Quick Facts

NPS Description

201-203 East Broadway Street. H. Breidenstein Block, ca. 1920. 

Contributing 

Description

Commercial Brick two-story retail/mixed use building at the corner of East Broadway Street and Court Street. The façade on East Broadway is red brick with corbelling at the cornice and two story piers at the outer edges. Four boarded-up double-hung aluminum windows with concrete sills and lintel line the second floor. A concrete name block is centered below the corbelling and gives the name H. Breidenstein Block. An angled corner faces the intersection of East Broadway Street and Court Street with red brick, corbelling at the cornice, and a second-story double-hung replacement window with concrete sill and lintel. The storefront is the original wood and glass with the transoms now paneled over, a recessed entry into 203 East Broadway Street, and two projecting fabric awnings. A pier with concrete cap is between the storefronts of 201 East Broadway Street and 203 East Broadway Street. The storefront of 201 East Broadway continues onto the angled corner with a wood and oval glass entry door with transom and projecting fabric awning. 

The west elevation on Court Street is of red brick with corbelling at the cornice and piers. The windows on the second story are double-hung aluminum replacements with concrete sills and lintels while the first floor windows are original hopper style frieze windows with concrete sills and lintels. Two sets of doors are located at the north side of the elevation. The storefront also continues onto the west elevation with original wood and glass display window and paneled transom, one story concrete capped pier, and a projecting fabric awning. The north (rear) elevation is of painted brick with replacement double-hung windows. The east (side) elevation is not visible due to adjoining buildings. 

The interior is remodeled with modern finishes but still retains the original stamped sheet metal ceiling and metal cornice. 

History 

The Breidenstein Block dates to the late 1910s or early 1920s. It replaced an earlier two-story frame commercial building that was present on the site as early as 1884, according to Sanborn maps. The earlier building had housed a grocery store from the 1880s, and this use continued in the new building, most notably as the Breidenstein Grocery from the early 1930s to around 1968. After several vacant years in the early 1970s, the building aquired its current tenant, Norm’s Flower Petal, which opened around 1975. 

Integrity Analysis 

The current building first appears on the Sanborn map of 1924 as a 28-foot high, two-story building with a row of wood posts on the first floor and lodge rooms on the second. The 1950 Sanborn map notes that the north and east walls of the interior were brick faced. Aside from the installation of replacement windows, the exterior retains a great deal of its historic character and integrity, in particular the rare survival of the original storefront. 

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.