by This postcard view, circa 1910, shows the N.C. Potter General Store and post office in Forestville, Michigan, a small village on Lake Huron in Sanilac County. Forestville grew up around a sawmill in the 1850s and was incorporated as a village in 1895, taking its name from the heavy timber that once ringed the site.
Out front, more than a dozen townspeople cluster along the boardwalk, their white shirtwaists and long skirts suggesting a summer Saturday. The building’s left window names the Forestville post office, while upstairs signs for millinery and wallpaper hint that this wooden structure served as an early shopping mall.
A horse and buggy wait at the hitching rail, its netting likely meant to keep flies from bothering the animal. The couple in the carriage appears dressed for town, posed as carefully as everyone else, a reminder that a camera visit was still an event.
Forestville survived Michigan’s Thumb fires of 1871 and 1881 that wiped out nearby communities, yet today it ranks among the state’s smallest villages, proof that this quiet corner once had a busier Main Street than its modern size suggests.
Video – Forestville MI Post Office & Store c.1910
