Maybee marking 150th anniversary with two-day celebration Sept. 23-24
MAYBEE – In 1873, Abram Maybee and Joseph Klotz started the village of Maybee when they registered their land along the newly built Canada Southern Railway in a corner of Exeter Township.
This weekend, the village is celebrating its sesquicentennial with a two-day celebration. Festivities will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Most activities will take place in downtown Maybee and most are free.
Saturday and Sunday
Offered both days will be helicopter rides, bounce houses, face painting, food trucks, craft vendors, village museum (above the Village Hall), photo scavenger hunt with prizes and sesquicentennial item sales. Sold will be T-shirts, shot glasses and ornaments. Commemorative bricks for the village hall courtyard also will be sold.
Vendors will offer many items.
“Vendors will feature a variety of wares, from pumpkins and mums to homemade candles and vintage glass yard ornaments. Food trucks will offer just about everything for which food trucks are known: Elephant ears, shaved ice, barbeque, Mexican. Maybee restaurants will also be open," event organizers said.
Helicopter rides will be offered on Raisin Street's ball diamond. Rides are $40 for six minutes.
Saturday
A parade will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday and will travel on Joseph, Blue Bush, Main, Mill and Fredericks roads. Participants should meet in the St. Joseph Church parking lot at 9 a.m.
Fourteen entries have signed up for the parade. Monroe County Sheriff Troy Goodnough, who grew up in the village, will lead the mounted sheriff patrol. Grand marshals Louis and Donna Boes will be followed by a “Legacy Trolley” with at least 20 lifelong Maybee residents. The parade also will include the dancing witches from Lake Eerie Hexenbrut, farm machinery and the recently crowned Maybee Sesquicentennial princess, junior princess and queen.
Children can enter a bike decorating contest. Participants should bring their bikes to St. Joseph Catholic Church’s parking lot, Joseph and Frederick streets, at 9 a.m.
Other Saturday events include a bake sale, petting zoo and a book sale from the Monroe County Library System's Maybee Branch.
Local entertainment also will be offered. The jazz combo Just Us will perform from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Lake Eerie Hexenbrut Witches will dance from 1:30 to 2:15 p.m.
The rock band Pizz will perform from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. at the stage at the intersection of Blue Bush and Raisin streets (roads will be closed).
Uncle Laylee will perform from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Little Brown Jug parking lot.
Maybee native and rock guitarist Hunter Brucks and his band will play from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. and from 9 to 10 p.m. in the restaurant parking lot. The guest artist will be Bridgette Grace.
Sunday
An antique farm machinery show is planned Sunday.
Dancers from Peg Harris will perform at 11 a.m. Haja dancers will take the stage from 1 to 2 p.m. The Floral City Harmonizers will perform from 3 to 3 p.m. Old-fashioned children's games will be played next to the post office.
Maybee Sesquicentennial organizers have been working on this weekend's celebration and other anniversary events for more than a year.
“This has been a lot of work for the five to six active members of our committee,” Sandra Lentner, one of the organizers, said. “We’re also compiling an overview of the 50 years since our 1973 centennial to update the very comprehensive centennial book published then.”
In 1873, Abram Maybee and Joseph Klotz officially registered their land along the railroad in a corner of Exeter Township. They surveyed, platted and sold lots and built many of the first houses and businesses. A post office also was established in 1873.
"The railway was the lifeline for early Maybee, shipping lumber, charcoal and railroad ties all over the country. By the 1900s – after much of the land had been cleared for agriculture – cattle, cheese, milk, tomatoes, grain, tile and brick were shipped from the Maybee depot. The last passenger train stopped in the village on April 11, 1932," Maybee Sesquicentennial organizers said.
In the early days, Maybee had its own two-room school. The buildings housed first through fourth grades and fifth through eighth grades. High school students could go to Monroe, Dundee, Airport, Milan or a parochial school but had to provide their own transportation. At the close of the 1966-67 school year, Maybee Public became part of the Monroe Public Schools district. The old schoolhouse was converted into apartments and remain apartments today.
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Most of the downtown buildings pre-date 1900. The buildings of Country Auto Sales, Little Brown Jug, Next Door Lounge, Lane’s Pizza and JJ Construction and many homes are at least 120 years old.
Since 1900, Maybee has offered baseball and softball programs. The Monroe County Library System opened a branch in Maybee in 1938. The former Maybee Hotel had 20 rooms, a tavern and a dance hall on the top floor.
In 1973, Maybee celebrated its centennial all summer long. Proceeds created the Maybee Community Park with ballfields, tennis courts, basketball hoop, two pavilions, playground equipment and picnic areas. The centennial celebration spun off into Downtown Maybee Day, which has been celebrated for more than 50 years.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Maybee marking 150th anniversary with two-day celebration
