Log Cabin, 2401 Division Ave S, Grand Rapids ~ 10/24/23
This truly is a historic bar, first opened in 1938. Zillow states the structure was built in 1930 and here is a photo of the bar when it first opened (from Log Cabin's website). Doug Potter and his father, Fred Green, bought it in 1975 and Potter's son, Matthew, and his stepmother Lisa Potter, currently own it. We were told that the book "Bud, Not Buddy" would give us the history of the place but it ended up being fiction. One of the main characters (Herman E. Calloway) was based one of the author's grandfathers, Herman E. Curtis. Herman did play jazz in Grand Rapids and owned several different business in Grand Rapids, always needing a white man to handle the paperwork and be listed as a co-owner. The cab driver in the story was based on another of the author's grandfathers, Earl Lefty Lewis, who was the first African American cab driver in Grand Rapids. From the information I could find on them, both led pretty extraordinary lives. But although the book men...