Quick Facts

Built 1939
Kroger was here in the 30's and 40's
A bowling ally was on the 2nd floor until the 1950's

NPS Description

115 South Main Street. Granger Building, ca. 1939. 

Contributing

Description

Two story retail/mixed use building with a 44 foot frontage on South Main Street. The upper façade is of yellow brick with dentil molding at the cornice line below a plain concrete parapet cap and the stone name block carved with “Granger” at the center. The second-floor fenestration is six vinyl double-hung replacement windows with smooth concrete sills. The storefront has a decorative wood transom area and wood and glass display windows. The two points of entry are aluminum and glass with glass block sidelights on the side entry into the apartments on the second floor. 

The south (side) elevation is of painted brick. The east (rear) elevation is of brick covered in a black membrane on the second story with a one-story painted concrete block addition. The one-story addition has double-hung multi-light steel windows. No other elevation is visible due to adjoining buildings. 

History 

The double lot where this building sits previously had two 1870s/80s-era brick commercial buildings; the northern building was two stories tall while the southern building was three stories. This three-story building was owned for a time by George Granger (the name “Granger” appears on the current building). City histories note that J. L. Anspaugh started a moving picture show in the three-story building in 1910, and the 1910 Sanborn map notes an “electric theatre hall” on the third floor. Those buildings were torn down and the current double-lot two-story brick building constructed in the late 1930s. A Kroger grocery store was in the first floor in the 1930s and 40s; later long-term tenants were the Morris 5¢ to $1 store in the 1950s, the Murphy Variety Store in the late 1950s to 1966, and Gittleman’s Clothing Store from 1968 to 1989. The second floor had a bowling alley that operated from 1939 into the 1950s. The Giant Supermarket Chain had offices on the second floor from 1960 into the early 1970s. The current occupants are a hair salon and a yoga studio. *as of 2014

Integrity Analysis 

Like other Mt. Pleasant commercial buildings from the 1930s and 40s, the Granger building has a restrained style consisting of a plain yellow brick upper façade without ornamentation. The current windows are replacement units, but are similar to the original one-over-one double-hung wood windows. The original glass and aluminum storefront had a double door center entry with display windows to either side. There was a flat frieze above the storefront carrying the tenant’s sign. A 1980 photograph shows the second-floor entry door at the south end of the façade with an enameled metal panel covered decorative surround. The general storefront arrangement remains intact but the transom area and decorative south entry were remodeled in 1982 and again in 2012. The bowling alley area upstairs has been converted to apartments. 

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.