Quick Facts

Built 1884
This was the cities fire hall for some time until the 1950's

NPS Description

213-217 South Main Street, 1884. 

Contributing

Description

Commercial Italianate two-story retail/mixed use building with the primary façade stretching across 66 feet of South Main Street (1884). The upper façade is of brick with piers, stacked stretcher corbelling under a bracketed metal cornice, and two date stones stating “Erected A.D. 1884.” The second story has five segmental-arch-head window openings, including a center one between the two piers flanking the central upstairs entry. The window openings have raised brick hoods with stone keystones. The window sash are replacement double-hung units; the two windows of 213 South Main have been reduced in size with the remainder of the opening infilled with wood paneling. The storefront of 213 South Main Street is faced in barn wood vertical siding, including the front of a projecting canopy. 217’s storefront is faced in blue-painted wood siding and has fixed windows and a recessed entry. The original Fire Hall No. 1 bracketed cornice caps the storefront. The entrance to the second floor apartments, 215 South Main Street, is located between the two storefronts and has a wood and glass decorative door with boarded arched transom. 

The east (rear) elevation is of brick covered in stucco and is fronted by a complex shed-roof balcony structure. The south (side) elevation is of brick with aluminum siding. No other elevation is visible due to adjoining buildings. 

History 

The date plate on 213-217 states the building was constructed in 1884, and the Sanborn map for that year notes the building was “not finished.” Both storefronts were listed as grocery stores in the 1890 Sanborn map; the north half remained a grocery through 1900 but the south side was vacant in 1895 and a bicycle store in 1900. Both sides were vacant in 1910. The Mount Pleasant Fire Department occupied 215/217 South Main until 1950, having moved there from the 1887 fire house at the corner of Michigan and Church (University). The department subsequently moved back to that corner when the new Municipal Building was completed, but the fire hall sign remains in the cornice above the storefront. The south half of the building remained vacant after that until the Mole Hole occupied it in 1971-1991. The Credit Bureau of Mt. Pleasant was listed at 215 from 1972 to 1998. A retail store named “Blue in the Face” now occupies 217. Long-term tenants at 213 included F. L. Klunzinger’s jewelry store (1930 to 1942), Bourland Radio Sales and Service (1947-66); armed forces recruiting offices in the mid 1970s, Pier 1 Imports (1978-84), and the Main Frame Gallery, 1987 to the present. 

Integrity Analysis 

Photographs from the early 1910s show a cornice across the entire roofline as well as one above the storefronts; by the late 1940s the upper cornice and the storefront cornice at 217 remained in place, but the storefront at 213/5 had been altered to match the aluminum covered transom and projecting canopy at 201-211 South Main. Building permits record that the aluminum storefront was removed in 1976 as the building changed in use from offices to retail. The new storefront had a setback center entry with slanted brick walls, wood and glass windows, and a wood siding sign frieze above. The brick on that storefront was removed in 2001 and replaced with cedar siding to match the frieze. The storefront at 217 retains its original cornice, including the “Fire Hall No. 1” lettering. The transom windows and storefront have been covered with wood siding. The two windows above the 213 storefront were altered to multi-paned casements with wood shutters sometime before the 1980s; these have been replaced with aluminum windows with wood infill around them. The remaining three windows are wood double-hung units that are similar to, if not, the original 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.