Quick Facts

NPS Description

117 South Main Street. New Yorker Clothing Store, ca. 1900s. 

Contributing

Description

Three-story commercial building with a frontage of 23 feet on South Main Street. The upper façade is of dark red brick with denticulated brick string courses between the second and third-floor window openings and above the third floor window openings and brick piers with flared brick bases. Window openings on the second floor are paneled over with the original windows behind and a continuous stone sill course and brick denticulation underneath while the third-floor window openings are paneled over with the original windows behind and stone sills underneath. The storefront is one of the downtown’s most historically intact and is characteristic of the mid-20th century. The deeply recessed entry is flanked by wood and glass display windows whose angled outer corners and zig-zagged sides were designed to draw patrons into the displays and thus into the store. It also retains characteristic details such as ceiling coves and a retractable red-striped fabric awning. Above the storefront the transom has been covered with ribbed aluminum panels. 

The east (rear) elevation is of painted brick with a one-story concrete block addition. The south (side) elevation is of painted brick. The north (side) elevation is not visible due to adjoining buildings. 

The interior retains the original painted tin ceiling and crown molding on the first floor along with the original linoleum flooring and wood cabinetry that lines the north and south interior walls of the first floor. The front stairwell retains the original wainscoting and the second and third floor still have the original hardwood floors underneath the rubber flooring. The original Moose Club mahogany door with the original liquor license is still on the premises but is not in its original location at this time. 

History 

This building was constructed in the early 1900s to replace a 2-story frame building previously on this lot. It is unclear who the original tenants were, although it was listed as a clothing store in the 1910 Sanborn map and a 1910s postcard shows a sign reading “Marsh” hanging from the building. The New Yorker Clothing Store opened here in 1937, and remained in business until 2013. The Moose Club had rooms in the second floor in the 1950s. 

Integrity Analysis 

The New Yorker building was constructed as a typical early twentieth-century brick commercial building, with decorative brickwork, a center entry glass and wood storefront, and a projecting cornice. The alterations to the exterior are standard for a building of this era. The cornice had been removed by the late 1930s. The decorative brickwork of the upper story remains intact, but the windows were covered with wood in 1982 for “energy efficiency.” The storefront remains in its original configuration but the transom and second-floor entry door bay have been covered with aluminum panels. 

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.