Quick Facts

NPS Description

225 South Main Street. Lynch Brothers, ca. 1910. 

Non-contributing (built within the period of significance but subsequent alterations have sufficiently impacted integrity to render it non-contributing) 

Description

Two story retail/mixed use building with a 22 foot frontage on South Main Street. The upper façade is a gable front covered in horizontal vinyl siding. Double-hung vinyl replacement windows flanked by shutters make up the fenestration of the second floor. The red brick storefront has a recessed center entry with an aluminum and glass entry door flanked by double-hung vinyl windows. At the north side of the storefront is a recessed entry leading to the second floor. A projecting flat aluminum canopy stretches the length of the façade. 

The east (rear) elevation is of molded rusticated concrete block with a one-story gable addition covered in horizontal vinyl siding. A small deck with a staircase spans the one-story addition and leads to a back access to the apartment on the second floor. No other elevation is visible due to adjoining buildings. 

History 

225 South Main was built between 1900 and 1910 as a two-story grocery with a two-story concrete block section at the rear. The Lynch Brothers store occupied the building until 1962, succeeded by the National Cash Register Company until 1975 and the Cobblery from the late 1970s to the 1990s. The storefront is currently empty, but the upper floors have been student housing from the late 1970s to the present. 

Integrity Analysis 

Like the other buildings at this end of the block, there are few historic images available. A late 1940s image shows the present building with its gabled roof. The second-floor windows are much taller than the existing windows and may have been arched with hoods or trim above them. A windowed storefront with a flat transom and perhaps a retractable awning is also present. Currently, the original façade has been replaced, including the vinyl siding on the second floor, altered windows, brick storefront with vinyl windows, and the horizontal metal canopy. 

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.