.

Except for buildings that replaced those destroyed by fire, all of the structures in The Triangle were constructed between 1866 and 1900. This was America’s “Gilded Age,” a time of enormous growth and general prosperity.

As with the 1990’s, tremendous increases in productivity were the main engine of the prosperity. Now its computers and the Internet; then it was railroads. Moving a ton of freight one mile by rail cost about $20 in 1865; a few years later the cost had been slashed to less than $1.

The wealth created in villages like Dundee
(first served by rail in 1861) during this period is remarkable. Dundee had less than 1,000 inhabitants between 1870 and 1900, and yet was able to convert its entire downtown from ramshackle frame to solid brick.

Most of the buildings of The Triangle are two stories tall. At street level the structures housed retail establishments, and the second floor was devoted to owner’s apartments, storage, or small manufactories like the two cigar factories.  The exceptions were the two and a half story Opera House and the three story Pocklington Hotel. 

The street level of the Opera House was devoted to three distinct retail spaces divided by 18-inch thick brick walls. The Opera House itself was on the second floor, with dressing rooms in the ample half story above the stage. The extra height throughout the second level also provided for the feeling of grandeur so important to a fine entertainment experience.

Patrons of the Opera House, no doubt dressed in their Saturday night finest, would ascend stairs from the sidewalk on Riley Street for an evening of vaudeville, or to watch the latest hit play from New York, or (rarely) an actual opera.

Today the three establishments at street level of the Opera House are the Dundee Antique Shop, the Wilson and Meyer Hardware Store, and the restored Village Hall. The section directly over the Village Hall, which originally held the stage and dressing rooms, has been renovated as part of an expansion of the Village Offices. The former audience seating area, above the antique and hardware stores, provides storage for those two businesses.

In addition to the restoration of the Village Office section of the Opera House, several other restorations have occurred in the Triange in recent years, and at least one more – the Pocklington Hotel – is tentatively planned.   
    
Several factors have contributed to Dundee’s current historic restoration boom. First is the fact that the Village was safely out of the way of the “bulldozer sub-urbanization” that took place near large cities after World War II. Our buildings stand because there was no economic reason to tear them down in the 1950’s and 1960’s, when America was still oblivious to its architectural heritage.

The second factor was an unusually enlightened village government, which had the foresight in the 1990’s to apply for and receive historic designation status for The Triangle District, and to create the River Walk adjacent to downtown, along with increased parking and other public improvements designed to make shopping downtown attractive and easy.       

At the heart of all the bustle lies Triangle Park, with its cannon that was installed in 1909, and its beautiful eight sided limestone bandstand erected in 1913 as a Soldiers Memorial, commemorating service by Dundee boys in the Civil and Spanish American Wars.

No doubt the citizens who originally undertook the Triangle Park project hoped the beautiful buildings of the Triangle District would remain as they were forever. Today, despite a tumultuous century of constant change, their wish is coming true.

Bonnie Dundee

Historians generally feel that Dundee, Michigan, was named after Dundee, Scotland. Locally, this is taken as accepted fact. Dundee, Scotland, was founded in the late 12th or early 13th century and gained prominence as a whaling center. Later, it became famous for its production of jute, and is now known for its marmalade. It’s the fourth largest city in Scotland and is situated on the Firth of Tay, about 40 miles north of Edinburgh.

The belief that Dundee Michigan was named after this city in Scotland is understandable, given that so many American cities were named after places in Europe. And Dundee, Scotland is a nice enough place for a namesake.

The problem is that being named after a large industrial city in another country lacks panache. It’s an okay story, and probably true, but it has no pizzazz. Fortunately, there is an alternative – the dashing, heroic “Bonnie Dundee.”

Bonnie Dundee was more formally known as John Graham Dundee of Claverhouse, the First Viscount Lord Graham of Claverhouse.
A swashbuckling Viscount was he; not one of your sit around the castle types. When young, he swashed and buckled his way through France and the Netherlands as a soldier of fortune, on various chivalrous missions, then returned to defend his king and country against insurgents. He carried out the task with typical elan, beating back the blokes at the bloody Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679.

Bonnie Dundee took up arms again in 1688, at age 40, when William of Orange invaded Britain. He rallied forces in the Central Highlands and defeated the invaders at the Pass of Killiecrankie.

Alas, Dundee was shot from his horse and mortally wounded during the battle. With his death, British resistance waned, and William and Mary became Britain’s rulers.
Admittedly, it’s not likely that Dundee, Michigan was named after the courageous, heroic, Bonnie Dundee, but it’s not out of the question either. Certainly the fighting spirit of Dundee Michigan is more reflective of ancestry from Bonnie Dundee than from that dull city on the Firth of Tay.

Perhaps we should just say:
If our town’s naming didn’t happen that way, it should have.(Of course, there’s the Crocodile Dundee possibility too, but that’s another story.)