Quick Facts

NPS Description

130 South Main Street. Tunis W. Swart Building/McNamara Building, 1879. 

Contributing 

Description

Commercial Late Victorian two-story brick building at the corner of West Michigan Street and South Main Street. The upper façade on the east elevation is painted brick. It formerly had three window openings capped with segmental-arch raised brick hoods. The central opening is now bricked in and the flanking windows are square headed and reduced in height. The window units are aluminum replacement double-hung eight-over-twelve sash with exterior storms. Above the window hoods, the raised brick end piers transition with rounded corners into a raised frieze with dentil molding beneath. On the roof is a third-story gable addition with a roof deck. The storefront is finished in replacement brick with aluminum and glass fixed windows and no entry. The entry into 130 South Main Street is in 128 South Main Street. A wood shake projecting pent roof continues from 128 South Main, across the front of the primary façade and then wraps around the corner onto the east bay of the south elevation. 

The south (side) elevation is of painted brick with corbelling along the stepped parapet with piers separating the elevation into five bays. The brick of the storefront continues on the first floor of the east bay under the wood shake projecting pent roof. Three points of entry are in the center and two west bays of the south elevation. The west (rear) elevation is painted brick with a back door and paneled in arched transom. The north (side) elevation is not visible due to adjoining buildings. 

The interior is remodeled with modern finishes but retains the original tin ceiling. 

History 

This is one of the oldest brick buildings in the city. It was constructed in 1879 by Tunis W. Swart and in 1880, C. A. and W. E. Ward started a business here. In 1882 Thomas McNamara moved to this building after the St. James Hotel on Broadway burned down. The building was later known as the McNamara Building. The Sanborn maps record a dry goods and shoe store here from 1884 to 1900. In the early 1900s, the Patterson Brothers opened a candy shop and soda fountain here, taken over by Pappas and Terkos in 1908. Stephen Dondero purchased the building in 1911 for his fruit store, and it remained in that use and name until the early 1950s. Wakefield’s Grocery occupied the building from the late 1950s to ca. 1975, when it changed use, first to the Burns Trading Post in the late 70s, and then the Sisters Three Clothing Store in the early 1980s. After a brief period as the Off Broadway ladies clothing store in the late 1980s, the Brass Café and Saloon expanded into this space, where it remains in business. 

Integrity Analysis 

A circa 1884 photograph of the west side of South Main shows this building in the distance. A balcony is visible on the second floor, a feature that also appeared on the Sanborn maps, although it was gone by the early 1900s. Another photograph from the 1910s shows signage from the Dondero’s Confectionery on the south side of the building. The cornice remained in place through the 1930s, but was gone by a 1947 photograph. The storefront also appeared to be unchanged in 1947, but it was considerably altered by the 1980s when the southeast corner of the building had been sliced off on an angle with a brick post holding up the corner. At that time, there was no pent roof, just a wood panel sign in the transom. This storefront was again altered after the Brass Café expanded into the space, with the corner filled back in and a brick storefront with shingled canopy installed to match the existing Brass Café entrance. A 1975 building permit references fire damage to the building. The third-floor addition was constructed 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.