308 S. Main Street, Lymand Ball/Holland`s Floral

PRELIMINARY HISTORIC DISTRICT STUDY COMMITTEE REPORT
LYMAND BALL/HOLLAND’S FLORAL BUILDING LOCAL HISTORIC DISTRICT
308 SOUTH MAIN STREET
ROCHESTER, MICHIGAN
CHARGE OF THE HISTORIC DISTRICTS STUDY COMMITTEE
In April 2012, the Rochester City Council approved the request by the Rochester Historical
Commission to establish a Historic District Study Committee. The Historic Districts Study
Committee was appointed by Rochester City Council on September 24, 2012. On November 10,
2014 the Rochester City Council adopted Rochester Code of Ordinances, Chapter 27, Historic
Preservation. This ordinance requires that a study committee be appointed prior to the
establishment of a historic district, and shall include a majority of persons who have a clearly
demonstrated interest in, or knowledge of, historic preservation. The study committee is charged
with carrying out an inventory, research, and preparation of a preliminary historic district study
committee report for a proposed historic district following the selection criteria for evaluation
issued by the United States Secretary of the Interior for inclusion of resources in the National
Register of Historic Places, as set forth in 36 CFR part 60, and criteria established or approved
by the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office. Study committee members serve three year
terms. A list of current committee members follows.
STUDY COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Eric Bothwell, a retired General Motors graphic designer, has a history of community
involvement, including serving on the Greater Rochester Heritage Days Board, the City
Beautiful Commission, the Historical Commission and the Historic District Study Committee.
As a skilled designer and photographer, he has documented historic resources for the Study
Committee Reports and Main Street Makeover.
Gail Bothwell has lived in Rochester since 1944. She has a strong interest in historic preservation
and is an active member of the Rochester Historical Commission and the liaison to the Michigan
Historic Preservation Network. She was appointed to the Rochester Historic District Study
Committee in 2012 and has attended numerous historic related conferences and workshops.
Tricia DeMarco is a recent resident and wants to help contribute to preserving the heritage and
sense of place and community of Rochester. She is a professional planner, engineer, and LEED
accredited certified planner. She has a Master of Urban Design and Planning and a Master of
Civil Engineering. She was appointed to the Rochester Historic District Study Committee in June
2015.
John Dziurman, AIA, NCARB a registered architect with a practice focused on historic
preservation, and meets the qualification for historic architect. He is a member of the Rochester
Historical Commission, liaison to the Planning Commission and chair of the Study Committee.
Previously, he was a member of the Rochester Hills Historic District Commission for 24 years
and it’s Study Committee for 11 years.
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Paul Haig, a jeweler/art dealer is the owner of two historic properties in Rochester, an 1880
residence and an 1898 commercial building in downtown Rochester. Paul is very active in the
community and is a member of the Downtown Development Authority Board and numerous
service organizations. He has been a member and vice-chair of the Historic District Study
Committee since 2013.
Gail Kemler has lived in Rochester since the 1920s and remains active in the community. She
was a member of the Rochester Board of Education, president of the Rochester Avon Historical
Society, a member of the Historical Commission and has been actively involved in creating
historic districts in Rochester since 1977. She has been a member of the Historic District Study
Committee since 2012.
Michael Paradise is a 40 year resident of Rochester, served on three Historic District Study
Committees since 1977 and was a charter member of the Rochester Downtown Development
Authority in 1982. He is dedicated to preserving the historic legacy and charm that originally
drew him to Rochester. Michael is an Artist, Designer, Technology Coordinator & Media Lab
Manager for 20 years at Cranbrook Academy of Art.
Elaine H. Robinson and Scott Slagor, architectural historians with Commonwealth Cultural
Resources Group, Inc., assisted the study committee in its work.
INVENTORY
A photographic inventory of the proposed district was conducted in 2015 as part of the
Rochester Historic Districts Survey. The photographer for the Lymand Ball/Holland’s Floral
Building was Eric Bothwell, Rochester Historic District Study Committee. Copies of the
photographs and resulting historic district reports are located at the Rochester City Hall, the
Rochester Hills Museum, and the State Historic Preservation Office.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DISTRICT
The Lymand Ball/Hollands Florist building is located on the east side of South Main Street,
north of East Third Street (Figures 1 and 2).1 The two-story building is positioned in the center of
a row of commercial buildings, with no space between the adjoining storefronts. Both sides of
South Main Street are lined with one- and two-story commercial buildings, dating from the late
nineteenth century to recent decades. Between the building and the street is a concrete sidewalk
and street furniture, including streetlights and parking meters.
