Quick Facts

NPS Description

110 South Washington, Sweeney Seed Company, ca. early 1920s 

Contributing 

Description

The Sweeney Seed Company consists of three attached buildings. The easternmost building is a two-story rectangular red brick building. The east elevation (facing Washington Street) is painted yellow on top and has been covered with grooved metal sheets with rectangular inset windows on the first floor. The three second floor window openings are original but have replacement double-hung vinyl window sash. There are two older light fixtures hanging on the second floor wall. The south elevation has three double-hung vinyl replacement windows on the second floor and a steel entry door at the west end. The north elevation is brick painted white; there is ghosting of old Sweeney Seed Company signage on the east part of the wall. There is one paired set of double-hung vinyl replacement windows on the second floor at the west end. 

The middle building is a one-story brick building. There are two infilled windows and an infilled door on the south side; the north side has a shed-roofed addition with metal siding and a shed-roofed overhang in the ell of the building. There is a metal replacement door and rectangular windows on the north wall under the overhang. 

The westernmost building is a concrete block structure built in two sections. The older portion of the building, at the south side, is two stories, rectangular in shape and has rusticated concrete block quoining at the corners. It has double-hung, six-over-six wood windows with brick sills on the north and west elevations as well as a replacement double-hung vinyl window on the second floor of the east elevation. The north half is newer concrete block with no quoining and is only one story high. It has a door opening on the west elevation and two four-paned steel windows with interior storms on the north elevation. Another Sweeney Seed Company sign is painted on the west elevation. Sheet-metal sided grain elevators rise from the roofs of both sections of the building. 

History 

As Mt. Pleasant expanded, the area around the 200 West Broadway block became something of a transitional zone, both in topography and in use. The 1884 Sanborn map notes that a bluff edge ran through this block and then to the southwest, which may explain why the north/south alley in the center of the block was not extended to Broadway until the early 1900s. The areas to the north and west of the block were primarily industrial, and in the late 1880s and 1890s, there were a few scattered residential dwellings on the block. One of those dwellings was located on the north half of the block that would eventually hold the Sweeney Seed Company; no historic photographs are available but Sanborn maps show a one story square dwelling with a two story section in the middle and one-story porches at the east and west ends. Later maps show a number of ancillary structures at the south and west sides of the lot. The present Seed Company building appeared in the 1924 Sanborn map, adjacent to the original dwelling on the south side of the lot. The dwelling remained in place until sometime between 1931 and 1950, when it was removed. The Seed Company building appears on the Sanborn maps in today’s configuration, with the exception of the additions on the north side of the center and west building. The easternmost building served as the storefront while the two buildings to the rear were the feed/seed warehouse. The 1950 map notes there were paints in the store building. 

Integrity Analysis 

The Sweeney Seed Company appears to have undergone only minor alterations since its original 1920s construction. The most signifcant changes are the covering of the original storefront (likely a center entry wood and glass given its era of construction), some window replacement, and the additions on the north sides of the center and western sections. Only one historic photograph was found, and that image, from the 1950s, shows a corner of the building but no specific details can be determined beyond its general configuration. 

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. 

11 Isabella County Enterprise, December 14, 1923, p. 8.