Downtown Business Office Area 1850-1965 City of Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan
1953 Sanborn Fire Map Page shows the corner of Pearl and Monroe where the business district met the shopping district.
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The blue line marked A is the Arcade where I was forbidden to go as it was for MEN only so you know where I went every chance I got. There's a news stand - cigars and Playboy; A drug store - booze, cigars and Playboy; the backdoor of the Midtown Movie Theater. The "T" was the Terryhouse Cafeteria now (2006) Flannigan's Bar. The Waters Building was a Furniture Exhibition Hall.
Across the street is the McKay Tower which still exists. Sears was really two buildings and had a high step up between them with slanting wooden floors. I think it was three-stories. We shopped there very infrequently. I think I marked the Ledyard building correctly but will have to double check to be sure. I think the "H" marks Herkner's Jewelry. I will have to double check that too. I think Houseman's was in here somewhere too. For Steketee's, the red indicates the main building. The blue was the men's Department with a wide open back stairway that went up to the business office. The darker red indicates more of the same building or an addition that was built in the same style. The brown was another building entirely.,
This page shows the Houseman Building where my friend Mary Best's dad worked. It had wide hardwood floors that slanted. It was full of small offices. He was a wholesale jeweler. Building was torn down for a parking lot. The Federal Square Building still exists. The MIchigan Trust Building still exists. The Preferred Insurance Company no longer exists but the building does. The Peninsular Club was a private club for business men. I think it is still there. The Shepard Building is gone. I think that's where Andy's restaurant had been for many years before it was forced to move out to the Keeler Building. There is a parking ramp at the upper right corner.
The US Post Office was the second building on this site for that purpose. When the Post Office moved to replace the Grand Trunk Railroad Terminal on Bridge Street, this building became the Art Gallery. Now the Art Gallery is building a new place where Wurzburgs was. The Michigan Bell Telephone Building is a beautiful small red brick building which still exists and was last being used by a business organization.
The Klingman Furniture Building still exists but not for that use. The Aston Building is gone as is the MichCon Building and the adjacent building was the office of the Red Cross while next door to that was a small button store. That's all they sold. Buttons. The People's Bank Building still exists but I don't know what's there anymore.
This section of the City was dominated by an old German Brewery that I thought of as a big red castle. It amused me that the Police Department was right next door. I only went into the Police Department once when I found a man's wallet. I think it is important to note the number of homes that still existed downtown in the 1950's..
Although the citizens fought Urban Renewal, the City Commission didn't listen. When they tore down City Hall, impetus was given to the formation of Heritage Hill. Now those ugly 1960's buildings are biting the dust. Good riddance.
The Association of Commerce Building was the location of many non-profits such as Camp Fire Girls. My Uncle John, who was a dwarf, had a coffee/news stand in the lobby until machines were put in and forced him out of business.
Immanuel Lutheran Church still stands but is dwarfed by recent additions to Butterworth Hospital. The blue line shows the "new" North Division Avenue School. I remember a restaurant, marked by the Blue "R" where I would stop to get a cold drink before climbing up steep Crescent Street. There is a building, don't know if it is the same one, identified as IOOF but there are now parking lots on each side of it. I remember many Chicago Style Apartment houses along Crescent, all gone now. The restaurant next to the US Post Office garage was a drive-in called Kewpee's which later became Fable's then Bixby Office Supply. Now all out of business. Kewpie's had a big yellow plastic 3-dimensional man out front.
From article City Schools
From Heading History and the City of GrandRapids
From web site: MyCityofGrandRapids.info