Along Main Street: 312 E. Main Street (MI Hometown Furnishings Section)

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: 312 E. Main- MI Hometown
Date Built: 1909
Owners: A. H. Peckham, H. A. Peckham and R. J. Flanagan
Builder: A. W. Morgan
1st business: Lowell Auto Body Company

The Lowell Auto Body Factory was built in 1909 the same year as the new City Hall across the street. It was made of brick on a concrete foundation, two stories high. Also erected was a powerhouse, dry kiln and bending room.

This block, known as The Old Wooden Row, was the first business block in town. It contained 12 wooden buildings.

A fire in 1907 destroyed five of the buildings so the Peckham family, owners of the Lowell Cutter Company, bought the lots and built a factory to manufacture wooden auto bodies for Austin, Dort-Durant and Buick. The Peckhams had previously turned down Henry Ford’s offer to purchase their Cutter Factory to build his automobiles because they thought Ford was a fly-by-night operator. Lowell Auto Body was the Peckham’s bid to move from making cutter bodies into auto manufacturing.

This factory was used from 1910-1913 to manufacture wooden auto bodies, such as the 1910 Buick shown above. The car bodies were made using the same processes that were used to make wooden cutter (sleigh) bodies in their Cutter Company buildings that were located on S. Monroe St. extending west to the Flat River. However, by 1911, metal bodies for cars were considered the best, consequently wooden ones were obsolete.

In 1920, Ypsilanti Reed of Ionia purchased the factory to manufacture woven reed furniture. One item that they made exclusively was the baby buggy, and you can see an example in this 1924 photo which shows a woman pushing a buggy along a Lowell sidewalk.

In 1925, Superior Furniture Co of Grand Rapids bought the factory but went bankrupt in 1935. In 1936, a new Superior Furniture Company formed and made an elite line of solid cherry wood furniture that became “famous” around the world. The map above shows the Superior Furniture Co. factory in 1938, including a railroad siding along the east side of the building as the Packing & Shipping room was in the northeast corner.

Dogsleds, such a the one displayed in this photo, were made at Superior during WWII for the US Government war effort.

This company was highly successful and remained in business for 73 years until 2009. MI Hometown Furnishings opened here in 2017.

Here’s what 312 E. Main Street looked like after the turn of the 20th Century:

And here’s what it looks like now: