Historic hamlet is 'hometown' to long-time residents
Lake Orion Eccentric
Thursday, January 22, 2004
When Niles Olson married Eleanor Gingell 43 years ago, Olson wasn't just marrying into
a family but a village.
Eleanor lived in Gingellville, an unincorporated settlement around Baldwin Road
between Judah and Maybee roads. Her father, Francis Gingell, and uncle, Harold Gingell,
named the settlement in the 1920s.
Niles and Eleanor Olson remain residents of Gingellville, sharing a home on Baldwin
Road with another Gingell: Laura, the 95-year-old widow of Francis Gingell.
"We would never live anywhere else but the 'hometown,'" said Eleanor Olson, whose
great-great grandfather, James Gingell, was the first Gingell to come to the area. The
English immigrant settled in 1846 on a farm that is now Eagle Valley Land Fill.
The 'hometown,' as Olson calls her beloved Gingellville, is in jeopardy of losing its
character and heritage, and a group of concerned residents is mobilizing to protect it.
A Gingellville Study Committee has been formed, led by Orion Township planning
commissioners Jon Steimel and Rob Pote and resident Sue Dorris.
Orion Township governs Gingellville since it never established its own form of
government.
Gingellville traffic has increased considerably over the decades because of growth to the
north and south, especially the Great Lakes Crossing mall.
Eleanor Olson can't possibly sit on Baldwin Road and count the cars as she did as a child.
Like Olson, 29-year resident Sherry Olsway also loves Gingellville, but she said a sense
of community was lost years ago when the Gingellville Community Center moved from
Maybee and Baldwin to Waldon south of Joslyn in Orion Township.
Olsway was having lunch Monday at the Catalina Lounge, a longtime watering hole in
Gingellville. Sitting down at the bar were Mike Kachenko, a former Gingellville resident
now living in Clio, and his friend, Ron Kinunen, from Westland.
"I didn't know it was Gingellville until he told me," Kinunen said.
Can the identity of this community's founders be regained?
Brothers Francis and Harold Gingell, both farmers and businessmen, built a gas station
and hardware store at 4016 Baldwin in the 1920s.
Gingellmont was the first name they gave the area. Gingellville sounded better, and they
registered the name with the state.
"They just named it and everyone went along with it," remembers Eleanor Olson.
Francis and Harold were well-known in local politics, with Harold gaining a Board of
Trustees position in Orion Township for 24 years.
"My dad they'd always call 'Mr. Democrat.' He would always work behind the scenes,"
Eleanor Olson said. "He would never believe I'm a Republican."
Gingellville, in her parents' prime, was a simpler time, indeed.
"On (her mom and dad's) honeymoon, they picked potato bugs off potato fields," Eleanor
Olson remembers her mother telling her.
The hardware store and gas station is now the Sunoco Gas Station, owned the last 31
years by Chuck Antaya, who honors the past with historic Gingellville pictures on his
walls.
Antaya said traffic was heavy even on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
"Years ago it would have been pretty quiet because of the holiday," said Antaya. "But
because of the mall, it was as busy as any normal (work) day."
Even if Gingellville loses its sense of community and charm, Eleanor Olson can at least
expect the Gingell name to continue: Nephews Daryl and Michael Gingell have four sons
between them.