On December 7, 1923, the Recorder reported, “An attractive banner containing the slogan “Give a Thought to Albion Join the Chamber of Commerce” was placed across Superior St. this morning in front of the Chamber of Commerce campaign headquarters.” The membership campaign was highly organized, and in the next few weeks, the Chamber was able to recruit 531 members, who signed up for three years. Daniel McAuliffe was campaign chairman, with Brockway Dickie as the “colonel” in charge of organizing the campaign teams. At the first meeting of the Board of Directors of the new Chamber, the following officers were elected: Dr. Samuel Dickie, president; George Bullen, vice-president; and Alvin Dice, treasurer.
In May, 1924, the Chamber came out with a special edition of the Albion Evening Recorder, where it featured advertisements and articles about the history of each of its business members. The front cover pictured many of its members on the steps of the Methodist Church on E. Erie St., with some of them holding the promotional membership drive theme “bumper stickers” as we would call them today.
In this issue, the Chamber stated its purpose: “The Albion Chamber of Commerce was organized to make Albion a better place in which to live and do business. It will also undertake projects that will promote the educational, industrial, and commercial interests of Albion that will assist in making a bigger and better Albion.” Later the article stated, “What more could a city of this size offer? There is only one thing that can stop the growth of Albion. That is the lack of civic pride by the people of Albion. The support that was given the Chamber of Commerce recently is very evident that citizens of Albion believe in the possibilities of Albion and are ready to support all projects that are for the advancement for Albion.”
Three years later when memberships expired, the Chamber embarked on its second membership drive. The slogan in the 1926 campaign was “Carry-on For Albion.” Because of their strength in membership, the Albion Chamber of Commerce touted about 100 projects they had accomplished during the three-year period 1923-26. The most prominent of these was the construction and opening of a new community hotel, the Parker Inn, in 1926.
As part of their 1926 membership campaign, the Chamber in its promotional literature stated that during the past three years they had: Secured an aviation field establishing Albion as an airport city; Cleaned the Kalamazoo River; Conducted an exchange of shrubs among local citizens; Advised Michigan Central officials regarding the keeping of the speed of trains to 20 miles an hour when going through the city; Instigated a plan whereby one garage remained open each Sunday; Conducted a fire inspection of Albion’s buildings by 30 state insurance inspectors; Erected 200 arrow signs routing tourists into Albion; Made possible the continuation of N. Ionia St. north of North St; Secured the Michigan Artificial Ice Company here; Made possible an additional entrance to Victory Park; Conducted an Information Bureau for auto tourists and gave information to over 4,500 individuals; and more accomplishments.
From our Historical Notebook this week we present a close-up photo of the first Chamber slogan, “Give a Thought to Albion” used in that very first December, 1923 membership campaign. These look like bumper stickers and were held by the men in the 1924 group photo. Have you given a thought to Albion lately? Is your business a member of our local Chamber of Commerce?
