Quick Facts

This is actually 3 differant buildings built between 1876 to 1909

NPS Description

100-102 East Broadway Street. Exchange State Savings Bank, ca. 1909; Doughty Block, 1876; and Carr and Granger Block, 1877. 

Non-contributing (built within the period of significance but subsequent alterations have sufficiently impacted integrity to render it non-contributing) 

Description

Two-story brick retail/mixed use building at the corner of East Broadway Street and South Main Street. The upper façade is a projecting yellow aluminum screening framed by black aluminum strips at the top and bottom and channeled black aluminum strips separating each bay. The three easternmost bays of the second floor have recessed replacement double-hung windows. The first floor is faced with granite panels with a darker granite water table. The storefront has fixed aluminum windows with an aluminum and glass entry door and surround. 

The west (side) upper elevation is faced with projecting yellow aluminum screening framed by black aluminum strips at the top and bottom with channeled black aluminum strips separating each bay. The lower elevation is faced with granite panels with a darker granite water table. There is one double-hung aluminum replacement window on the second floor. A recessed side entry at the south end of the elevation leads to the second floor apartments and an aluminum and glass recessed door with surround leads to the first floor. A night depository box is between the second floor entry and the first floor entry. 

The south (rear) elevation is common red brick with second floor arched brick windows and stone sills paneled over and first floor arched brick windows bricked in. Some of the window openings have replacement double-hung aluminum windows. Stone quoins are visible at the southwest corner. The west (side) elevation is not visible due to adjoining buildings. 

History 

The 1970s façade on this building covers three separate buildings. Following the downtown fire of 1875, the Doughty brothers built a seven bay, two-story brick Italianate store on the southeast corner of Main and Broadway. To the east of that, Carr and Granger built a two and a half story brick Italianate store in 1877. In 1909, the west four bays of the Doughty building were demolished and a two-story stone bank building constructed. 

The Doughty store’s address was originally 129/130, later 100-104, East Broadway. In 1877, it housed Doughty’s hardware store in the west half and a dry goods store in the east half. In 1883, Doughty moved his hardware business to 110 East Broadway and leased, then in 1895 sold, the west half to Marsh and Lewis. The building also housed the offices of the Enterprise newspaper in the 1870s, while the second floor, according to Sanborn maps, housed variously offices, a carpet store, and a photo studio. 

In 1908/9, Marsh and Lewis sold the building to the Exchange State Savings Bank. They demolished the west four bays of the building, leaving the east half intact, and constructed a two-story stone Neo-classical style bank building. The Exchange State Savings Bank had been established as a private bank in 1881 and incorporated as a state bank in 1894; they had previously been located on the north side of Broadway and then at 110 South Main Street. The Exchange State Savings Bank remained in business at this location until 1971. The east half of the old Doughty/Marsh and Lewis building remained a store into the 1950s, most notably Bickert’s Ladies Apparel from approximately 1939 to the mid to late 1950s. The second floor spaces continued use as office space for doctors, attorneys, and other professionals. A postcard dated 1937 shows that the façade had been remodeled with the cornice removed, new brick installed, and a different window configuration by this time. 

The Carr and Granger block was originally 131, later 106/108, East Broadway. Carr and Granger, who founded a grocery and drug store in 1871, had also been located on the north side of Broadway until the 1875 fire. They temporarily rebuilt a two-story wooden building on the same location until their brick building was completed on the south side of Broadway in 1877. This building had a meeting hall on the second story which served as an entertainment venue until the Opera House was later built in the next block. This building remained a drug store under a variety of names (Carr and Granger, Central Drug Store, Rexall Drug Store, City Drug Store) until the mid-1940s. Sanborn maps appear to show this building connected to the grocery store at 749/111 S. Main until about 1910. Other long term tenants in the building included Thompson and Son Jewelry Store (later Thompson’s Jewelers and Optometrists and Foley-Thompson’s) from the 1930s to 1971, and the Crapo Realty/Insurance Agency, 1945 to 1971. The building façade was remodeled sometime between 1937, when a postcard image shows it still in place, and 1952, when another photo shows it altered, including the removal of the decorative cornice, window hoods, and other trim and the remodeling of the windows. 

Integrity Analysis 

Around 1971-72, the bank at 100-102 East Broadway changed from the Exchange State Savings Bank to the American Security Bank. At the same time, the 106/108 East Broadway (Carr and Granger Block) address disappeared from the city directories. This suggests that the three buildings were combined and the present granite/aluminum façade installed around this time, likely tied to the change in bank name/ownership. City building permits confirm that in 1972 there was a change in occupancy from a jewelry store to a bank. The bank went through several names, including the New Century Bank, First of America, and National City Bank. It currently houses the Isabella Community Credit Union. There has been extensive remodeling of the interior over the years. 

Sources 

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps (Mt. Pleasant: 1884, 1890, 1895, 1900, 1910, 1924, 1931, 1950); Mt. Pleasant City Directories, 1925-1998; Past and Present of Isabella County, 1911; City of Mt. Pleasant Building Permits; historic photographs.