Illinois Envelope Company Building

400 Bryant/311 E. Alcott

Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, the Illinois Envelope Company Building is the last remaining structure that was once part of the sprawling complex of paper-making/supporting facilities situated between Reed (northern border), Portage (eastern border), Alcott (southern border) and Burdick (western border) streets. Saved from the fate that befell the nearby power plants, pump houses, storage tanks, and mills the building has been renovated and reopened (in 2018) as the site of offices for the Kalamazoo County Health and Community Services Department.

As the name suggests, the company originally hailed from Centralia, Illinois, having formed in 1902 with a focus on business forms, envelopes and stationary. At the urging of the Bryant Paper Company, its largest creditor after the business filed bankruptcy, the company moved to the Edison Neighborhood in 1904 along the all important Portage Creek, and the industrial complex that grew around it during the first two decades of the 20th century. The three-story brick building was erected in 1904-05 by local contractor Albert J. White, where it remained in use until the company was liquidated in 1998 after being sold to a Colorado-based competitor called Mail-Well, who immediately shuttered the business, leaving 67 employees without a job. The building’s current address is listed as 311 E. Alcott.

Article written by Ryan Gage, Kalamazoo Public Library staff, April 2024