Downtown Pontiac. Building by building.

71–75 N Saginaw Street

Turk Building

1900

This broad Romanesque commercial building dates to 1900. Its decorative brick corbels help distinguish it from the narrower storefronts nearby.

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12–14 N Saginaw Street

Strand / Campus Theatre

Historic theater

The Strand’s facade uses delicate Adamesque ornament and fluted pilasters. Its architecture preserves a theater identity even as interiors and uses change.

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35 E Huron Street

Former Post Office / Furlong Building

1910

This limestone post office was built in 1910 from Treasury architect John Knox Taylor’s office plans. Ionic columns give its frontage a civic presence.

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1 Lafayette Street

Masonic Temple

1923

Built in 1923, the temple is distinguished by grouped arched windows recessed into larger arches. It represents downtown’s fraternal and civic life.

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27 S Saginaw Street

Grinnell Brothers Music House

1923 · Leo John Heenan

Music retail was part of Pontiac’s commercial life. Grinnell Brothers opened a local outlet in 1907; after fire destroyed its earlier premises, the company commissioned this replacement in 1923. Architect Leo John Heenan designed a narrow, three-story Gothic Revival building with a stone front. The name carved above the storefront keeps the original business visible in the architecture. Steel framing and concrete floors reflected the ambition to build a more fire-resistant store.

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11–15 S Saginaw Street

Eagle Theater

1927 · Moorish Revival

The site’s entertainment story began before the present building. A nineteenth-century hotel was converted to a movie house in 1910, and the current Eagle replaced it in 1927. The building’s Moorish vocabulary includes horseshoe arches and strong vertical towers. Its upper levels included a gathering room and apartments intended for traveling vaudeville performers. The theater is a reminder that downtown supported an entire evening economy, from performances to the people who stayed after the curtain fell.

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1 S Saginaw Street · Saginaw and Pike

Crofoot Building

Rebuilt 1882

The Crofoot’s layered fabric reaches back to Pontiac’s early commercial center. An 1882 rebuilding reused portions of an older structure. Judge Michael E. Crofoot’s offices occupied the upper floor, while businesses faced the street below. The complex’s 2007 reopening as a music venue added another chapter to a long pattern of adaptation.

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Crofoot complex · South Saginaw Street

Vernor’s Building

Victorian storefront · remodeled 1926

This narrow historic component of the Crofoot complex was remodeled for a Vernor’s soda fountain in 1926. The changing storefront shows how familiar downtown buildings were repeatedly adapted to new kinds of public life.

Historic component; separate current parcel and address require confirmation

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Crofoot complex · Pike Street frontage

New Crofoot Block

Circa 1912

The New Crofoot Block extended commercial space along Pike Street around 1912. Its two-story arrangement combined street-level shops with offices above, using brick, limestone, and pressed-metal details. It later became part of the larger Crofoot complex.

Historic component; separate current parcel and address require confirmation

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35 N Saginaw Street

35 North Saginaw Street

HLC film location

HLC’s on-location film makes this Saginaw Street building a starting point for exploring the commercial district. Watch Chris’s account of the building and its downtown setting. A documented construction date, architect, and ownership chronology will be added as the property record is assembled.

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35 W Huron Street

Riker Building / The Foundry

Historic downtown building · HLC’s physical home

The Riker Building connects the downtown archive with a story still unfolding. The Foundry by History Loves Company occupies Suite 101, bringing makers, retail, media, and community programming into a historic commercial setting. Start with HLC’s film about the marketplace, then follow the building’s earlier chapters as archival research develops.

Downtown companion profile; exact National Register parcel coverage to confirm

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