Quick Facts

NPS Description

113-119 East Broadway Street. Dusenbury Block, 1902. 

Contributing 

Description

Commercial Late Victorian two-and-a-half-story retail/mixed use building with 44 foot frontage on East Broadway Street. The upper story is of red brick with three decorative brick and rusticated stone corbels in the half story. A projecting cornice has modillions, decorative frieze board, and three large decorative brackets with finials that align with the half-story decorative corbels. Brick corbelling under the cornice and quarter circles connecting the decorative piers frame the half story into two bays each containing one double-hung window with brick jack arched hoods and rusticated stone sills. A denticulated string course stretches the length of the façade under the half-story jack arch hoods. The second-story windows are aluminum double-hung replacements with stone surrounds and rusticated stone string course underneath. The storefront is brick covered in EIFS replacement with aluminum and glass display windows and three points of entry. Each entry is capped by a separate projecting fabric awning. 

The north (rear) elevation is of brick covered in vinyl siding with a one-story red brick false wall addition, corbelling at the top, and three decorative piers. The points of entry are located on the north addition each with a projecting fabric awning. The west (side) elevation of the one-story addition is of brick covered in vinyl siding. No other elevation is visible due to adjoining buildings. 

History 

The Dusenbury Block was constructed in 1902. The building site had twice been devastated by fire – first in the 1875 fire, and then in 1901, when the existing wooden building burned. Named after owner Frank Dusenbury, the building was divided into two storefronts. The west side was fitted up for the drug store partnership of E. E. Palmer and James Taggart. Taggart eventually left the partnership, but E. E. Palmer continued the business in this location into the 1940s. Frank Bringard’s Hub Saloon and restaurant occupied the east block, with professional and business offices in the second floor. In 1908, Lewis’ clothing store replaced the Hub Saloon in the east half after Lewis’ previous firm, Marsh and Lewis, dissolved its partnership. Lewis Clothing (later Lewis and Fleming) remained in business until the 1950s. The street addresses in this block shifted regularly, making it difficult to determine who occupied which side, but later occupants of the building include the Boy’s Shop/Boys Town (ca. 1939-53), the Sport and Toy Shop (ca. 1960s), Beatty and White’s Men’s Shop (ca. 1958-1978), Cleveland’s Men’s Shop (ca. 1980s), State Discount (1970 to late 1980s), and Ecclestone (1990s). In the offices upstairs, a notable tenant was J. Walter Leonard, one of the city’s early “oil men” who had discovered a very profitable oil well in Montcalm County in 1935 and later operated a number of very successful refineries in Michigan, including one in Mt. Pleasant, and a chain of gas stations. Leonard’s gas stations were the predecessor to the Total gas station chain. Leonard’s businesses, under a number of titles (Leonard Drilling, Leonard Pipe Line Company, Leonard Oil, and Leonard Realty), were listed in the Dusenbury block from 1936 into the 1980s. 

Integrity Analysis 

Like its neighbor at 111 East Broadway, the Dusenbury Block is also relatively intact. It retains its historic cornice, although the two elaborate gabled projections above the parapet were gone by the 1930s. The finials on the cornice appear to be slightly different from the originals. The windows at the second floor have been altered, with the replacements different in appearance from the double hung, one-over-one originals. However, the wood trim surrounding the windows is still in place (or has been replaced to match). The most significant changes are to the storefronts, which have been altered in configuration and covered with EIFS.  

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.