Originally two separate buildings, today the Lymand Ball/Holland’s Florist building includes a
two-story structure on the south and a one-story building added about fifteen years later with
similar styling and features (Figure 3) (Sanborn Map 1908:3; 1916:3). The one-story building
has subsequently had an addition made to the roof, which is set back from the front elevation
slightly.
1
The map in Figure 2 utilizes City of Rochester GIS mapping for the legal parcels overlaid on an aerial
photograph. The distortion seen is a result of the angle of the aerial photography. In reality, the building at the
footprint is within the defined boundary.
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Both buildings have a brick façade and flat roof. The two storefronts are defined in part by
pilasters placed at each edge of the storefront. These pilasters continue up the front of the
foundation to terminate in an elaborate cornice. The main building block has the cornice above
the second story and the north building features the cornice over its first-story windows. Pilasters
in the main building block appear to continue up into the brackets that form the sides of the
cornice and are surmounted by an orb finial. Because there is only one pilaster between the
storefronts, the cornice of the original one-story addition ends next to the pilaster, resulting in a
slightly off-balance appearance. Below both cornices, the brick wall has a dentilated corbeling to
transition from the smooth brick walls to the projecting cornice. The cornices themselves are
divided into sections by brackets. Within each of the five cornice sections on the main building
and the two on the one-story building, the cornice has a fan ornament topped by a string of
modillions. Ornamental carving includes ribs in the fans and appliqued acanthus and rosette
designs. An intricate paint scheme further defines each of the cornice details.
The storefront of the entire building is divided into four fenestration bays, with alternating
entries and large display windows on the first story, beginning with a door at the south and
ending with a window at the north. Each entrance is recessed from the façade and the resulting
vestibule wall is at a slight angle, narrowing towards the door. A fabric awning spans the width
of the entire building. Located above the awning is a signboard spanning nearly the entire width
of the main block, with a second, separate signboard spanning the front of the side building
block.
The second story of the main building is divided into three fenestration bays, each with one
narrow, double-hung window. Above each window is an awning similar to that over the firststory storefronts. The north building’s second story is constructed behind the cornice parapet,
with only a small portion of the wall and two windows visible from street level.
The south elevation of the building is directly adjacent to the neighboring building and is not
visible. The north elevation abuts a one-story building; the exposed second floor of the Lymand
Ball building is concrete block. The rear elevation of the building is red, unpainted brick (Figure
4). Like the façade, the rear elevation is also divided into two blocks. However, from the rear,
both blocks are two-stories high and the larger portion of building is to the north. The two
building sections are divided by a simple, unfluted pilaster with a plain, square capital. The north
and south ends of the building also feature the same pilaster detail. The northern, larger portion
has one door with a small window to the south. The two portions of the elevation are further
demarcated by a fabric awning above each portion. The southern, smaller portion of the rear
elevation has one recessed entrance door with a small, plate glass window positioned at the south
corner of the elevation (Figure 5).
Like the façade, awnings are utilized between the first and second building stories; however, on
the rear of the building, the awnings are divided to fit the width of their associated portion of the
elevation. A course of rowlock bricks spans the entire width of the rear elevation above the
awnings. The southern portion of the building has one six-over-six window above the rowlock
bricks, and the northern portion has three symmetrically placed, six-over-six windows. Each of
the four windows has a plain stone lintel. A simple, unornamented cornice spans the width of the
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rear elevation. A soldier course of bricks is positioned below the cornice and between the
capitals and spans the width of the building.
COUNT OF HISTORIC AND NON-HISTORIC RESOURCES
The proposed Lymand Ball/Holland’s Floral Building historic district contains two historic
(contributing) and zero non-historic (non-contributing) resources.
BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION
The proposed Lymand Ball/Holland’s Floral Building Historic District has the following legal
description:
T3N, R11E, SEC 14 ORIGINAL PLAT N 1/2 OF LOT 13
BOUNDARY JUSTIFICATION
The proposed historic district contains the entire site of the building. The building is located
within its original property boundaries.
HISTORY OF THE DISTRICT
Lymand L. Ball, who was originally from Milan, Michigan, relocated to Rochester in the final
years of the nineteenth century and established his photography and sketch artist business in a
studio on East Fourth Street (Larsen 2011:18). The 1900 Federal Census records indicate that
Lyman Ball (age 20) was a photographer and had been married one year to his wife Jennie (age
20) (United States Census Bureau 1900). The couple had married on November 22, 1899, in
Detroit, where Mrs. Genevieve Ball worked as a clerk (Ancestry 2015).
Early advertisements for Lymand L. Ball’s business, the Rochester Art Gallery, were printed
regularly in the Rochester Era. One such piece admonished readers:
Procrastination…is the Thief of Time, When you say WAIT a few
days or weeks and then we will have our PHOTOGRAPHS taken.
