The Backstory: About Peter C. Andre and His Buildings
Although the exact date of construction is unknown, the building at 110-112 N. Michigan Avenue is identified on the 1877 Saginaw plat map, another of P. C. Andre's projects.
The first floor has always had two retail spaces, divided by a staircase leading to the second floor which originally had two apartments.
The earliest tenants can’t be confirmed with certainty because the current numbering system wasn’t in effect until 1889 when the street name was changed from Washington Avenue to Michigan Avenue. However, it’s believed that brothers Amos and Edmund Ballantine operated as grocers on the first floor.
The first confirmed grocer in the building, in 1893, is Charles Lockwood whose brother George was P.C Andre’s son-in-law.
From at least 1915 through the early 1930’s, Grace Shay and Bertha Stevens owned a restaurant and confectionary at 110 N. Michigan. A meat market was next door at 112.
By 1936, McIntyre Dairy offered ice cream in the old restaurant and a shoe repair shop took over in the meat market. Various businesses occupied the spaces in the ensuing years.
When we acquired the building in 2017, maintenance had been deferred for many years and it was in need of considerable work. Additionally, the two apartments upstairs had been converted into offices many years ago and there was a common bath between them.
Inside and out, numerous repairs and updates were made, including exposing and restoring the original tin ceilings that had long been covered by suspended ceilings. Below is a glimpse of one of the retail spaces during and after renovation.
The two spaces upstairs, originally built as apartments, had been converted into offices many years ago and there was a common bath between them. We converted the two back into apartments with their own baths and kitchens.
- Betsy de Parry, VP, Sales and Marketing