Today, we'll be celebrating another orchard: the East View Farm and Orchards in Washington, one that is sadly no longer with us.
This picture shows up in The Romeo Peach Festival Images of America book by David McLaughlin. Taken on August 31, 1931, it depicts the very first Peach Queen Virginia Allor with a few members of her court sitting in a customized 1931 Buick Phaeton at East View Farm and Orchards. Maids of Honor Helen Fortin (Miss Flint) and Della Reckinger (the very first Miss Romeo) are most likely present since they often accompanied the queen to her engagements. More photos shot at this location in 1931 can be viewed in the Melvin E. and Joan D. Bleich Collection
The women were there to take a tour of the orchard. According to McLaughlin, the touring cars "would make the rounds of the local orchards and sample the fresh produce."
This makes complete sense because the main reason why the Peach Festival got started was to bring attention to the orchards during the Great Depression.
As for East View itself, it was located on the southwest corner of 30 Mile and Van Dyke Roads. The land was originally part of the Sikes family farm until 1917 when Charles B. Sikes sold it to a man named Edward T. Strong. Strong was the president of the Buick Motor Company in Flint. This is why a Buick Phaeton is in the picture because he had provided it. The very first Peach Festival program states that he established East View in 1926 with 10 acres and added 40 more by 1931.
Strong would run the orchard until 1945 when he sold the land to Lawrence Rinke, who used it as part of his potato farm. That farm encompassed the south side of 30 Mile Road, including where the Kroger currently stands.
The land that once was East View is now Eastview Estates, a gas station, a trail of office buildings on Van Dyke Road. Even though it's no longer with us, we can still honor it with the photos like this one taken in prepartion to the very first Romeo Peach Festival.
To learn more about the East View Farm and Orchards, you can contact the Romeo Community Archives at rca@romemodistrictlibrary.org or call (586) 690-4890.
Source: The Romeo Peach Festival Images of America by David McLaughlin, p.15; Romeo Goodfellows Edition, 2023, p.3; The Romeo Observer, October 20, 1955, p.II-4; and the Romeo Peach Festival Collection