Quick Facts

NPS Description

201 West Broadway, Smithers Building, 1911.  

Contributing 

Description

Two-story brick commercial building with a flat roof. The building faces both West Broadway and South Washington and has an angled corner at the intersection. The south and west elevations are painted brick with raised brick piers outlining the bays, a belt course between the first and second floors, and keystones above the windows. The angled corner has a band of brick corbelling at the cornice. The storefront at the north elevation, angled corner, and first bay on the east elevation has been faced with painted wood paneling and has a low projecting wall of random ashlar stone blocks at the base. A sloped metal awning with filigree metal brackets hangs over the door in the angled corner and the doors and windows on the storefront are flanked by wood shutters with cut-out panels. The storefront windows are rectangular fixed pane units. The first floor windows on the east elevation have been infilled with wood paneling. The windows on the second floor of the east and north elevations are aluminum replacement units with a fixed pane above and a small awning window on the bottom; some are single windows and some are paired with a mullion between. The doors – one on the north elevation, one at the angled corner, and two on the east elevation – are steel replacement doors. Both doors on the east elevation have infilled transoms – one with wood, one with glass block. The south and west elevations are both covered with metal siding. 

History 

As Mt. Pleasant expanded, the area around the 200 West Broadway block became something of a transitional zone, both in topography and in use. The 1884 Sanborn map notes that a bluff edge ran through this block and then to the southwest, which may explain why the north/south alley in the center of the block was not extended to Broadway until the early 1900s. The areas to the north and west of the block were primarily industrial, and in the late 1880s and 1890s, there were a few scattered residential dwellings on the block. Between 1900 and 1910, a small one-story wood framed photo shop was constructed at the northeast corner of West Broadway and South Washington. In 1911, the present two-story building was constructed for the Smithers Agricultural Implement Store (later Murray and Smithers). The name “Smithers” and the date “1911” are visible in a 1950s image of the building, which spanned two lots at 201 and 203 West Broadway (203 now refers to the building next door). In 1915, Pat Carroll purchased the Murray and Smithers inventory, and presumably occupied the building as he is listed on the 1925-26 city directory at that address. City directories carry listings for both 201 and 203 West Broadway. 201 Broadway housed the Blossomette Shop in the 1930s, a flower shop under several different names in the early 1940s, the Broadway Bar (1953-62) and LaPointe’s Bar (1963-66) before the Mt. Pleasant Beauty Shop moved from across the street in 1968. Renamed the Murphy Beauty College in 1976, it still occupies the building. Listed at 203 was the Jarecki Manufacturing Company (1930-1940), Prior’s Montgomery Ward (1947-48), and the Tic Tac Inn (1960-62). After a period of no listings, the Grinzinger Insurance Agency appeared from 1978 to 1984, then, briefly, Fast Foto (1986), Albert C. Dowell (1991), the Den of Antiquity (1992), and a firm of land surveying consultants (1998). 

Integrity Analysis 

Aside from the typical changes to windows and storefront, this building is relatively intact. The earliest photograph found of the building is circa 1950s; by this time, the storefront had already been altered with the vertical wood siding, and the low random ashlar wall appeared to be under construction. An angled storefront window at the west end of the north elevation hints at the earlier configuration, but the other storefront windows and first floor windows at the east elevation had already been altered/infilled. The second floor windows were double-hung, one-over-one windows. Otherwise, aside from the paint, the building does not appear to have changed significantly since the 1950s. 

Sources 

Isabella County Enterprise, November 26, 1915. 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.