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Local History

Buildings

Rickman Hotel

The Rickman House is one of the most impressive and imposing landmarks on the north end of downtown Kalamazoo. The elegant architecture speaks to the building’s century-old history as one of Kalamazoo’s finest hotels.

302-308 W. Michigan Ave.

The building that is located on the northwest corner of W. Michigan Avenue and Church Street (302-308 W. Michigan) has been occupied by a variety of different businesses. Most longtime residents have known the building as the Michigan News Agency.

308 West North Street

For more than six decades, the single-story brick ranch-style building at 308 West North Street has been a centerpiece of care and guidance for residents of Kalamazoo’s Northside Neighborhood. It…

Albert White: African American Builder

Albert White was an African American building contractor who lived and worked in Kalamazoo from the 1870s until his death in 1930. He and his men helped build a number of well known structures in Kalamazoo history.

American National Bank Building

Built between 1928-29, one of Kalamazoo’s boldest and most prominent downtown buildings is the American National Bank Building (1933-1987), also known as the Art Deco skyscraper that at various times…

Armory Hall No. 2

Situated at 348 N. Burdick Street today, the second version of Kalamazoo’s Armory Hall was originally constructed to headquarter the Smith and Woodard (sometimes spelled Woodward) Company in 1881.

Asbestos Row and the Dewing Building

The story of the Dewing Building (132 N. Kalamazoo Mall), a structure so long that it embodies an entire city block (from Michigan Avenue to Water Street), will forever be…

Bismarck Building

One must step on and over a piece of Kalamazoo past in order to enter the Bismarck Building at 121-123 W. Kalamazoo Avenue. Embedded within the tiled doorway is the…

Bowers Building

Situated at 610 W. Willard Street, the Bowers Building is currently home to the Water Street Coffee Company. But prior to its current commercial function, the three-story structure housed several other businesses.

Burdick Hotel

The origins of hospitality on the present site of the Radisson Plaza Hotel date to August 1850 when construction of an imposing four-story brick structure began. Built by Frank Dennison and initially known simply as Dennison’s brick block, the new...

City Hall

“Kalamazoo’s finest example of Art Deco architecture”

Columbia Hotel

In 1870 the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad began service through Kalamazoo with a passenger station on the southeast corner of Pitcher Street and East Main, today’s East Michigan Avenue. The presence of this station and the countless out-of-town..

Congregation of Moses Synagogue

One of the oldest buildings along E. South Street to have escaped the bulldozer was the home of the synagogue of the Congregation of Moses, one of two longtime Jewish congregations in Kalamazoo.

Corporation Hall

Kalamazoo’s government has had several homes over the years. The first structure built for the purpose was Corporation Hall, which was erected in 1867 and located on the west side of South Burdick Street...

Desenberg Building

Downtown Kalamazoo’s Michigan Avenue is home to the last known Louis Sullivan-designed building in the state of Michigan. Located at 251 E. Michigan Avenue, the Desenberg Building was built in…

Federal Building

Serving as both Kalamazoo’s second post office and later, the United States Western District Federal Court, the Classical Moderne-style structure was completed in 1939, and later added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Fire Houses

The building of fire stations throughout the city became common in the early 20th century as the city limits expanded outward from its central business district and historic neighborhoods.

First Post Office Building

A building like few others in Kalamazoo’s history, the city’s first post office building was situated on the corner of S. Burdick Street and W. South Street. It’s protruding turret…

Gibson Factory

The landmark three-story "daylight" style concrete factory building at 225 Parsons Street was designed and built for the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Company. Completed in 1917, the $47,000 structure is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Grand Rapids and Indiana Line Station

The present “Whistlestop” restaurant began as a way station in a dream to run rail lines from Fort Wayne through Grand Rapids to Mackinac and then to connect across the Upper Peninsula with the Northern Pacific. “Western Michigan...

Hall Block

George D.B. Hall was born in Alexandria, Virginia in 1842. He married his first wife Helen B. Dodge Hall in 1870, and later married Maria E. Robe Hall in 1885,…