Kalamazoo is known for products historically made here, including guitars, paper, windmills, playing cards and even croquet mallets, that helped put the city on the map. While the products are interesting, the buildings where all these things were made are equally fascinating. It may be a bit surprising to learn that many of these structures were located downtown. These days such structures would be found areas zoned for industrial use, but this kind of zoning did not exist in the city of Kalamazoo until 1925. Here are five buildings, no longer standing, that once housed some of Kalamazoo’s burgeoning manufacturing industries:
Kalamazoo Corset Co.
Northeast corner of Eleanor and North Church streets
For years, a corset was considered a necessary undergarment for women, and many companies met that demand, including the Featherbone Corset Co., which moved from Three Oaks to Kalamazoo in 1891 and adopted a new name, the Kalamazoo Corset Co. It became known for its use of turkey feather quills rather than whalebone for its corset stays. Its original factory, completed in 1894, received additions in 1899 and 1905. At one point 800 people worked there, the majority of them women. The 1920s saw a decline in corset sales, and the number of employees at the factory plummeted. Thirty years later the company was sold and moved out of state. The factory came down in the early 1970s, and the site is now the location of the Home2 Suites hotel, a Hilton business.
Henderson-Ames Co.
Southeast corner of North Park and West Water streets
Frank Henderson started a company in Kalamazoo in 1866 that made saddles and later expanded to manufacturing uniforms and regalia for the military, fraternal and lodge orders, and civic organizations. By 1900 the company had four locations in the city for production. This new four-story factory opened in 1901. It held three acres of space and made more than half of the lodge uniforms in the United States. In 1924 the company completed a new office building facing West Michigan Avenue and North Park Street. Nine years later the company merged with the Lilley Co. and moved operations to Columbus, Ohio. The factory building came down in 1940 and is now a parking lot, while the office building remains and currently houses First National Bank.
General Gas Light Co.
East side of North Park Street between Eleanor and West Water streets
George Humphrey and his sons made their mark in Kalamazoo with several businesses. In 1894, George and two of his four sons, Alfred and Frederick, founded the Humphrey Brothers Manufacturing and Plating Co., working with nickel and brass. Another son, Herbert, ventured into producing water heaters as part of Humphrey Brothers until 1899, when he bought out his brothers and changed the name of the water heater company to Humphrey Manufacturing. He sold Humphrey Manufacturing in 1913 to the Ruud Manufacturing Co. of Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, Alfred invented a new automatic gas light fixture that produced more illumination than others, and the General Gas Light Co. was formed in 1901 to produce the Humphrey Gas Light. Buildings housing the company were erected in 1905 and 1910 on the block bordered by North Park, West Water, Eleanor and Church streets. General Gas Light was renamed Humphrey Products in 1960, and the company moved to the southeast corner of South Sprinkle Road and East N Avenue and demolished the plant on North Park Street. The West Michigan Cancer Center is now located on the site, and Humphrey Products now produces pneumatic valves.
A.M. Todd Co.
Southwest corner of North Rose Street and West Kalamazoo Avenue
In 1869 in Nottawa, Michigan, at age 19, chemist Albert May Todd started his business of growing and distilling mint. He decided to move the business to Kalamazoo in 1891, building a factory on the west side of North Rose Street just south of West Kalamazoo Avenue, conveniently across the street from the Michigan Central Railroad Station. The structure, which became known as the Todd Block, was completed around 1894. (In the 19th and early 20th centuries, a building, especially a larger building, would be called a “block.”) In addition to being the owner of A.M. Todd Co., Todd also was a well-known collector of books, porcelain, paintings, baskets and other items that could be found in several rooms of his factory and now are in public collections around the community. The company moved to Douglas Avenue in 1929, but the Todd Block continued to be used for offices by various businesses until its demolition in 1970.
Merchants Publishing Co.
Northwest corner of North Park Street and West Michigan Avenue
The production of paper was huge in the Kalamazoo area in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a number of mills dotting the city and operating in communities like Vicksburg, Parchment and Plainwell. Other businesses came to Kalamazoo to be close to the raw materials they needed, including Merchants Publishing Co., which was located on the north side of West Main Street (now West Michigan Avenue) west of North Park Street. Founded in Chicago in 1888, the company moved to Kalamazoo in 1902, completing construction of this building one year later. Catalogs were the company’s main product, especially for the seed and nursery industry. The company moved to Mills Street in 1930, and its former building continued to be used for various offices until it came down for construction of the Federal Building and U.S. Post Office, which was completed in 1939.
