Quick Facts

NPS Description

227 South Main Street. Seger’s Garage and Motor Sales, ca. 1920s-40s. 

Contributing 

Description

Commercial Brick one-story professional office building at the corner of East Illinois Street and South Main Street. The primary façade has an angled corner that faces the intersection of East Illinois Street and South Main Street. The primary façade is textured brown brick with decorative brickwork and brick quoining at the ends. The storefront is aluminum and glass fixed windows with a side entry and projecting fabric awnings that wraps around to the south elevation. 

The south (side) elevation is textured brown brick with aluminum and glass replacement windows and two points of entry capped by projecting fabric awnings. Concrete lintels cap the windows on the east side of the south elevation. Three large openings have been infilled with plywood and remodeled at the west, center, and east bays. 

The west (side) elevation is textured brown brick with decorative brickwork, brick quoining at the end and a fixed aluminum and glass window. 

The east (rear) elevation is brick covered in horizontal vinyl siding with wood wainscoting. The north (side) elevation is brick covered in horizontal vinyl siding. 

History 

In 1887, John Morrison moved his agricultural implements store here from its original location on West Broadway; it only remained there until 1897. By 1910 it had been replaced with a skating rink, and then by the early 1920s with Seger’s Garage and Motor Sales. Seger’s remained in the building until 1946, when it was occupied by Leo Beard Inc. from 1947 to 1962. The Hi-Speed Gas Station was also listed in the building from 1941 to 1950. It was apparently converted from a garage to offices in the 1960s, as the MacLean Agency occupied the building from 1968 to 1985. The city directories do not list any business here from 1985 into the 1990s, but it has been Listening Ear since at least the 1990s. 

Integrity Analysis 

It is not clear if this building is the original garage constructed in the 1920s or a replacement. It appears on the 1924 and 1931 Sanborn maps as a 12 foot high garage with a rectangular footprint and wood floors. By 1950 the height had risen to 15 feet and it was listed as a concrete block, brick-faced building with concrete floors, columns and beams; the west elevation of the building along Main Street had been cut at a forty-five degree angle. This change likely took place around 1941 when the gas station was added to the garage/motor sales. No historic photographs were found of this building (other than a late 1940s image which barely shows a corner of it); however, the decorative brickwork is typical of the 1920s-40s era of the building. The large window openings on the angled corner are consistent with a vehicle showroom but the windows themselves are modern replacements. Three large garage door openings remain on the south elevation but have been infilled with windows and/or doors; the other window/door openings on the south elevation may be later additions as well. 

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.