The Haley Block

The Haley Block was the last in a succession of buildings on this site that began sometime before 1871 to house the Haley Sisters Millinery Shop. Five successive structures burned, including the first in the great fire of 1871. On January 1st, 1883, fire damaged the shop at 419 River Street along with eight other buildings, but its facade survived, allowing the sisters to rebuild it as an elaborate wood frame and brick veneer structure. They also began constructing a similarly designed double business block immediately west at 421-423 River Street, this time with solid brick walls to reduce the danger from future fires. A Milwaukee firm supplied one ornate galvanized iron cornice spanning all three Italianate storefronts, creating what was and remains Manistee's most elaborate corniceline. The Haley family owned the building until the 1930's, with the Haleys' business at 419 River Street, William Nungesser, an undertaker and furniture dealer, as the first tenant at 421 River Street, and A.S. Haines operating a grocery store at 423 River Street. Over time, the three shops housed numerous tenants, including a grocery store, a drug store, a florist, the Railway Express Company, the Salvation Army headquarters, a restaurant, and a State Liquor Store. Built in 1883, the two-story High Victorian Italianate brick building is about sixty feet wide and divided into three storefront bays, with second-floor double-hung one-over-one sash windows, an elaborate metal cornice above decorative brick corbelling with a small central name pediment, narrow raised wood spandrels below the cornice of each bay, a secondary cornice beneath the windows with decorative end blocks aligned with the first-floor support piers, and storefronts defined by masonry piers and Manistee-fabricated cast iron columns, with a door to the upper story between the west and center storefronts.

Manistee, Michigan · United States