h58_0137

Abstract

This rare photograph graciously donated to Willard Library by historian Michael Martich wonderfully captures a moment in time in downtown Battle Creek. It is a view of the North side of the first block of East Michigan, now the site of the main entrance of the Kellogg Foundation. The center of attention is the Oppenheimer Cigar Store, flanked by the Old National Bank on the left and Amberg & Murphy Drug Co. on the right. The date is Friday, October 8, 1915. The 1915 world Series box scores are being posted on a chalk board over the cigar store's entrance by the man on the scaffold to a crowd of males with nothing better to do that afternoon. The Boston Red Sox were battling the Philadelphia Phillies that year. The score board Boston ahead in the top of the sixth, but pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander eventually Phillies to a 3-1 victory. This year's series was especially historic as it was the debut of a Red pitcher named George Herman Ruth, and it was the first series ever attended by a sitting President, Woodrow Wilson. Samuel Oppenheimer bought out the Climax Cigar Store at 3 E. Michigan in 1906. After his death in 1915, it continued in business until 1927.