About Us: Our own history timeline
“It’s just absolutely amazing. I had no clue that so many people would feel the same way. I’ve been having the time of my life… You can spend hours on there and not see everything… I think this is the first time that we as Downriver have had this positive identity together. It’s hometown pride.” — M.K. Bashlor
The Facebook group that began it all was Downriver Things That Are Not There Anymore, the brainstorm of Gibraltar native M.K. Bashlor. It was launched in July, 2011 in the hopes of finding mutual friends who wanted to share and reflect on memories of the suburban area known as “Downriver” south of Detroit, Michigan.
Starting with a simple question about Southgate Shopping Center, the main conversation turned into an ardent reflection series on the old E.J. Korvette department store, widely regarded as the first massive discount retailer in local history. Simply put, “where were you” became “where was it,” photos from personal collections as well as those not originally circulating on the internet began pouring in representing each of the eighteen cities in the area. Within a few weeks, “Downriver Things” became viral, going over the 12,000 member mark within its first ten days.
The new site was the focus of a News-Herald Entertainment article just in time for the newly-created administrative staff’s first get-together in Trenton’s Elizabeth Park in August, 2011 (with future web curator Kevin Harrison shown at far left).
Further get-togethers at the annual “Cruisin’ Downriver” car cruise cemented the focus of the group as one which also acknowledged current businesses, especially local start-ups. A group of community boosters, developed by Ms. Bashlor, was formed in August 2012.
As the astounding popularity of the Facebook site continued, it was quickly realized that not only would Facebook site limitations begin deleting photos at inopportune times, photos could also be removed at-will by anyone.
After one particularly painful experience, then-senior administrator Kevin Harrison’s original decision was to back up the photos with a simple USB flash drive: “I didn’t really trust what was out there as far as (computer) file retrieval services went,” he says.
The idea was quickly in need of rethinking, as photo caption information could not be copied with the images. Harrison (shown at right in 2013 about the time he began his web presence) then decided on the Flickr photo sharing service, again to be used only as an unseen backup. A look at the stats of the new account weeks later changed some minds: over 8,000 individual views in that short span led to the eventual library which has over 4,400 photos and 11 million views.
The website idea was a total afterthought. Harrison had briefly toyed with the idea of a discussion board, whose primary benefit was to properly catalog conversations in alphabetical subject order. This did not generate interest, as membership guidelines proved too tedious. Then, drawing inspiration from a friend’s site on Tripod, “Downriver Locations Thru The Years,” Harrison began this site on the Weebly platform in January 2013 under the domain downriverthings.com.
After some consideration, it was decided in November, 2016 that this website would spin off as its own entity, while a new companion Facebook group titled “Downriver History & Facts” was created in an effort to better showcase the history of Downriver through photos and visitor comments.
The downriverthings.com website was taken aback in November, 2018 as both it and the Flickr library were intercepted by hackers unknown. A website name change had been in the works, but had to be force-fed at that time (downriverhistory.weebly.com). Thankfully, the original site name was resurrected in December and, after careful consideration, would remain the same for the short-term. Work was then launched on the site’s fourth redesign in an effort to become brighter and more readable for the viewing public, which averaged nearly 1,200 visitors per week at its early peak. The photo library was also eventually recovered in January, 2019, with work set on eliminating duplicate photos and revising some photo descriptions beginning in 2020.
The website redesign was successfully completed in May 2019, just after the site’s first major Downriver recognition. Harrison was named by the Discover Downriver publication as a Hometown Hero in late 2018 for his continued work on the website, which was then entering its sixth year.
“I’m genuinely humbled… This is the tip of the iceberg we’ve been looking for in order to better promote the site, and hopefully that will steer us toward our vision of the future.”
— Kevin Harrison, web curator upon award reception (January, 2019)
Although updates would not be as numerous, site operations were going well until more complications arose in 2023 with the cutoff of the Weebly service late that year, in addition to the loss of the domain name.
To keep the site on “legacy” status, it was redirected back to downriverhistory.weebly.com, where the bulk of the information remains to this day as a backup.
After three years of inactivity, Harrison decided in February of 2026 to begin the arduous task of a total makeover (the fifth), this time on the WordPress website & blog host, with a new URL to help reflect the site’s non-profit status. The estimated time of completion was initially the fall of 2026, but he admits it may take longer because, “I’m just having too much fun with it now,” while also dedicating the new in-depth research to his late mother Rita, who was a research librarian at the Benson Ford Research Center (Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn) in her later work years.
“Mom did a research project on a specific type of pie safe,” he remembers, “and it took months to find all out the information. This was before internet. So she just worked her (rear) off and came up with something I never knew. I wanted to do the same thing and learn at the same time.”
Currently, Harrison credits his long-time friend Stephen Patterson for providing virtual unlimited internet access, which is making the conversion process that much faster. “On average, I have about eight to ten tabs open at once with various stories,” he says. “Plus I have photos, graphics and such, and a ton of notes on the computer now. I couldn’t have done it anywhere else if it weren’t for him.”
Harrison indicates very little will actually carry over verbatim from the former Weebly site once everything comes together. “A totally different and much more expansive site is in the works now,” he states. “There will be several more subjects, and more extensive research into what we already have.” He also pointed to his method of rewriting published works into his own wording style as a personal bonus:
“”I’m almost 56 myself, and I want to be sure we are as correct as possible. Rewriting into my own style is like re-reading the information into memory again, like tying up loose ends, so my memory stays clear as I get older.”
— Kevin Harrison, commenting on his writing style (2026)
In addition, Harrison utilized a long conversation with ChatGPT in May of 2026 in hopes of devising an official site logo. Four potential renderings were studied (shown at right), but have been placed on hold due to budgetary issues.
The two hour-long conversation did yield one of the best descriptions the website & photo library have had to date, tagging the site as “a trusted regional archive devoted to preserving the memory, identity, and heritage of the Downriver communities for generations to come.”
And what about the person who started the modern Downriver Facebook movement fifteen years earlier? Contacted in mid-2026, M.K. Bashlor offered this retrospective:
“The page really just happened as sort of a fluke. It was fascinating to watch it go viral and I was as caught up in it as anyone else. I will never forget the sense of everybody everywhere seeming to talk about all the same memories I had… I also saw people coming together after 30 to 50 years, saying things like, “I worked with your dad.” I couldn’t believe I was somehow instrumental in bringing all these people together. Every once in a while I think about how fantastic this whole thing was and still is.”
— M.K. Bashlor (2026)
