Quick Facts

There is a brass plaque on this building that is part of the Bronze Legends art project.

NPS Description

123-125 South Main Street, ca. 1880s. 

Contributing

Description

Two-story retail/mixed use building built in the 1880s, but now with a 1930s Commercial Brick front, containing a bar on the first floor and apartments on the second floor. The upper façade is of painted brick with a raised brick outlined horizontal panel in the frieze and raised brick bands outlining the three second-story windows. The second-floor windows are double-hung vinyl replacements. The storefront is faced in random ashlar stone blocks on one side, with a wood panel recessed side entry. Entry to the second floor is connected with 121 South Main Street. Crown molding spans the recessed entry with a commercial tile apron at the bottom. South of the recessed entry is a small metal plaque stating “Transport Truck Co. Mt. Pleasant Mich. 1921.” A projecting sign is centered above the storefront. 

The east (rear) elevation is of vertical vinyl siding with a stone veneered back entry porch. 

History 

Like 121 South Main, this building is one of the oldest remaining buildings on this street, having been constructed in the mid to late 1880s. There was a hardware store and tin shop here in the 1890s, as well as a separate oil house in the rear. A grocery occupied the building in the 1900s and in the 1910s and 1920s it housed the Transport Bar and Billiards Hall, in honor of the Transport Trucks manufactured in Mt. Pleasant in the early 1900s.14 The Cascarelli Brothers took over the bar in the 1930s, and it remained a bar under the Cascarelli name until the late 1980s. It has been Marty’s Bar since 1990. 

Integrity Analysis 

This building appears on the 1890 Sanborn map as a double building connected to 121 South Main. Early photographs from the 1880s show both sides sharing a cornice and with similar arched windows with stone hoods. In the mid to late 1930s, the cornice was removed and the exterior remodeled, with the windows changed to rectangular units. The storefront was remodeled with stone veneer sometime in the late 1950s or 1960s. City building permits note that the first floor was remodeled in 1966 and the upstairs apartments were remodeled in 1976. 

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. 

14 The bronze plaque on the building is part of the Bronze Legends art project which placed bronze objects in locations around town to commemorate the city’s history.