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Modern Appliance, Quality Bakery To Begin Reconstruction Work

Modern Appliance, Quality Bakery To Begin Reconstruction Work image
Parent Issue
Day
15
Month
March
Year
1955
Copyright
Copyright Protected
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
OCR Text

Modern Appliance, Quality Bakery To Begin Reconstruction Work

Stores Hit By Jan. 6 Fires To Be Rebuilt

The reconstruction of two burned-out downtown store buildings —the Modern Appliance Co. at 115 E. Liberty St. and the Quality Bakery at 347 S. Main St.—is about to begin simultaneously.

Reconstruction of the Liberty St. building follows more than a month of negotiations which have terminated with the purchase of the building by Jack V. Tinnin, owner of the Modern Appliance Co., for an undisclosed sum. It was formerly owned by John C. Fritz.

Russell T. Dobson, jr., owns the structure housing the Quality Bakery, which is operated by Oscar Laubengayer.

Both buildings were swept by fire during the early morning hours of Jan. 6. Both will be restored by the Henry W. deKoning Construction Co.

Construction Cost Told

Permit applications at the city Building Inspection Department show that the cost of construction at the Modern Appliance Co. will approximate $60,000, while work the Quality Bakery will run to about $23,000.

Plans for the new appliance firm, prepared by Colvin, Robinson & Associates, call for a complete interior change on both floors of the two-story building. By moving a rear wall farther back and utilizing an existing structure at the rear of the building, sales space will be increased by about 25 per cent or to 2,560 square-feet, Richard Robinson, partner of the architectural firm, said.

A wall, which formerly divided much of the ground floor in two parts, will be replaced by pillars. And the floor, which was previously two levels, will be made even.

The exterior of the front will be mostly of glass. A stairway leading to the second floor will be moved side of the store.

Plans Not Complete

Tinnin said be does not yet know what use will be made of the second floor. Before the fire, it housed the offices and examining rooms of Dr. Charles W. Newton, Dr. Walter Belser and Dr. Edmund S. Botch.

Architects’ plans call for three offices, a laboratory section, waiting room, reception room and three pairs of examining rooms.

Lyndon Welch, chief structural engineer of Eberle & Smith, architects and engineers of Detroit, redesigned the Quality Bakery store.

Plans call for tearing down the south wall and rebuilding it in an extended position near the property line between the store and the city parking lot. This will go back to join the block structure which comprises the rear of the bakery.

Plans Announced

A partition separating the bakery office on S. Main St. with a shoe repair shop, now occupying a portion of the structure, will be moved to provide more bakery area. And a rear office wall will be moved back. The completed project will give the bakery about 8,000 square feet of floor space.

The bakery is a single-story structure. The brick front portion and the block rear structure escaped with a minimum of fire damage. A wooden structure which formed the working room between the two was destroyed.

The bakery has suspended operations since the fire.

The Modern Appliance Co. is currently operating in rented quarters at 314 S. Fourth Ave. Both construction projects are expected to be completed in about four months.

INITIAL CLEANUP: A bulldozer pushes into piles the burned wreckage of the Quality Bakery at 347 S. Main St. as the first step in a $23,000 reconstruction project. A similar project, now getting under way at the Modern Appliance Co., 115 E. Liberty St., will amount to $60,000, according to building permit applications. Both stores burned Jan. 6, and both are being rebuilt by the deKoning Construction Co.