Wildwood Avenue, Jackson, Michigan: 1900-2020s

Try as I might, I simply could not find any information on when Wildwood Avenue in Jackson was implemented. We do know it has been a source of travel ever since the 1800s, but how far back? According to old atlases, Wildwood has been around since the 1850s, but how farther back does it go?

Wildwood Avenue is well-known for the rows of awesome homes, all from the 1800s. Unlike other streets that have been around for over 100 years, Wildwood still remains impressive. Many of these original houses have been used over the years for offices or businesses: doctors, insurance, and the lot.

Anyone who spent their days of youth in Jackson knows how interesting Wildwood Avenue was. Just past the junction where Ganson meets Wildwood, there is a Dollar General on the right. That is the former location of a teen/music club called “Granny’s A Go-Go" where many of the local bands of the 1960s would perform. My rock band played there in the late 60s, as did Ted Nugent, Brownsville Station, The Woolies, and many other locals like The Confusions, Yesterday’s Maile, Jim Judge & The Jury, House of Lords...and the list goes on. It closed, was turned into a storage warehouse, and eventually torn down to make way for the Dollar General. Sad.

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Jackson High has been on Wildwood ever since 1927, when it moved from its original 1908 location.

A Sir Pizza location that sat at the intersection of West Avenue and Wildwood has been long gone. Further west was a guitar shop and liquor outlet. A little more ways down is the current location of Jackson’s Underworld, a favorite haunted attraction that comes back to life every Halloween season.

The Underworld is in the building as the former Shaw’s Furniture, which moved into the Schmid Chemical Company building in 1958. Shaw’s Furniture closed in 2007.

And we can’t forget Loud & Jackson's...the ice cream parlor, now simply called ‘The Parlour’. Visiting and attempting to scarf down a whole “Dare To Be Great” ice cream dish was something many tried, and a good handful actually accomplished.

Lots of great memories abound, all up & down Wildwood Avenue. Scroll down to see a gallery of some old photos, depicting how Wildwood looked over 100 years ago...

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