Quick Facts

NPS Description

112 West Michigan, ca. 1930. 

Contributing 

Description

112 West Michigan now encompasses two formerly separate buildings, 112 and 114 West Michigan. The buildings are listed as separate entries as 112 remains a contributing building while 114 is non-contributing. 

The one-story building at 112 West Michigan is constructed of rusticated concrete block with a smooth concrete block addition to the north and a flat roof. The south elevation (main façade) is faced with brick with raised brick piers to either side. The storefront has been faced with clapboard siding and has a wood shake pent roof overhead. The storefront has three fixed pane windows but no door. The east elevation is constructed of rusticated concrete block and the roof parapets step back gradually to the north. There are four window openings infilled with wood and a steel door. The west elevation is not visible due to the adjoining building at 114 West Michigan. The one-story addition is constructed of smooth concrete block. It has a door on the east side. 

History 

The site of 112 West Michigan was for a very long time the home of a blacksmith shop, being noted on the Sanborn maps as such from 1884 to 1924. The December 16, 1898, edition of the Isabella County Enterprise noted that “Lew Maxwell has put up a large sign on west Michigan street calling attention to the fact that he is engaged in blacksmithing again.” C. Louis Maxwell is listed at 112 West Michigan in the 1925-26 and 1928-29 city directories. A historic image in William Cron’s Mount Pleasant: 1854 to 1954 shows the Maxwell Blacksmith shop and identifies it as being on Washington Street. However, the same image shows B. R. Gillett’s Upholstery Shop at 114 West Michigan next door; this is confirmed by a listing for the Gillett Trim Shop at 114 in the city directories from 1924 to 1934, as well as the 1931 Sanborn map listing 114 as “auto repair and upholstering” suggesting that the image has been misidentified. The original blacksmith shop was a wood-framed, gable-roofed and clapboard-sided building with a false-front. This building appears to have been replaced around 1930 by the present concrete block building, as shown in the Sanborn maps, and likely coincided with the closing of the blacksmith shop and its replacement by Harford’s Tire, Battery and Electrical. By 1936 it had become a restaurant. From 1936 to 1970, it was Mike’s Café, sometimes listed alternately as Mike’s Tavern or with the addition of the M&M Bar. In the 1970s it went through a number of name changes, before settling on “Tom’s Foolery” in 1978. In 1991 it became Rubble’s, which remains the current business. 

Integrity Analysis 

112 West Michigan retains much of its 1930s fabric, including the rusticated concrete block walls and the brick of the upper portion of the south façade. It has been somewhat compromised by the alteration of the storefront, but in general remains representative of its period of construction. 

Sources 

Isabella County Enterprise, December 16, 1898; 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.