79. Saugatuck Fruit Exchange / Coghlin Park

Location: 60 Griffith Street end at the river, Saugatuck
Date: 1917

In 1917, with fruit cultivation a major economic engine, the local Cooperative Fruit Association purchased a former skating rink to be a hub for sorting, grading and packing locally-grown fruit. The Saugatuck Fruit Exchange had wagon and truck bays, fruit sorting equipment, storage areas, shipping docks, and a spur connecting to the Interurban electric railroad. Men and women working at the Fruit Exchange during the 1930s were paid 15 and 10 cents per hour, respectively. The building later became part of the Lloyd J. Harriss Pie factory. Soon after the pie factory closed in 1998 structure was demolished, some claim suspiciously, to make way for a retail development that never materialized. Local residents Fritz and Thelma Coghlin donated $1.2 million in 2001 to acquire the land for a waterside park, now known as Coghlin Park.