T.P. Sheldon House, 324 West Main

Early Italianate-style Home (built c.1850)

Theodore Pierce Sheldon

Theodore Pierce Sheldon (1810-1893) was born in Remsen, New York, in April 1810. After working for his uncle as a clerk and deputy receiver at the land office in White Pigeon, Michigan, Sheldon arrived in Kalamazoo in 1834, where he served as Kalamazoo County treasurer and opened a brokerage office on Main Street. In 1838, Sheldon was appointed treasurer of the Kalamazoo Branch of the University of Michigan, which later became Kalamazoo College.

Theodore Sheldon soon became a prominent member of the Democratic committee. He was elected Kalamazoo Township Supervisor in April 1838, and was elected township treasurer in 1843. In 1844, Sheldon established the first private bank in the area, later partnering with Horace Mower and later still with Henry Breese. By 1850 he was serving as village treasurer while a charter member of the Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids Plank Road Company (1850) and the Kalamazoo and Three Rivers Plank Road Company (1851). Sheldon’s private bank was reorganized in 1884 as the Kalamazoo Savings Bank and eventually merged into the Bank of Kalamazoo. Theodore P. Sheldon passed away in July 1893 at the age of 83.

Corner of Main and Park

In April 1838, T.P. Sheldon purchased lots 25 and 26 on the northeast corner of Main and Park streets, where he erected a small home, “…a little story and a half house, its gable end toward the street, its front door and windows placed after the irregular fashion of the day, and its little square half windows opening out from under the eaves on the side” (Telegraph).

About 1850, Sheldon replaced the older dwelling on the property with this stately two-story Italianate-style brick home. While it wasn’t the first brick home built in Kalamazoo, it was among the finest of its day. “For years it was pointed out as the finest house in Kalamazoo county — square, substantial, its large parlors opening hospitably one from another” (Telegraph). The Sheldon family occupied the home until about 1870, after which it was used as Bessie F. Patrick’s “Boarding and Day School,” a private school for young women.

Cosmopolitan Club

After the school closed, the home served as a club house during the 1890s for members of the Cosmopolitan Club. The social club was organized in April 1890 with 55 charter members who were “substantial business men and capitalists of the city” (Gazette). During the months that followed, the home was repaired and redecorated, a longer front porch was added, and the surrounding grounds were improved. The inside was fitted with parlors and billiard rooms, and soon afterwards a 64-foot bowling alley was added in the rear of the building.

The home was used by the club until 1897, when it was closed, and the property sold. The two-story brick structure was torn down when the Henderson-Ames Company built its new office building on the property in 1902. The lot facing Main Street served as a park for a time before a newer Henderson-Ames building (now First National Bank of Michigan) was built, which occupies the space today.

Written by Keith Howard, Kalamazoo Public Library staff, May 2024.