302-308 W. Michigan Ave.

From Scotch meal to cigars to the New Yorker

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 over its many years along Kalamazoo’s east/west artery. Over the past seven-plus decades, most longtime residents have known the building as the place that provided the popular newsstand and bookseller, the Michigan News Agency (1947-2025) its base of operations. Now, in the wake of the beloved store’s closure, let’s take a look at the building to see if we can detail some of its rich history.

According to city records, the established built-date was 1850, a time period that precedes the first city directories that we have access to (1860). What likely helped to corroborate this early built-date were the 1853 Village of Kalamazoo map and the 1861 Kalamazoo County Map (Library of Congress), the former of which lists a “T. Paige” as owner of lot 28. A search through the Kalamazoo Gazette indicates that Tim Paige came to Kalamazoo to establish a boot and shoe store in 1846. Is it possible that Paige was doing business in 1846 in the building that stands today? More on the answer to that question later. According to county deeds, it appears that Paige had left the shoe business by 1854, and sold the lot to Nathan H. Burlingham, who then subdivided it.

The oldest city directory researchers have access to is from 1860, and it lists a business at the corner of “Main and Church” including the proprietors, George Moore and John McIvor. Their listed occupation was “house and sign painters.” According to an advertisement in the Kalamazoo Gazette from that same year, the painter’s establishment was “over” the wagon manufacturers Hogeboom and Burrell. David Burrell and his brothers would eventually set up their own successful wagon business on the northwest corner of Park and Main, likely sometime in the 1860s. Researching the building becomes increasingly more difficult during the 1860s because of a paucity of existing city directories and newspapers to glean from. Not until November of 1876, does 182 Main Street (the first address for the northwest corner of Main and Church) once again appear in the Gazette and Telegraph with the following updates:

“The new building of Stevens & Sherwood on west Main street, will soon be enclosed. The brick work is nearly finished, and the roof will soon be put on.” –2 November 1876 (Kalamazoo Gazette)

“The firm who are erecting the new block corner of Church and Main streets is (A.E.) Sherwood & (W.C.) Trowbridge. Mr. Stevens has no interest in the ground or building.” –11 November 1876 (Kalamazoo Telegraph)

“W.C. Trowbridge and A.E. Sherwood have their new store, corner Main and Church streets nearly ready for occupation.” –14 November 1876 (Kalamazoo Gazette)

“Mr. A.E. Sherwood is to occupy the whole of the first floor of the new block on the corner of Church and Main street, which will give him ample room. It is now nearly ready for occupancy. He says he has had scores of applications for the room above for offices, etc.”–2 December 1876 (Kalamazoo Telegraph)

Four years later, from the time of the building’s construction, Sherwood’s flour and grocery business continued to show signs of success with a glowing writeup in the Gazette on 24 December 1880:

“Mr. A.E. Sherwood, the west end grocer, is not making much fuss, but he is nevertheless doing a very fine business. His show window is especially attractive, there being a fine display of oranges, lemons, raisins, figs, canned goods, candies, nuts, etc. His stock of staple groceries is also complete. He makes a specialty of imported Scotch meal, hominy, and meal manufactured from southern corn, etc.

–Kalamazoo Gazette, 24 December 1880

As a new century approached, a series of different occupants moved in and out of the new building, including J.H. Phillips, who took over from J.S. Carr in 1892, and who also traded in groceries. In 1895, while still operated by Phillips, a fire broke out that left a fair amount of damage to the property and to Phillips’ merchandise. In August of 1900, the Kalamazoo Gazette announced that E.L. Harris would be liquidating his grocery stock and departing the building. Below, a photograph taken from atop the Kalamazoo County Courthouse, when Harris was doing business out of the building, provides the viewer with a rare view of the west end of Main Street.

Throughout the first several decades of the 20th century, a varied array of concerns moved in and out. In 1905, occupants included James O’Neill, a plumber, the offices of a fire insurance company, the Central Michigan Nursery Floral Store, the First Church of Christ (Scientist) Reading Room, and the James Bogard Hardware Store. Other businesses included Lucas and Kent Sewing Machines, Kalamazoo Wholesale Coffee Company, Sprague Hardware Store, Columbia Drycleaners, a tire supply store, Mort Photography Studio, Doty & Sandford Pianos, and the Caryl Book and Music Store.

One of the longest running merchants was a wholesale candy and cigar seller, the Benjamin Cleenewerck and Son Company. Benjamin’s son Desere had assumed control over the business by the 1910s. Desere’s daughter Helen, born in 1910, married Vincent Malmstrom in 1932 while attending the University of Southern California. In a January 1941 business jotting published in the Kalamazoo Gazette, a listing of company holdings and directors, included Desere, and two of his son-in-laws, Vincent and Edwin J. DuBane. In 1944, while stationed at Camp Butner in North Carolina, Helen passed away. Five years later, Vincent remarried Jean Heinrich, a widowed teacher with several children from a previous marriage, including a daughter named Dean. In 1948, the Benjamin Cleenewerck and Son Company purchases a building at 1005 Portage Street, moving out of the W. Main building.

The Michigan News Agency was a magazine newsstand that sold books, candy, tobacco, calendars, crossword puzzles, and postcards. Launched in 1947 by Malmstrom, his step-daughter Dean Hauck assumed control of the beloved store (and ownership of the building) in 1988 when Vincent retired. Arguably one of the most popular destinations each day for downtown workers and residents, the treasured store saw regular foot traffic for 78 years, a testament to Hauck’s passionate dedication to helping her community access the news each and every day. Hauck passed away in February of 2025, ending the store’s almost eight decade-long connection to generations of local residents.

Written by Ryan Gage, aided by research from Keith Howard, Kalamazoo Public Library staff, March 2025