My 1950's childhood memories

This is the Steketee's I remember when I was a little girl supplemented by the Assessor's records, City Engineer's, Sanborn Fire maps and the Grand Rapids Public Library's vertical file.

 

This shows the location of Steketee's. You can see the vague blue outline that shows it covered almost all of lot 2 of block 10 of Louis Campau's Village of Grand Rapids or more commonly known as the Campau Plat.

Campau Plat as drawn in 1836.showing the original street names. City Street Names.
H for the location of Herpolsheimers. S for the location of Steketee's., W for the location of Wurzburg's.

My Steketee's covered four buildings: #1 built about 1940, #2 1916, #3 about 1880, #4 1906. #2 was beautiful.
#3 very old with uneven wood floors, it appeared low and dim. #3 I rarely entered, #4 was office-like.

       

   City Assessor           Sanborn Map c. 1954

I entered the City Assessor's building numbers on the Sanborn Map                      

Building #3 - 36-40 Fountain St NW. 4 stories

Building #3 is actually the oldest. It was built about 1880.


                                                                                                                                Fountain Street

  GRP 1895      CA        CA   Sanborn

Assessor shows two pent., some sort of penthouse probably mechanical not residential.

The Sanborn map has been inverted to match the Assessor's records. Sanborn was always drawn with North to the top but not the Assessor's records. The lot addresses 34, 36, 38, 40 Fountain St NW.

Originally this building held  the wholesale business

 I was fascinated by the freight elevator that came up out of the sidewalk. Merchandize was delivered to the store through this elevator out of trucks that were double-parked. The building on the right was Union Bank. It had bright red brick. The building to the left was Building #4. It was more of a brownish-yellow.

Assessor's records show it was a solid brick building, pitch and gravel roof, 79 by 86 feet, 6690 square feet per floor, four floors. 4 stories, solid brick and mill. Foundation - brick, full basement, 8 foot hair used for retail selling. Floor - hardwood. Walls and ceilings plastered. Heat steam. No toilets or lavs in this building. Roof -tar and gravel on wood

If this is Building A in the Historic Preservation Commission records, the basement is 4 1/2 feet shallower than buildings
1 and 2 (C and D), it has columns holding up the ceiling and is not handicap accessible. This would explain why the marble stairway in the 1916 building led away along a ramp surrounded by black curtains as it wound around to Bldg 4 (B) where the
yard goods were sold. Building A is a 4-story building.. Buildings C and D face Monroe Ave. Building C has eight floors.

The Sanborn Map does not give the year built but indicates iron columns.

I remember a reference can't find it offhand that said a fourth floor was later added to this building.

Building #2 - 86 Monroe Ave NW built around 1916. 8 stories

   close-up of the front  Between Fanny Farmer and the Morton House.

 

  CA

Revised after further reading about Bldg 1:  Sanborn

 

Sanborn shows the location of the elevators on upward stairs. It states that there is a water tank on the roof.
Fireproof construction, steel frame, fire escape to attic, built 1917. The lot addresses 88-94 Monroe Ave Nw.

Designed by Robinson and Campau. steel frame and reinforced concrete floors, gray buff terracotta facing.

I have drawn from my memory the locations of the escalator that only went up three floors, not down.
On the third floor was ladies apparel. There was a very large ladies lounge that led into a good size bathroom.
The ladies beauty salon was next store. I always got my hair cut in the "barber shop" that had wood walls that didn't
quite reach the floor or ceiling. Mr. Adams and Mr. Cox were the barbers. They always put a hot towel on my face and
sprayed something (witchhazel?) on my hair. None of that stinky ladies perfume.

The elevators had glass doors and I tried to hard to watch them go up and there was a big black cable that hung underneath. I don't think they went down, only up. They had an elevator operator.

There were open white marble-like stairs that led to the basement. You had to walk along some winding hallway that wasn't level that led to the back building where they sold fabric.

  Solid brick,, terra cotta trim, coping-marble, copper set, tile floor in the vestibule, 7130 sq. ft per floor, 8 stories, 8 stoires, steel and concrete, terra cotta tile on front, brick sides. Foundation - concrete, full basement 12 foot high, floors - hardwood on concrete including basement, Walls and ceilings plastered throughout. Heat - steam. 2 baths with 1 toilet, 1 urinal, 1 lav tiled walls and floors. 6 baths with 2 toilets and 1 lab, tiled walls and floors. 4 passenger elevators. Sprinkler system on all floors. 2 sets of steel stairs and 1 enclosed. Tar and gravel roof on concrete.            

In 1956 air conditioning was installed. In 1957 new escalators installed.

In 1961  automatic elevators were installed. No more glass doors or human operators.

Building #1 - newest faces Monroe - 4 stories

         Sanborn

Sanborn shows  protected steel frame, concrete floors and roof, steel joist construction, no year of construction, it shows a backroom connection to the Ionia/Fountain building. The lot addresses 82, 84, 86 Monroe Ave NW.

This was the men's department. There was a wide open curving stairway that led upstairs to a mezzanine. I think that was where the accounting department was where they kept all the money. I have a vague memory of money being sent up there by cashiers.

           70 x 70 and lots of small  measurements indicating it was an irregular shape.    
4 stories, steel and concrete, terra cotta tile in front, common brick on the side (connected to bldg 2 to form one long building. floors -hardwood on concrete. Walls and ceilings are plastered throughout, most 12 foot high, some 15 foot high. heat is steam. No toilet or lavatories in this building. Sprinkler system on all floors. Roofing in tar and gravel on concrete.

You entered this area from the top of the escalators to your right. Then once you arrived there were three choices: to the left was the ladies lounge, straight was the barber shop  and to the right bhe Beauty Salalon that you entered through a swinging door to a large plush sitting room before entering the bathroom proper.; heading straight  was the barber shop which was enclosed by a wooden-wall with vertical "floorboards" that didn't reach the ceiling or the floor with two barbers: Mr. Cox and Mr. Adams and. I loved getting my hair cut by them, fast no-nonsense, clip, clip, clip, exactly the way your hair wanted to go. They wrapped a warm towel over my face and sprayed my hair with something that smelled so nice, witchhazel? To the right was the beauty parlor that stunk. I hated it. I hated the female operators who fussed, fussed, fussed with your hair forever forcing it to go in the latest style whether it suited you or not.

I remember entering the men's department only as  a young child when shopping with my mother to buy my dad a Christmas present. I remember making the poor salesman remove every pair of boxer shorts from the glass case and picked out a a grey pair with pink bunny rabbits. What company selected that print and why?

If this building was designed as an extension of the 1916 building, why was it's third floor the fourth floor of the new building?

No property card for this building.             

Building # 4 - Six Stories 89 Ionia Ave NW

Building #4 - 6 stories

Fountain Street

Sanborn

Sanborn shows built 1907, fireproof construction. Lot addresses 26, 28, 30, 32 Fountain St NW and 91, 95 Ionia Ave NW.

GRPL VF        BobAnna

 

 

Send mail to Babs27@Comcast.net with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2006 My Grand Rapids
Last modified: 08/05/11