The people entrance to an old grain mill in Michigan. When I was but a lad, I was fascinated by these places – many still in operation; most if not all, in their last days. The older mills of 1890s vintage might still have had the original belt driven machinery; the sounds and smell of the operating equipment drew me in and held my attention long enough to get chased out of the workmen’s way … though often just to a safer place to watch.

If I was really lucky, a freight train would come by to load or unload whatever it was the mill needed or shipped: usually sacks of ground grain going out, machinery and hardware coming in – the mills in small towns often did double duty as the local hardware store.

Leonard was never large; its population was usually in the mid-200s, occasionally reaching 300.

So on one of my journeys home – that itself long, long ago, I re-visited this old mill. No longer in business, waiting its fate. The trim is new, the door is old. The photo was film.

Due to the miracle of Google Street view, I took an internet journey back to Leonard to see what I could see.

The part of the mill where this door once was no longer exists – the door opened onto what is now near the sidewalk; one would park a vehicle in what is now grass. The outline of the former wall still marks the location. The paint is worn, the windows and doors sealed off with hopes of preventing scavengers and vandals from entering, the road is paved, there’s now a sidewalk and curbs, and what was once a worn-out, over-grown tertiary rail line is now a manicured and paved walking path, and there is no sign of the siding where boxcars and flats once were parked for loading and unloading.

Better days gone forever..