Peter Glaab, Huron Township’s Downriver Difference Maker
Peter J. Glaab, Jr. spent his formative years working on the family’s dairy farm, Romulus Farms Dairy. It was there that he learned the productive results of getting your hands dirty. Pete was no stranger to doing the heavy lifting so when he and his new wife Judy purchased their first house in New Boston back in 1957, the young couple jumped into improving their new home.
Like much of the surrounding area in the late 1950’s, Huron Township was still a rural slice of Wayne County where family farms and family businesses defined the region. That’s where Pete and Judy started a family and where he eventually started his own business after a few years of commuting to the Alexander Hamilton Insurance office in Wyandotte. Having grown up in a small town, Pete wanted to live and work in a community where he could make a difference. He bought an empty building in town to house his new office and set about improving that space much like he and Judy had done with their home. That office was something of a starting point for Pete as the first of 17 other local buildings that he would purchase and rehab in Huron Township. Peter had a clear vision his community had much to offer both himself and his family.
Peter and Judy were avid travelers as a young couple and as their family grew, their traveling plans included five kids in tow. The family experienced trips throughout Michigan, around the country and internationally. As someone who revered small town life, one thing that came to inspire Peter was the charm of several small towns they visited. New Boston had seen better days in its own life cycle, disrepair and blight becoming a fixture of his own small town. Whereas, the quaint places visited on his travels were tidy, well-maintained and inviting. Pete was struck by the contrast and it inspired him to make a difference.
In its past, Huron Township and New Boston were among a number of small towns along the Huron and Rouge Rivers that Henry Ford adopted as part of his “Village Industries” project. Ford, like Peter Glaab, was a small-town guy with a passion to preserve local agriculture and help to preserve the small towns that existed along Michigan’s waterways. It was Ford’s interest in New Boston and the Downriver region in 1919 that led to Huron River Drive becoming one of the very first roads to be paved in Michigan. However, by the late 1950’s, the city was beginning to decline. Pete, Judy, and their friends would often lament the fact that even though their hometown had much to offer, the town itself was in need of some basic TLC. This lamentation and the obvious need for residents to step up led to Pete and other local collaborators beginning a “fight the blight” mission to spruce up the community.
For years, locals began referring to Pete as “Mr. Clean” for his penchant to enlist his family and friends in cleaning up areas in downtown New Boston and along the Huron River. But in order to succeed Pete realized that what started as a few devotees to clean things up needed to grow into something even more impactful. He needed to instill more local pride in the city and
engage more residents into taking an active role. It started as an effort to create common ground with a summer concert series and eventually grew into a challenge to emulate neighboring community festivals. Eventually, in 1979, the New Boston Applefest became a reality, attracting over 10,000 visitors in its first year. That event became a defining catalyst to other improvements in the area. Pete shares that the success would never have happened if locals (particularly his wife Judy) weren’t fully onboard with the notion of reshaping New Boston into a wonderful place to live
“There were times when the tasks seemed almost insurmountable but with every small step came progress that others are now able to see and enjoy.”
Peter Glaab
Peter Glaab’s work to revive Huron Township and New Boston picked up where Henry Ford left off in the late 1930’s. New Boston is a charming community and a great place to live, for which a lot of credit is owed to Peter. He has spent six decades shaping his hometown into something that others today should be inspired by. As Pete has said, “there were times when the tasks seemed almost insurmountable but with every small step came progress that others are now able to see and enjoy.”
Be inspired by the progress in New Boston and Huron Township. Take the small steps in your own community. They can create big changes.
