23. West Shore Ferry

The West Shore Ferry motor launch “Isabel” waiting for a semaphore board to signal there are customers to pick up on the other side of Kalamazoo Lake. George B. Tisdale built the “Isabel” — named for his daughter — from a Bay City company’s pre-cut kit in 1927.

George B. Tisdale, a retired Great Lakes ship captain, ran a boat livery and a motorboat ferry called the West Shore Ferry. Two gas-powered motor launches, named West Shore and Isabel, ferried summer Lakeshore Drive residents back and forth across Lake Kalamazoo, from the foot of Campbell Road to the foot of Butler Street. The launches had hard canopy tops and side curtains for rainy weather. In the 1940s, customers used a semaphore signal board to summon the launch from the opposite shore.

In the 1950, the livery site became West Shore Marina. Today, it is the Singapore Court development.