Denny Calvert is a wealth of information when it comes to Barron Lake—and Niles, for that fact. He should be. After all, it was his great-grandfather who in 1911 purchased property that would become home to a lake landmark and other nearby parcels that would give way to memories for so many families for years to come.
“When my great grandfather, William, bought the land on the lake, he started out with one structure. People would come swim in the lake and then as it progressed he built another building. Then around 1932, he built a big dance hall that could hold something like 300 to 320 couples. It also had a basement where people could rent bathing suits,” he said.
Denny’s great grandfather had 10 children. Each of them received a lot so they could put “cottages or cabins” on and have a place to raise their families. There also were cabins built north of the hotel.
The land he purchased included an area by Lake Shore Drive and Starr Avenue all the way down to Mannix Street. Soon it became Reid’s Resort with a hotel that became a popular vacation destination for people from all over. “A lot of people came from Chicago and they’d stay by the month, either in the hotel or in one of the cabins,” Calvert said.
Calvert recalls with great fondness growing up in the 1940s and 50s on the lake. “I’d ride my bike up to Barron Lake Road and turn left. All the way to the corner were great aunts and uncles, you know, all family. I’d just be waving to everyone—they were all family,” he said.
“It was a great place for a kid. On the other side of the lake where the icehouse was, we’d go over there and dig foxholes and shoot BB guns. It was right by Bonner’s Woods and there weren’t any houses there,” he said.
He talked about his group of friends, affectionately known as “the Barron Lake Boys,” a group of friends who are still in touch with each other today. “Several of the boys we all grew up with on the lake are lifelong friends. We just celebrated 70 years of friendship,” he said. “We were fortunate enough to have a place on the lake and we would still go up there with our wives and spend three or four days together.”
The “Barron Lake Boys”
Left to right- Front: Denny Kime, Denny Calvert, Ron Wingeart Back: Ken Kelly, Phillip Adams, Tom McGuire
The boys did a lot together, whether riding bikes, swimming or playing in the woods. “We’d walk down Starr Avenue and cut through near Elder Court. in the winter time and slide down the snow covered banks. There were cottages there but at that time no one was there because they were all summer cottages.”
Calvert and his friends also rode their bikes down to the area grocery store, Ecklers, on the east side of Barron Lake Road and M-60, nearby to what used to house a bank. “We’d turn in two pop bottles and get a candy bar. They had candy bars that were a nickel and some were three-cents,” he said.
They would play football in the schoolyard at Barron Lake School. The school he is referring to is now the Howard Township Hall, which still has the old bell tower on the roof. “It wasn’t organized football. We’d just go down with our friends and decide where the out-of-bounds was at and we’d run around. It’s a wonder we didn’t break our bones. It was a lot of fun having so many kids to play with from around the lake,” he said.
Calvert stayed on the lake until the mid 1970s, when he was 32 years old. He and his family stayed in the Niles area, where he continued to raise his family and work. He was a milkman for a local dairy for about 10 years, until it closed. He worked for National Standards, a specialty wire company in Niles, and farmed in Cassopolis. “We bought a place in Cassopolis in the country and raised about 2,000 pigs a year for about 23 years,” he said.
There was quite a bit of industry in Niles, Calvert recalled. “Tyler Refrigeration was in Niles. It was the second largest refrigeration company in the country. And, Simplicity Patterns was the second largest pattern company in the country. And, of course there was National Standards. A lot of industrial areas in Niles back when I was younger,” he said.
Growing up on Barron Lake was wonderful for Calvert. “It was just a place you felt the unity of a community at the lake, and in Niles. It was a time when the fellows had been at war and were tired of the bloodshed and what they had experienced and they just wanted to be in a good place. They were all just such a good people,” said.
Calvert has since moved from the area and lives about 30 miles north of Louisville, Kentucky. He still makes it back to Michigan when he and his wife, Janet, visit their children who live on a lake further up north.
He’s still got animals—50 chickens, two cows, two pigs and two horses. “I’ve got some little chicks in there that just hatched,” he said. He’s also keeping busy with a woodworking shop in an out building. “Right now I’m making Christmas decorations and ornaments,” he said.
