Grand Ledge Chair Company Plant
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S5280ft
N 42° 45.395 W 084° 45.329
16T E 683671 N 4736227
Located at the north end of Perry Street, off of West Jefferson. It has been turned into an apartment complex called "Riverwalk". There is plenty parking here.
Waymark Code: WM101F
Location: Michigan, United States
Date Posted: 11/27/2006
Views: 14
From the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office website:
The historic structure of the Grand Ledge Chair Company Plant is a long and narrow, three-story, brick factory building built in 1906. The building, which housed the assembly, finishing, and shipping processes of the chair company, exemplifies the heavy, timber, mill construction typical of the turn-of-the-century period. The factory has a flat, built-up roof. The facades exhibit regular fenestration with double-hung windows set into segmental-arch heads. The street-facing portion of the facade is treated with a stepped-gable design containing in its center the main entrance. The parapets have corbelled brick detailing below the cornice line. Perched atop the roof on a square, brick base and in line with the main entrance is a wood-slat water tank held together with steel bands.
Statement of Significance:
The Grand Ledge Chair Company Plant is the only example surviving in the Grand Ledge-Lansing area of a furniture-manufacturing complex built during the heyday of the furniture-manufacturing industry in southern Michigan in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuries. It housed one of Grand Ledge's principal industrial concerns and largest employers in the early twentieth century. The company originated as a small furniture shop located in the center of Grand Ledge in 1874, but incorporated in 1888 as the Grand Ledge Chair Company. The first owners sold their interests to Edward H. Turnbull in 1893 and the firm prospered under his management. The 1906 building reflected many improvements in factory design to resist fire including brick construction, heavy timber frame to support the building even when partially burned, and framing and flooring fully exposed to view without crawl spaces. The company remained in the family of Edward Turnbull's wife, Emma A. Turnbull until 1973 and closed in 1981. The building has been redeveloped and is currently in use as an apartment complex.
Historical Name: Edward H. Turnbull, Emma A. Turnbull
Parking nearby?: yes
D/T ratings: 
website: [Web Link]
Registered Site #: Local Site #
Historical Date: Not listed
Description: Not listed
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