When Kearsley Street was created in the early 1830s, Flint was more idea than reality.  Michigan was a territory.  Genesee County did not exist.  Flint was little more than a river crossing along the Saginaw Trail.

Lured by cheap and plentiful land, the area grew throughout the 1800s as settlers emigrated to the area.  As the community grew and prospered, so did Kearsley Street. 

During the closing decades of the nineteenth century, Flint began the move to industrialization.  West Kearsley Street transformed from milling lumber to manufacturing wagons and carriages; East Kearsley Street

became one of the community’s premier residential neighborhoods

populated by Flint’s wealthiest and influential families.

Kearsley Street is the story of the people and the community it continues to shape.