You are doing it wrong. WHY? Because you are! Well Why?
Now do you know you can have it then. If you are in need of
photographs you should not delay it more than one day but go
directly to the Rochester Art Gallery. L. L. Ball, Artist (Rochester
Era [RE] 1899:2).
His methods must have met with some success, because on Friday, May 18, 1900, the Rochester
Era reported that:
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L.L. Ball, the artist, is preparing to build a brick block adjoining
the Bitters house on the south. It will be 20x60 ft, with his gallery
on the second floor. Mr. Ball has a fine trade in his profession and
his new gallery will give them much more room and opportunity to
extend is business (RE 1900a:1)
On July 20, 1900, the Rochester Era continued the news of the construction, reporting that
“Ball’s new building is going up rapidly and the brick work will be finished in a few days” (RE
1900b:1). Several months later, building construction was nearing completion:
The plate glass of L. L. Ball’s new brick block has been placed in
position. Mr. Ball expects to remove his gallery to the new
quarters soon (RE 1900c:1).
When the building was complete, it opened with W. J. Kingsbury’s Palace bakery on the first
floor and Ball’s photography studio on the second floor (Larsen 2011:18). The bakery did not
last long, and was replaced by a short-lived confectionery store operated by Ball himself before
Lafayette Mead’s Rochester Steam Laundry moved into the first floor (Remembering Rochester
2011; Larsen 2011:19).
Just a few years after completing the new building, on June 11, 1904, Lyman Ball sold it to
Lafayette (Lafe) Mead and moved his photography business and family to the Northville/
Plymouth area (Larsen 2011:18-19). With the departure of the studio on the second floor of the
building, Mr. Mead converted the space into his personal apartment. The steam laundry
remained in the building until 1942, when Mead retired and sold the business to Detroit investors
(Larsen 2011:19).
The Ball Building consisted of only the two-story structure when it was constructed. The onestory section was built after 1908 and first appeared on the Sanborn Map of 1916, when it carried
the notation B&S (boots and shoes) (Sanborn Map 1908:3; 1916:3). By 1926, the Sanborn Map
notation simply indicated that the building housed a store, which was likely the Rochester
Plumbing & Heating business located at the address in 1929 (Sanborn Map 1926; Rochester
Avon Historical Society 2015). Rochester Plumbing and Heating remained in its small storefront
for many years, but moved to another building further north on Rochester Road around 2011
(City of Rochester 2015). It is likely that the two buildings came under single ownership at that
time, and now both carry the street address of 308 South Main Street.
The building was purchased by Bill Holland in 1948, who was running his business, Sunset
Floral Shop, out of his parent’s residence until the building was ready to occupy (Rochester
Clarion 1973:1). The building has been well maintained over the years and maintains much of its
original appearance. Since the 1960s, a second-story addition has been made to the former onestory structure at 310 South Main Street. There have also been several additions to the east side
of the building complex, resulting in its current configuration. These were built after the
publication of the Sanborn Map for the area in 1939 (Sanborn Map 1939:4).
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SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DISTRICT
The Lymand Ball/Holland’s Floral Building Block Local Historic District is significant under
National Register Criterion A, for its association with a pattern of historical events, and under
Criterion C, for its embodiment of the distinctive characteristics of a type of architecture
associated with commercial buildings of the early twentieth century. The period of significance
is from 1900 to 1965, as the building continued to operate as a commercial entity from its
opening to a period ending 50 years ago.
The National Register Criteria
The quality of significance in American history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, and
culture is present in districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects that possess integrity of
location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association, and:
Criterion A. That are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the
broad patterns of our history.
The Lymand Ball/Holland’s Floral building is locally significant to the commercial development
of Rochester, Michigan. The building is a good example of a modest, early twentieth-century
commercial building with retail space on the first floor and offices on the second. The building
has remained commercial through its entire history, with essentially three major tenants,
Lafayette Mead’s Steam Laundry and Holland Florists in the main building, and Rochester
Plumbing & Heating, who occupied the one-story section of the building from about 1915
through 2011. Between these three businesses, the block was continually occupied for over 100
years.
Criterion C. That embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of
construction, or that represent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or that
represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual
distinction.
The Lymand Ball/Holland’s Floral Building embodies the distinctive characteristics of a
commercial storefront with Italianate stylistic features. Most distinctive of the features are the
cornices; however, the recessed placement of the entries, large storefront display windows, and
tall, narrow, upper story windows convey Italianate qualities as well (Gordon 1992:85-6).
