Grow Block | |
 | |
| Location | 120-122 W. Exchange St., Owosso, Michigan |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 42°59′56″N84°10′18″W / 42.99889°N 84.17167°W Coordinates: 42°59′56″N84°10′18″W / 42.99889°N 84.17167°W |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1890 |
| Architectural style | Italianate |
| MPS | Owosso MRA |
| NRHP reference No. | 85000169 [1] |
| Added to NRHP | January 31, 1985 |
The Grow Block is a commercial building located at 120-122 West Exchange Street in Owosso, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. [1]
Manderville D. Grow was born in 1831 in the Village of Homer, New York. His mother died in 1843, and the next year his father moved to Atlas, Michigan. In 1854, Manderville Grow married Eliza Mitchell, and the couple moved to Shiawassee County, where they started a sheep-breeding farm. The farm was successful, but in 1887, the Grows decided to move to Owosso. There, he invested in the community's downtown, buying a plot of land at the northeast corner of Exchange and Ball Streets in 1889. [2]
Grow constructed a building on his land in 1890, and was able to nearly immediately rent out the space in the new building. By 1892, the building housed the barbershop of Alexander Johnson, a former slave and Civil War veteran, in the basement. The first floor housed the post office and Ainslie and Company Confectionery, and the second floor housed the Owosso Business College. The hall on the third floor was used for events by the Ladies Library and the "Foresters," a local men's club. Both the Post Office and the Owosso Business College remained in the Grow Block until the 1920s. Other businesses located in the building were the Globe Music and Novelty Company, the Detroit Free Press, and Hall and Sons (dealers in fancy and staple groceries). [2]
In the 1920s, the ownership of the building passed out of the Grow Family, and the space was consolidated into the home of W.C. Hall and Sons Department Store. In 1932, Montgomery Wards took possession of the building, combining it with the next door Duff Building and an additional structure. The building housed Montgomery Wards until the early 1980s. It then stood vacant for one-and-one-half years until it was donated to the City of Owosso. The city resold it in 1983, and it was renovated. [2]
The Grow Block a three-story, six bay wide commercial building, measuring forty-four feet by eighty-five feet. It is constructed of red brick in an Italianate design. The front facade contains two storefronts, with wide windows above kickpanels, recessed entryways, brick side piers, and a secondary cornice of pressed metal running along the top of the first floor. On the second floor, trabeated, one-over-one, double hung sash windows are in each of the six bays, with rounded-arch windows on the third floor aligned with the second floor windows. A pressed metal cornice with end blocks, brackets, and a free-standing name and date plate runs along the top of the building. [2]
The Cass Park Historic District is a historic district in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, consisting of 25 buildings along the streets of Temple, Ledyard, and 2nd, surrounding Cass Park. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005 and designated a city of Detroit historic district in 2016.
The Dunlap Square Building is a historic commercial block in Marinette, Wisconsin, United States, and is registered on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
The Lake Linden Historic District is located in the village of Lake Linden in Houghton County, Michigan.
The Chesterton Commercial Historic District is a historic district in Chesterton, Indiana.
The Joshua Sears Building is a historic building in Kirkland, Washington located at the northwest corner of Market Street and Seventh Avenue, Kirkland's historic commercial core. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was built in 1891 by Boston philanthropist and capitalist, Joshua Sears, who was heavily invested in Peter Kirk's Great Western Iron and Steel Company and who planned to open a bank in town. As a result of the Panic of 1893, the steel mill and the bank never opened but the Sears building survives today as a reminder of what might have been in Kirkland. It is an early example of Beaux-Arts architecture in the Northwest, where Victorian and Romanesque Revival styles were still predominant in commercial buildings. On August 3, 1982, it was added the National Register of Historic Places. In December 2015 the building was purchased by local attorney Simeon Osborn and his wife Monica Hart, who stated they plan to keep the current business and residential tenants.
The Main Street Historic District in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin is a 2.5-acre (1.0 ha) historic district that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 11, 2002. The listing was amended in some way in a revised listing on March 5, 2002. In 2002, there were 20 buildings in the district that were deemed to contribute to its historic character.
The Forrest Block is an historic building located in downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. In 2020 it was included as a contributing property in the Davenport Downtown Commercial Historic District.
The Wherry Block, also known as Wherry's Hall, Scruby Brothers Grocery, and Scruby's Grocery Store, is a historic building located in Des Moines, Iowa, United States.
The Lipsett Hardware Building, currently the Pickford Area Historical Society Museum, is a commercial building located at 175 Main Street in Pickford, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.
The Goodyear Block, also known as the Arbeiter Block is a commercial building located at 138 E. Main Street in Manchester, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.
The Alma Downtown Historic District is a commercial historic district in Alma, Michigan, roughly located along Superior Street between the Pine River and Prospect Avenue, and along State Street between Center and Downie Streets. Parts of the district were designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1975, and the entirety was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013. It contains 72 structures, primarily brick commercial buildings, ranging from one to three stories in height and dating from 1874 to the 1960s.
The East Jordan Lumber Company Store Building is a commercial building located at 104 Main Street in East Jordan, Michigan. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. It is next to, and shares a wall with, the Votruba Block; both buildings have been rehabilitated to form the Main Street Center office complex.
The Votruba Block is a commercial building located at 112 Main Street in East Jordan, Michigan. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. It is next to, and shares a wall with, the East Jordan Lumber Company Store Building; both buildings have been rehabilitated to form the Main Street Center office complex.
The University of Michigan Central Campus Historic District is a historic district consisting of a group of major buildings on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
The Germania Building Complex consists of two adjacent related buildings located at 119-123 West Washington Street and 209-211 Ashley Street in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The Union Block is a commercial building located at 100-110 East Michigan Avenue in Saline, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
The Wallace Block is a commercial building located at 101-113 South Ann Arbor Street in Saline, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
The South Main Street Historic District is a surviving collection of eleven commercial buildings built from 1877 to 1915 in the old downtown of Oregon, Wisconsin, plus the WWI memorial. It was added to the State and the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.
The Duff Building is a commercial structure located at 118 West Exchange Street in Owosso, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
The Michigan Avenue Historic Commercial District is a group of commercial buildings located along the south side of two blocks of Michigan Avenue, from 3301–3461, in Detroit. This section of buildings is the most intact collection along this stretch of Michigan Avenue. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2020.
