Along Main Street: 222 W. Main Street

The Lowell Area Historical Museum is taking us on a stroll along Main Street and sharing the history of buildings in Lowell’s historic downtown. To learn more about Lowell history, visit the museum website to explore its collection of local artifacts and records.

Address: 222 W. Main
Date Built: c. 1889-1891
Builder: 1st bulidng – McDole Shaw; current building-John E. Fallas
1st business: John E. Fallas Livery

McDole Shaw built the first building on this site in the 1840s one board at a time as he collected income from driving his stagecoach route from Grand Rapids to Ionia before the railroad came to town. He built a wooden 3-story building: there was a tavern on 1st floor, living space on the 2nd floor and pigs and chickens in the basement. The newspaper editor called it “Shaw’s Ark.” Shaw operated a livery stable (1863) and was Justice of the Peace (1867). He had been a dance master in Vermont and he usually wore a silk hat, cutaway coat, high collar, cravat and red top boots.

In the 1870s, Coppens & Parker sold hardware, Modern Vulcan cooking stoves, Harrison wagons, implements and farm machinery at this site, followed by Coppens & Bates. Mrs. Shaw, Millinery was upstairs in 1874. In 1885, E. W. Wilson sold farmer’s tools such as plows, harrows, and binders.

In 1885, the Sanborn map lists it as ½ harness shop and ½ tenements. It had become so dilapidated “that the unsightly ruins of the old Shaw building have been screened from view by a high bill board.” (1888). They wanted to hide the view from visitors at Train’s Hotel which opened in 1884 across S. Broadway St. to the west.

A new livery building with a Farmer’s Hitching Shed to the south appears on the Sanborn map in 1892. John E. Fallas livery stables was here by 1893. He sold his livery business and building to Chas. Westbrook in March, 1894. Westbrook had a nervous condition which only got worse so he was unable to keep working. Westbrook sold the livery and bus line to C. M. Watters in July, 1894. In 1902, Watters purchased the livery and bus building from J.E. Fallas. Fallas planned to go west to locate some pine land in Idaho or Oregon.

Here’s Doc Edmon McQueen. He had a livery stable, was a veterinarian of horses, and later had a garage and sold automobiles.

In 1906, the McQueen Stand in barn was built on N. Broadway opposite the livery. In 1912, McQueen was listed opposite Waverly Hotel. Dr. E.D. McQueen, V. S., a veterinarian who had recently graduated from Ontario Veterinary College, Toronto, began working with the Perrin and Perrin livery business (1888) located where the post office is today. McQueen married Perrin’s daughter, Mattie, and eventually took over the business. He operated a hospital for lame and diseased horses. The livery boarded horses and took customers to and from the Grand Trunk railroad depot located a mile south (across the Grand River).

This is a rear view of the McQueen building in a photo that predates 1917.

As automobiles began to replace horses, McQueen purchased 222 W. Main, selling cars from the front of the building and operating a livery from the back. In 1917, the livery and bus line were moved to the McQueen barn on N. Broadway and this building was used for auto sales exclusively.

Bruce McQueen joined his father at McQueen Motor Co. when he returned from WWI. He was active in civic affairs also.

He first sold Oakland Pontiacs, then Chevrolets, and finally Chryslers and Plymouths.

His son Bruce McQueen later took over the McQueen Motor Co. Bruce sold it to his son-in-law Marcel Kropf and Alfred Thomet in the 1960s. They had a car lot across Main Street next to the Strand. In 1965 McQueen Motors moved to a new building on the western edge of town where they had more space.

This is Marcel Kropf, who operated McQueen Motors at this location until 1965.

​Next, Erwin (Red) Bristol moved his auto repair shop here, operating for 30 years, from 1966-1996. King Milling Co. purchased the building in 1996; they showcased the old Lowell fire truck and briefly rented to Touch of Country before it became a meeting room for the mill. Recently, it was remodeled into the King Milling office building complex in 2022.

Here’s what 222 W. Main Street looked like in 1918:

And here it is today: