8 Prettiest Main Streetscapes In The Great Lakes
The nice thing about a Great Lakes downtown is you can shop it and still make the beach. The main streets are brick and walkable, still full of local shops instead of chains. In summer the whole town turns out on the sidewalks. On Kincardine's Queen Street, a pipe band marches through on summer Saturday nights. Grand Haven's runs down to a red lighthouse, and Vermilion is the old Village of the Captains on Lake Erie. The water is always close, big enough for the freighters that still work these lakes. These eight main streets are the prettiest on the Great Lakes.
Grand Haven, Michigan, Lake Michigan
The compact historic district is centered on Washington Ave., the commercial thoroughfare that links the town to the waterfront. Rich in 19th-century Victorian structures and early-20th-century brick storefronts, this downtown core is the social and economic center of the community, and the preserved buildings hold locally owned shops, cafes, and restaurants. The Victorian buildings stand close together, and the core feels intimate despite its open lakeshore setting. Grand Haven's Central Park sits right on Washington Ave. The park has a fountain, and the city holds summer concerts and festivals there.
The lower blocks of Washington Ave. are a designated Social District, where visitors can carry drinks bought from local businesses along the sidewalks. At the end of the downtown corridor, with Washington Ave. leading right to the water, the Grand Haven Boardwalk and Pier extends along the channel. The paved boardwalk runs about 2.5 miles along the harbor and Grand River toward Lake Michigan, passing shops, restaurants, marinas, and parks. It is pet-friendly along its full length, and part of the Social District, so adults may carry a drink as they walk. At its end, Grand Haven State Park and the South Pier extend to Lake Michigan, where the bright-red Grand Haven South Pierhead Light stands at the tip of the pier.
Cobourg, Ontario, Lake Ontario
A block from Lake Ontario, Cobourg's King Street is a stretch of heritage buildings with more than 250 locally owned businesses and easy access to the beach. The town holds many events and festivals here, closing sections to traffic for pedestrians in season. Most of the district's buildings went up between 1840 and 1890. Most of the town's commercial and cultural life still happens along these blocks.
Victoria Hall is the centerpiece of King St. W. Completed in 1860, the three-storey building was designed in the Palladian and Neoclassical styles and is a National Historic Site. Inside are a two-storey concert hall and the Art Gallery of Northumberland, below an octagonal clock tower. The Classical Revival Old Market Building dates to 1850 and once tied the town's market square to King Street. Just south of King Street lie Victoria Park and Cobourg Beach, where an extensive boardwalk runs and the sand is surprisingly fine for Lake Ontario. The Cobourg Waterfront Festival, a large annual event, takes over the harbor each Canada Day long weekend and spreads to Victoria Park and King St.
Chesterton, Indiana, Lake Michigan
Chesterton is known as a gateway to the Indiana Dunes, sitting just south of Lake Michigan and the dunes. The main commercial district centers on South Calumet Road and Broadway, a practical base for exploring the dunes and the surrounding area. The town took shape around the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, which reached the area in 1852. That history still shows in the preserved 19th- and early-20th-century buildings along South Calumet Road and Broadway.
An 1898 dry-goods building on Broadway is now the Running Vines Winery. The Chesterton Tribune Building on S. Calumet Road dates to 1905. The weekly Chesterton Tribune was once printed there, and the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places within the Chesterton Commercial Historic District. Chesterton's European Market on Broadway is an open-air market with regional foods, produce, and crafts from Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois. On S. Calumet Road beside the market, Thomas Centennial Park is where the town gathers for festivals and concerts.
Vermilion, Ohio, Lake Erie
Vermilion is on the southern shore of Lake Erie, at the mouth of the Vermilion River. Its downtown runs along Liberty Avenue and Main Street, a walkable grid of local shops, galleries, and cafes. The town is known as the Village of the Captains, and the Harbor Town district behind Main Street is full of the Victorian and Italianate homes that 19th-century lake captains built. Main Street leads straight to Main Street Beach and the water. Victory Park, at the corner of Main and Ohio, is a small green with a white gazebo, where the town holds its summer market.
At the end of Main Street, the Vermilion Lighthouse stands beside the beach, a red-and-white replica of the town's original 1877 iron tower. That tower came down in 1929, and it turned up years later on Lake Ontario, rebuilt as the East Charity Shoal Light. The current replica went up in 1991. At Brummer's Homemade Chocolates on Main Street, the sweets still follow the old recipes, and the Arts Guild of Vermilion shows local work nearby. Every fall the Woollybear Festival fills the downtown for one of the biggest one-day parades in Ohio.
Oswego, New York, Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is more heavily urbanized on the Canadian side, with relatively few towns and small cities along the New York shore. Most of them are small communities with historic ties to the lake. Oswego sits on the Oswego River at the south shore. Its maritime past shows in the buildings along West First Street. Wide sidewalks run past 19th-century brick storefronts from the area's maritime heyday. Locally owned and family businesses dominate, and the small city keeps the feel of a classic small town.
West First St. and the downtown corridor connect to the river by the Oswego River Walk & Linear Park. This paved pedestrian pathway runs alongside the river, past many downtown businesses. The Buckhout-Jones Building, at West First and Bridge Streets, went up between 1852 and 1854. The three-story building stands at the main downtown intersection. Built by abolitionists, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. Its early barbershops were run by formerly enslaved men. The Canal Commons, a mid-19th-century brick building, went up to serve merchants on the Oswego Canal. Tall windows and detailed masonry mark its facade, and local businesses use it today.
Kincardine, Ontario, Lake Huron
Known as Ontario's Scottish Gem, Kincardine shows its heritage along Queen Street, the main commercial corridor a half-block from Lake Huron. A half-block from the shore, preserved 19th-century buildings stand along the street, home to locally owned shops and cafes. Its sidewalks pass Victorian-era brick storefronts, all within sight of the water. On Queen St., Queen's Lookout is a raised green space with wide views over the Penetangore River and Lake Huron.
Public art and murals along the street show the region's maritime and pioneer history. Victoria Park, the downtown green space, is where community events and the parade line up. The town's Scottish heritage is on full display with the Saturday Night Pipe Band Parades. Since 1948, the Kincardine Scottish Pipe Band has marched down Queen Street from Victoria Park every Saturday evening in summer, with locals and visitors following behind. At the harbor stands the Kincardine Lighthouse, where the Phantom Piper, a lone piper, pipes down the sun from the tower on summer evenings.
Bayfield, Wisconsin, Lake Superior
Bayfield is known as the gateway to the Apostle Islands, a 22-island archipelago in Lake Superior. Rittenhouse Avenue, the main commercial street, slopes down toward the shore with the lake in view the whole way. The compact historic district runs along Rittenhouse Ave., its preserved 19th-century buildings showing false-front Italianate facades drawn from Italian Renaissance design. The 1886 Frank Stark Building is the clearest example, tall and heavily detailed on the street.
Rittenhouse Ave. and the walkable historic downtown are notable for their lack of chain stores and franchises, with an emphasis on the local. The town's slow pace shows in one detail: Bayfield has no traffic lights. On Rittenhouse Ave. stands the Old Rittenhouse Inn, a Queen Anne Victorian mansion completed in 1890. Exhibits at the Bayfield Maritime Museum, just off Rittenhouse on South 1st St., cover the region's commercial fishing and shipping history. Each October, the Bayfield Apple Festival draws around 50,000 visitors for local orchard fare, food, and music, ending with a Sunday parade down Rittenhouse Avenue.
Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario, Lake Ontario
The Old Town Heritage District of Niagara-on-the-Lake spans 25 city blocks and centers on Queen Street. European settlement of the town goes back to the 18th century. American forces burned it to the ground in 1813 during the War of 1812. It was rebuilt between 1815 and 1859 in a Regency and British Classical style, on a late-18th-century grid. Queen Street is known for its preserved heritage buildings, horse-drawn carriages, and floral displays that the town maintains through the warm months. In summer, rose trees bloom along the sidewalks.
Queen St. is a couple of blocks from the shores of Lake Ontario and the northern mouth of the Niagara River. At the center of Queen St. stands the Cenotaph, a clock tower built in 1922 as a memorial to those lost in the First World War. On the corner of Queen and King St., the Prince of Wales Hotel is a Victorian luxury hotel built in 1864 and known for its traditional afternoon high tea. Queen St. continues south along the Niagara River and becomes Queen's Parade. The Shaw Festival Theatre, on Queen's Parade close to Queen St., is the main venue for the Shaw Festival, the second-largest repertory theatre company in North America. Its schedule runs April through December each year.
Where the Great Lakes Meet Main Street
These eight main streets share a common origin. Each one grew up beside a working waterfront, an ore dock, a fishing harbor, or a canal, and the commercial street that came with it. The brick storefronts, civic halls, and lakefront parks are still in daily use, and the water is never more than a few blocks away.
