The Brighton community owes a debt of gratitude to Marieanna Bair for her leadership and ex-hausting research of old community and family documents over the past 36 years. This intensive work has led to numerous written articles detailing the history of people, businesses, farms and churches of the Brighton Area.
At the May Brighton Area Historical Society board meeting, Marieanna submitted her resigna-tion letter. She felt it was time to step back from the Board of Directors, a position she has held since 1984. These 36 years of being the main history detective for the society included 23 years as president and 13 years as vice-president.
Marieanna has been a voice for successful preservation of several downtown historical build-ings. The two-story brick Old Town Hall built in 1879 as the fire hall and city hall has been repur-posed into a history and art museum. The three-story brick Western House Hotel (aka Pink Ho-tel) built in 1873 has been repurposed into the beautiful Brewery Becker.
She has reassembled extensive old Brighton family records that she gathered from distant past clippings of Brighton Argus newspapers. Marieanna started the Historical Resource Survey which lists the many businesses found at specific addresses in the business districts of Main Street and Grand River Avenue.
The society’s monthly news, Trail Tales, has been published every month since 1984 and each month consists of a newly researched article located on page four. Many of these classic articles by Marieanna were recently bound into a book called Page Four.
Marieanna is a beloved friend of mine. These feelings are shared by all who know her. She is a great example of generosity. She has given so much time to preserve and share the history of Brighton. Marieanna is a proud alumna of the class of 1944 of Brighton High School.

Jim Vichich — 810.250.7276
BAHS President
jvichich@comcast.net