Hall Block

Known for Hot Dogs and Shoes

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, four years after the death of Helen. By 1880, Hall had been living in Kalamazoo for more than a decade, with the federal census listing his occupation as “ticket agent.” At the time of his death in 1914, the Kalamazoo Telegraph-Press wrote the following summary:

“George B. Hall, aged 72, one of the best-known residents of Kalamazoo, died Saturday evening at his home, 1204 Merrill street, following a long illness with bronchitis. He had been a resident of Kalamazoo for over a half century. Mr. Hall was born in Virginia, but came to Kalamazoo while a young man. For several years he was passenger agent for the Lake Shore. Later he conducted a successful ticket brokerage. He afterward took up the real estate business and for the last 25 years has been one of the most prominent members of the real estate circles of the city. Mr. Hall has also been prominent in politics, serving as an alderman from the Third ward several years ago, and a strong Republican leader. The funeral will be held in charge of the Masonic lodge, of which he was a member.”

Hall was buried in Mountain Home Cemetery along with his wife Maria, who had passed away earlier in that same year.

Hall’s building was begun in the winter of 1895 and finished in the spring of 1896. Situated in the Haymarket District, like many buildings that would house a hotel, it was conveniently located near the Grand Rapids and Indiana railroad depot on Pitcher Street. The four-story building sits between the Schau Building to its west and the McHugh Building to the east. It features a decorative entablature, brick keystones above rounded windows on the fourth floor, and a light-colored frieze below the cornice. By December of 1896, classified advertisements were published in the newspaper, pointing to rental opportunities within the building. During its first several years, the building provided space for the Mr. and Mrs. Fred Davis Dance School and the Chicago Pant Company. The Hall Block also served as a popular destination for dancing enthusiasts who came to listen to the Fischer Orchestra, who had a weekly scheduled performance.

In 1901, the city directory lists George and his wife Maria as residing in the building as well as the Walter Tripp Saloon. A decade later, the Windsor Hotel moved in and occupied the upper floors while two other saloons operated below. The Adams Express Company retained offices in the building in the teen years. During the 1920s, S.O. Bennett’s grocery store and Boomhower’s automobile supplies joined the Windsor Hotel as occupants. Several restaurants also move in during this time period, as well as Glenn Matthew’s billiards room. The Windsor Hotel later changed its name to the Reed Hotel, and then to the Kent Hotel, which remained in the building until the late 1970s.

Hot Dogs and Shoes

Longtime Kalamazoo residents will be familiar with the building because of two popular products sold out of the Hall Block, tasty hot dogs and footwear. The building has been home to a family-run restaurant for almost a century. Sometime in the late 1920s, a Greek immigrant named Nick Marenos operated a restaurant out of the Hall Block. According to the city directories, the business changed names in 1934 to its current moniker, Coney Island Restaurant. At some point in the early 1930s, ownership of the restaurant was transferred from Marenos to James W. and Frank Adams, the former of whom passed away in 1951 having been the proprietor at the time of his death. James Adams, originally from Greece, had previously run a restaurant called The Hub, which sat next to the First National Bank Building in the late 1920s. In 1953, in the wake of James’ death, ownership was officially passed on to Frank and Persefoni Adams. Frank ran the business until he passed away in 1987 at the age of 102. The Adams family continues to own the popular eatery as of this writing. The long-running hot dog seller is the oldest of its kind in the state, and likely, the oldest active restaurant in the city.

Established and operated by Chicagoan Samuel J. Rosenbaum, the sales and repairman ran Rosenbaum Shoes out of the Hall Block for many years. Rosenbaum’s business first shows up in the Hall Block in 1931, their second location in the city. Their flagship store, opened in 1905, and was located at 602 N. Burdick Street. Along with the hotel upstairs, and their hot dog-making neighbor, the three occupants were the primary businesses in the building for many years. The war years saw another local proprietor of shoe sales, Okun Brothers, replace the Rosenbaum business as an occupant in the Hall Block, but Rosenbaum Shoes would return to the E. Michigan Avenue storefront in the late 1960s after Okun Brothers left for a building on E. South Street.

During the mid 1980s, the owner of the Hall Block, Ronn Sofen, sought developers who would renovate his three properties (he owned the McHugh and Schau buildings) while retaining their historic character, in a fashion similar to what had happened to several buildings situated on the other side of E. Michigan Avenue. This was a time period when many of the older buildings along Michigan Avenue were either unoccupied, or in desperate need of renovation and modernizing. An article that ran in the Kalamazoo Gazette in 1989 reported that the building’s vacant, upper floors had become inundated with pigeons, and that the owner of Rosenbaum Shoes was unhappy about the feathery pests, and their residual impact on business. The deteriorated windows of the defunct hotel had allowed the birds to easily access the interior of the building for the purpose of roosting. Pigeons and parking meters were the two nuisances that Richard Cagney, then owner of the shoe store, cited as reasons for closing Rosenbaum Shoes in the Spring of 1990, and thus ending the company’s 85-year run in Kalamazoo.

In 2023, the Kalamazoo Gazette reported that the Coney Island Loft Project had begun as an effort to convert the upper floors into apartment units. Described as a “full gut rehabilitation,” developers were awarded a $650,000 grant from the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners to aid in the project’s completion.

Written by Ryan Gage, Kalamazoo Public Library staff, March 2026