801 N. Rowe Street
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
2022
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Location	801 North Rowe St., Ludington, Michigan
Coordinates	43°57′54″N 86°26′43″W / 43.96500°N 86.44528°W / 43.96500; -86.44528
Built	1890 (1890)
NRHP reference No.	1100005785[1]
Added to NRHP	November 10, 2020; 3 years ago (2020-11-10)

801 N. Rowe Street in Ludington, Michigan, is the address of a three-story brick framework structure called by many locals as the Haskelite Building. The Rowe Street building is in the Manufacturer's Addition of the city on the north side. The commercial platted land originally had three factory buildings constructed in the late nineteenth century to attract businesses and employment of which this manufacturing plant was one. The building has contained at least a dozen businesses in its 130 history and was known by many of their names. Its ultimate use has become as affordable housing for the residents of Ludington and is divided up into 67 apartments of various sizes known as Lofts on Rowe.

Description

The structure is three-stories and has load-bearing brick walls and a flat roof. The rectangular building was built on a stone and concrete foundation. It is 60 feet wide and 300 feet long. The main entry has a cream brick surround within a large round-arch with a keystone. The entry is flanked by two large segmental-arch windows containing a single pane of glass and a transom above. The second and third floors each contain six 9-over-9 wood-sash, double-hung, segmental-arch windows.^[2]

History

A group of Ludington businessmen constructed three factories in 1892 in an early type industrial park in the Manufacturer's Addition of Ludington, Michigan. They were intended to attract manufacturers that would provide employment and improve the city's economy through other businesses.^[2] According to fire insurance maps the original structures were constructed between 1890 and 1892.^[3] The first company to purchase this factory at 801 N. Rowe Street was Mendelson Manufacturing Company and they used it to make men's clothing, in particular trousers and pants. The building then was known as the Mendelson building.^[4] They went out of business in 1894 and the Mendelson building became empty. Lumberman Antoine E. Cartier then acquired the empty old pants factory.^[2] He donated the structure to the Ludington Catholic church in 1899 with the intention to put a hospital in it and it then became known as the St. Simon's Catholic church hospital building.^[5] The gift of the building was valued at $10,000 (equivalent to $366,240 in 2023). The hospital did not come to fruition and the building stayed empty for a few additional years.^[2]

In 1904, the furniture makers Tubbs Manufacturing Company from Manitowoc, Wisconsin, took over the place. In 1907, they expanded the building to twice its original size and the formation became a total of 45,000 square feet. They manufactured wood products consisting of printer's cabinets and wood type. They were there until 1911 and during this time the factory was known as the Tubbs Manufacturing Company Building and Tubbs Building. They employed 200 men at the facility. They also made furniture that was sold throughout the United States. The company went out of business in 1911 because of legal matters with Hamilton Company and sold all their assets including the factory.^[1][2]

• 
  Tubbs building 1904 photograph
• 
  Tubbs building 1905 illustration
• 
  Tubbs building 1906 illustration

Henry L. Haskell had the Carrom Company move into first and second floors of the building in 1911 under a lease, while the third floor was being leased to a cigar manufacturer.^[2][6] Haskell first made the Carrom board there for the game at the recently enlarged manufacturer building and it was then known as the big Carrom plant.^[6] He experimented with new ideas for Carrom boards and ultimately developed a waterproof glue out of blood albumin in 1913 from which he glued together different thin plies of wood. Haskell named this plywood after himself, calling it Haskelite.^[7] The plywood could be shaped into three-dimensional patterns. Carrom became the largest manufacturer of pattern forming plywood in the United States.^[8]

Haskell then later in 1916 established the Haskell Manufacturing Company and acquired the building from John Hunholz, which at the time was known as the Hunholz building. How Hunholz acquired the building is unclear.^[2] Haskell made not only Carrom boards but also airplane body parts,^[9] and parts for canoes and boats on a mass-production basis from the Haskelite plywood.^[10] He also made body parts for trucks, buses, and automobiles.^[3] At the time he used the building for these various products the brickwork complex construction was known as the Haskell Manufacturing Company building, Haskell Manufacturing building, Haskell plant, Haskell factory, Haskell Company building,^[2] Haskelite factory,^[11] Haskelite factory building,^[12] Haskelite Building,^[2] and Haskelite plant.^[13]

The Haskell Manufacturing Company formally changed its name to the Haskelite Company in 1917. Haskell then opened a second factory plant in Grand Rapids in 1918 to make plywood on a larger scale and in the 1930s consolidated operations there. The Haskelite Building,^[12] as many in Ludington call it, was then used less and less as time went on for production of plywood.^[2] The building was completely empty by 1933 and the United States government leased the building from Haskell for its local Civilian Conservation Corps headquarters and supply depot for Company 1666 of 118 local men.^[14] In 1940 the Lower Michigan CCC district headquarters moved from Fort Custer at Battle Creek to the building at 801 N. Rowe Street which by then was known as the CCC building.^[15]

The CCC was disbanded in 1942 and they started leaving the Haskell building. They were completely gone by February 17, 1943.^[16] Wolverine Sportswear Company next occupied the building and purchased it from Haskell in 1944.^[17] It made sportswear producing coats and jackets at the building for 45 years at which time it was known as the Wolverine building.^[18] The final use as a commercial building was by Change Parts who occupied it from 1989 to 2019 making interchangable machine parts. It was then known as the Change Parts building and they placed their name above the front door. The business owners and possessors of the building donated it for conversion to affordable housing.^[19] The newly refurbished building converted to residential apartments opened in 2022 and became known as Lofts on Rowe. The building now contains 67 units, split between studios, one bedroom, two bedroom, and three bedroom apartments.^[20]

• 
  801 N. Rowe Street
  Change Parts bldg - 20 years
• 
  801 N. Rowe Street
  Southwest view 2016
• 
  801 N. Rowe Street
  Southeast view 2016
• 
  801 N. Rowe Street
  Northeast view 2016

The Michigan low income housing authority that subsidizes the Lofts on Rowe apartments refers to the three-story brick framework by it original nineteenth-century name of the Mendelson Building.^[4] The Michigan Economic Development Corporation that helped finance the remodeling project calls the structure that contains the Lofts on Rowe apartments the Haskell Building.^[21] The building developers restored the exterior to the 1890s architectural style so that it could be added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).^[22] It was registered November 10, 2020.^[23] NRHP refers to 801 N. Rowe Street as the Mendelson building, Tubbs Manufacturing Company Building, Haskell Manufacturing Company building, Haskell Company building, Haskell plant, Haskell factory,and the Haskelite Building.^[2] The nineteenth century three-story brick configuration is sometimes referred to by newspapers as just the Rowe Street building.^[22]

References

• • Regristration Form

Sources

• John, H. F. (1930). Veneers and Plywood. S.H. Smith. OCLC 1680860.