Although the building had some modifications in its long history, including incorporation of a
neighboring building into the block, it still retains a good level of integrity. The Lymand Ball/
Holland’s Floral Building retains its integrity of location, design, setting, materials,
workmanship, feeling, and association.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ancestry
2015
Michigan Marriage Records, 1867-1952. Electronic document,
http://interactive.ancestry.com/9093/41326_34236100166/579362?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.com%2f%2fcgibin%2fsse.dll%3fgss%3dangsg%26new%3d1%26rank%3d1%26msT%3d1%26gsfn%3dLymand%2b%26gsln
%3dBall%26mswpn__ftp%3dRochester%252c%2bOakland%252c%2bMichigan
%252c%2bUSA%26mswpn%3d44871%26mswpn_PInfo%3d8%257c0%257c1652393%257c0%257c2%257c3247%257c25%257c0%257c2205
%257c44871%257c0%257c%26MSAV%3d0%26msbdy%3d1880%26cp%3d0%
26catbucket%3drstp%26pcat%3dROOT_CATEGORY%26h%3d579362%26reco
ff%3d8%2b9%2b10%2b49%26db%3dMIMarriages%26indiv%3d1%26ml_rpos%3d1&ssrc=&backlabel=ReturnRecord,
accessed July 6, 2015.
Gordon, Stephen C.
1992 How to Complete the Ohio Historic Inventory. Ohio Historic Preservation Office,
Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, Ohio.
Larsen, Deborah J.
2011 Remembering Rochester: Main Street Stories. Rochester Avon Historical Society:
Rochester, Michigan.
Remembering Rochester
2011 Bygone Business: L. L. Ball Confectionery. Electronic document,
http://rochesteravonhistory.blogspot.com/2011/05/bygone-business-ll-ballconfectionery.html, accessed July 24, 2015.
Rochester Avon Historical Society
2015 1929 Rochester Criss-Cross Directory Sorted by Address. Electronic document,
http://www.rochesteravonhistoricalsociety.org/files/research/directories/1929%20
Rochester%20Directory%20by%20Address.pdf, accessed July 24, 2015.
Rochester, City of
2015 Tax Information. Electronic document,
https://accessmygov.com/SiteSearch/SiteSearchDetails?SearchFocus=&SearchCa
tegory=Address&SearchText=308+S+Main&uid=1655&PageIndex=1&Referenc
eKey=68-15-14-103008&ReferenceType=0&SortBy=&SearchOrigin=0&RecordKey=1%3d68-1514-103-008%3a%3a4%3d68-15-14-103-008%3a%3a7%3dcf3b882a-7604-475aa8a3-9bc0cd6ccc61%3a%3a2%3d68-15-14-103008&RecordKeyType=1%3d0%3a%3a4%3d0%3a%3a7%3d2%3a%3a2%3d0,
accessed July 24, 2015.
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Rochester Clarion
1973 Holland Florists Observe 25th Year, 8 March:1. Michigan
Rochester Era
1899 Procrastination…, L. L. Ball advertisement. 5 August:2. Michigan.
1900a Rochester Haps and Mishaps. 18 May:1. Michigan.
1900b Rochester Haps and Mishaps. 20 July:1. Michigan.
1900c Rochester Haps and Mishaps. 21 September:1. Michigan.
Sanborn Map
1908 Rochester, Oakland County, Michigan. Sanborn Map Company, New York.
1916
Rochester, Oakland County, Michigan. Sanborn Map Company, New York.
1926
Rochester, Oakland County, Michigan. Sanborn Map Company, New
York.
1939
Rochester, Oakland County, Michigan (rev 1926). Sanborn Map Company, New
York.
United States Census Bureau
1900 Twelfth Census of the United States: 1900 – Population Schedule 1, Avon
Township, Rochester Village, Michigan. Department of Commerce and Land,
Washington, D. C.
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Local Historic
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Figure 1. Lymand Ball/Holland's Floral Building, 308 South Main Street, Location
Copyright:© 2013 National Geographic Society, i-cubed
Date: 8/10/2015
Map Reference: National Geographic Society 1:24,000 Series, Rochester and Utica Quadrangles, Michigan (scale 1:24,000) 2015
Lymand Ball/Holland's Floral Building,
308 South Main Street
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Source: Esri, DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, Earthstar Geographics, CNES/Airbus DS, USDA,
USGS, AEX, Getmapping, Aerogrid, IGN, IGP, swisstopo, and the GIS User Community
Figure 2. Lymand Ball/Holland's Floral Building, 308 South Main Street, Local Historic District Boundary
Date: 8/10/2015
Local Historic
District Boundary
Figure 3. Lymand Ball/Holland’s Floral Building, View to the East
Figure 4. Lymand Ball/Holland’s Floral Building, Rear Elevation, View to
the Southwest
Figure 5. Lymand Ball/Holland’s Floral Building, Rear Elevation, View to
the Northwest