Quick Facts

NPS Description

205-209 East Broadway Street, ca. 1930s. 

Contributing 

Description

Commercial Brick one-story retail/mixed use building with a bar on the west side and a professional office on the east side. The storefront on 205 East Broadway Street is of yellow painted brick with an aluminum and glass fixed window with wood trim. The recessed entry is wood trimmed with stone veneer on the inner walls of the entry. A half hipped wood shake roof extends across the front of 205 East Broadway Street. The storefront of 209 East Broadway Street has red brick with aluminum and glass fixed windows, aluminum and glass door with sidelights, and three blue fabric awnings. 

The north (rear) elevation is covered in brown sheet aluminum siding with two metal doors. A one-story addition on the north side of 205 East Broadway Street is covered in painted wood siding. No other exterior elevation is visible due to the adjoining buildings. 

History 

Prior to the construction of this building in the 1930s, the lot between 201-3 and 215 East Broadway housed a number of short-lived frame structures with a similar variety of tenants, including a barber shop, meat market, feed store, and cobbler. Photographs from the 1910s show gravestones piled outside a marble works. The current building was probably constructed in the early to mid 1930s. It was not present on the 1931 Sanborn map, city directories showed no returns from 1932-34, and photographs from the 1930s appear to show the site as empty. In 1936, tenants appear at 205, 207, and 209 East Broadway (the 1950 Sanborn map shows the building divided into three commercial spaces), suggesting the building was constructed shortly before that time. Generally, there was high turnover of building tenants in the 1930s and 40s. Tenants during those years included Warner’s and Ken’s Men’s shops, Firestone Auto Supply, and the Fleming Studio, as well as the short-lived but interesting introduction of the “Chippewa Teepee Youth Center” which offered dancing, musical entertainment, and non-alcoholic beverages for the young people, while its exterior featured themed items like a totem pole and a mock teepee at the entrance. Longer term tenants were Belle’s Hat Shop at 205 (ca. 1953 1972); O’Connor’s Cleaners at 207 (ca. 1947-1972), Isabella County Abstract Company at 209 (ca. 1960-late 1990s), and the McPhail, later Grinzinger, Insurance Agency at 207 (ca. 1973-1990). 

Integrity Analysis 

This relatively simple building is generally intact. The storefront windows and doors are in their original configuration, although the units themselves have been replaced. The brick has been painted yellow at the 205 storefront, a wood shingle awning installed, and wood trim put around the windows. 

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.