Quick Facts

NPS Description

223 South Main Street, ca. 1940s. 

Contributing

Description

Brick two-story retail/mixed use building with a frontage of 22 feet on South Main Street. The second floor is of red brick with a side-gable roof covered in asphalt shingles and with end parapets capped in stone. Two double-hung aluminum replacement windows with wood panels underneath make up the fenestration of the second floor. Ghosting of shutters remains visible. Above the windows is a simple painted wood cornice. The storefront is of red brick with a centered fixed aluminum replacement window with wood transom. Flanking the center window are two entries. The north entry is slightly recessed with an octagonal window above leading into the second floor. The south entry is recessed more than the north entry with an octagonal window above that has been infilled. A projecting aluminum pent roof similar to 221 South Main Street stretches across the façade above the storefront. 

The north (side) elevation is of red brick with painted wood siding under the shed roof covering a back stairwell. The east (rear) elevation is of brick with a one-story painted concrete block addition. The addition has a shed roof with two different pitches, one over an interior staircase leading to the second floor and the other covering the rest of the addition. Two doors lead into the building from the rear, the north door leading to the second-floor staircase and the south door leading into the first floor. The south (side) elevation is of yellow brick on the first floor and red brick on the second floor. 

History 

The exact date of construction of this building is unclear; it was built sometime between 1931 and 1950 according to Sanborn maps. City directories show a series of shortlived tenants until 1943, when it became Flamingo’s Bar, so the building may have been constructed around 1943 for Flamingo’s. It remained Flamingo’s until 1972, and then became the Bird Bar and Grill to the present. The Moose Club was also listed in the building from 1943 to 1948, again supporting the mid-1940s construction date. 

Integrity Analysis 

There are few historic photographs available of the building before the 1980s. One distant image in the late 1940s shows the existing roofline, a slightly different cornice line, what appear to be shutters on either side of the upper-floor windows, and a glass storefront with doors to either side and a simple transom line above. Building permits note a tavern addition in 1967 and the addition of a reception hall on the second floor in 1971. A photograph from the 1980s shows a shingled mansard roof awning had been added above the storefront and the original glass of the storefront had been infilled with brick. The second-story windows were likely the original double-hungs; it appears they were four-over-four units, and one shutter remains on the south window. Currently the second-story windows have been replaced with one-over-one double hung aluminum units and the shingled awning has been replaced with a standing-seam metal canopy. A Chicago-style window has been added to the center of the storefront as well as round windows above each door. The direct access between 221 and 223 was constructed in 2007. 

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.