Polka Parlor 1933, 
Joseph Prusa and his son Rudy.

The Union Pier Lumber Company was located on the northeast corner by the stop light.  It was built on the on the corner that had housed the Pere Marquette Railroad Depot.  It was owned by C.J. Flynn and later sold to the Hellenga family. (It was destroyed by fire in the 70’s.)  The Pere Marquette Railroad and the South Shore Railroad brought hordes of vacationers to Union Pier.  On Friday nights the South Shore bus company would dispatch two buses strictly for Union Pier from the Michigan City train depot.

The gas station that John Dillinger frequented with guns strapped under the car hood. Now, Miller's Country House.

The William Covert family was well known for their family of hairdressers.  One son Charles and five daughters, Kathy, Cecil, Babe, Helen, and Blanche all chose the profession and all were well known in the area.

The late 40’s saw a decline of vacationers coming to the area.  Some cottages were practically abandoned.  When an elderly man riding the bus was asked “What happened?”  His answer was, “The suburbs.  We have moved out of the high-rise apartments and now have homes with an acre of ground.”  Union Pier kind of died.  You could walk on the beaches in the 60’s and wouldn’t see a person.  The Lithuanian people from Chicago found Union Pier and they started buying cottages.  They felt like they had found a piece of their homeland.  They mentioned how the sand of the beaches, the temperature of the water and the trees dotting the shoreline reminded them of their homes in Europe.  The 60’s brought many ethnic families from Chicago.