Response to Reader Question: What Did Materials Unlimited Used to Be?

A kind reader emailed this question:

I was wondering if you know the original purpose of the building that currently houses Materials Unlimited? I wandered in there once and asked someone at the counter about it and they said it was an old car dealership. I noticed what looks like a possible old spillway outlet at river level while climbing up the stairs from Riverside Park. Also, there are the remnants of what must have been a cast concrete walkway or platform along the exterior of the building facing the river. If you look at the side of the building at street level you can see where it was snapped off and what would have been the entrance is block by a bolted-on steel fence. I slightly doubt a car dealership would have had a small hydro plant in it. Could it have been an early 20th century manufactory or early city hydro-power plant before becoming a car dealership?

The counter person was spot-on; the site used to be a Chevy dealership, as seen in this wonderful old photo (click for larger image).

Dating the photo is another matter, here at home without recourse to the Archives' Polk directories which list businesses by year (I'm looking at that Dunlop Tires at right, next to the Ainsworth Mill, which as you can see already has its new and ugly facade). Hmm.

The newest cars appear to be the ones at the extreme left, parked near the present-day Haab's.




These cars seem to match the 1935 Ford shown in this old advertisement. The ad was taken from this lovely chronological collection of 1905-1956 Ford ads--just the sort of thing that is invaluable in dating a photo.

Dusty Diary is drifting off course here a bit, as always with a photo that offers a million interesting tangents. At any rate, the photo seems to be at least from 1935 and, given that people didn't buy cars left and right during the Depression, possibly quite a few years later, perhaps (guess) up to 1940 or so? So let's say that Materials Unlimited was a Chevy dealership in the mid- to late-Depression era. But what about earlier?

Plat map time.

The 1856 plat map for the city shows a building on the M.U. site but does not label it. The legend "Worden & Brother" seems to be appended to the big building at the NE corner of Huron and Michigan Ave.

What's that across the river from the M.U. site? A Pelt Factory! Can you imagine what an abattoir that must have been...and how delightful the river must have been downstream? (shiver).

Note that in 1856 Michigan Ave was still a plank road. Nice 'n jouncy.

In the 1864 plat map, the little 1856 L-shaped building is gone and there is nothing on the M.U. site. What's that kitty-corner across the street, at the eastern corner of Water Street and Michigan Ave? It's...um, OK, this is getting weird...a foundry owned by William McCullough, Sr. --Allie's dad.

Resolutely back to M.U. In the 1874 plat map, there's a "Beach Carriage Man'g Co" on the M.U. site. I have to look east across the river again. Ooh, J. Leetch Brewery has replaced the Pelt Factory. Duds to suds.
Guess what. By 1878, William Sr.'s son William L. was running the foundry! Take a look at that rococo grape leaf chair! (click image for larger view). Plus plows, "cast iron vases, chairs, and settees," iron fences...say, any chance the McCulloughs might have had a hand in making the long-lost Starkweather Fountain? Hmm, lemme file that idea away...where was I? The McCulloughs also made iron roof decorations...cultivators...you name it...they were ironmongers.

How in the world did they make that ultra-ornate iron grape leaf chair? Is that whole thing *cast*? In one piece? It's absolutely gorgeous.

It is a shame Allie never got a chance to sit in it, or have her own grape leaf chair, just for her, in her own back yard.

And--one wonders if kind reader K.P. ever found some interesting iron doodad in her old house, formerly Will McCullough's. An ornate plant-stand? A beautiful shelf bracket? Even just a fancy iron doorknob? Maybe...just maybe...that object was made by Allie's big brother, Will McCullough Jr. Wow.

Wait--did I answer the original question? Ah well, too late now.