Past and Present Threefer: Unity Building, Washington and Pearl, Built 1917

The Unity Building at 30-36 N. Washington occupied the onetime spot of Ypsi's storied "Ark" building. In the first photo, taken around 1915 shortly after the Ark's destruction, in the right background one may see the painted staircase of "Gaudy's Bitter-Sweet Chocolate Shop," formerly the Washtenaw Home Telephone Co.

The second photo taken around 1920 or so shows the new Unity Building, and also shows Gaudy's. A marquee on the Unity Building advertises "H. Hutchins & Co.," a notions shop. On the northernmost window of the side facing Washington St. may be seen the Miller photography studio.

In 1924, a year after the Hotel Huron (Centennial Center) just across Pearl Street was built, the Unity Building housed these tenants in addition to the notions shop and photo studio: osteopath John Garrett, chiropractor Arthur Bourget, insurance agents John Crampton and Edward Crawford, Ye Corset Shop, dentists Don Moe and Hugh Morrison, Edna Hickman's children's wear store, doctors Harold Barss and Walter Wright, the Illinois Life Insurance Co., the Christian Science Reading Room, Tweedie & Gibson barbers, and the Goodrich Hair Shop.

Huron Hotel Floor Plan

Dusty D picked up a lot of interesting ephemera during research for my last Ann Arbor Chronicle article about the Huron Hotel (Centennial Center). I'll be posting some of these cool items over the next few days as time permits. Here is a floor plan on the first floor of the hotel, labeled with a date that appears to be 1936 (possibly 1986, hard to tell; the lettering font suggests the former, does it not?). It's not much different from the original floor plan of 1923.

On the left is the old coffeeshop that later served as a series of restaurants, most recently Buffalo Wild Wings and is now Korey's Krispy Krunchy Chicken. Those tables look a bit jammed-in, don't they? At top is the big kitchen., and below it, a bar occupying the original site of the reception desk. I believe the big empty room on the right was used as a formal dining room for banquets, &c. I wish I could go back in time and traipse through and see it for myself.