Quick Facts

Built in 1911, you can look right up at the top of the building's roofline to see the name "McCarthy Building" and the year engraved into a concrete block. 

The building was originally built for the Breidenstein & Kane hardware company (later Kane Hardware), which supplied the town's tools and building materials from 1911 all the way into the 1950s. 

Just 11 years after it was built, the building survived a major downtown fire in October of 1922 but was completely repaired and put back to use. 

If you go inside today, it still features its original historic stamped sheet-metal ceilings and a decorative wrought iron room partition. 

NPS Description

121 East Broadway Street. McCarthy Building, 1911.  

Contributing 

Description

Commercial Brick two-and-a-half-story retail/mixed use building with a frontage of 27 feet on East Broadway Street (1911). The upper façade has blue painted brick corbelling under the frieze, end piers, and a brick trimmed concrete name block engraved with McCarthy Building and the year of construction below the parapet cap. The windows on the half story are original frieze windows with diamond and triangle-head lights, brick lintels, and stone sills. The second-floor windows are aluminum casement replacement windows with transoms, white keystones, and stone sills. The storefront has wood and glass display windows with clapboard siding below and a sign on the frieze above. A recessed entry with clapboard siding is at the west end. 

The north (rear) elevation is of painted brick with a small one-story clapboard sided addition with recessed back entry. The second-floor windows are replacement double-hungs with transoms and projecting fabric awnings. An aluminum and glass door is between the second-story windows leading onto the top of the one-story addition, with a projecting fabric awning above. The west (side) elevation is of blue painted brick and the east exterior elevation is not visible due to adjoining buildings. 

The interior retains two patterns of painted stamped sheet metal ceiling and cornice crown molding. A decorative wrought iron partition separates the front from the back and the side walls of the front half are of exposed brick. 

History 

The McCarthy Building was constructed in 1911 for the hardware company of Breidenstein and Kane, who were previously located across the street in the Chatterton block. It suffered a fire in October of 1922 but was repaired.7 The firm occupied the building until the 1950s, first as Breidenstein and Kane (to 1946) and then as Kane Hardware. It was Fashion City in the 1960s, then Evenknit Hosiery in the 1970s and 80s. Since 1992, it has been McCarthy’s Downtown Drugs and Soda Shoppe. 

Integrity Analysis 

Like its neighbors to the west, this building once had a large overhanging cornice with an elevated parapet beyond it. The cornice survived intact into the 1990s but has since been removed. The exterior brickwork is intact but has been painted. The windows are replacement vinyl units that do not match the historic configuration. Building permits show the storefront was changed in 1976, but it is unclear if that is the current storefront or how it compares to the original. 

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. 

7 “Heavy Fire Loss Early Yesterday,” Isabella County Enterprise, October 22, 1920, p. 1.