Your Voice: Letters to the Editor

Historic Buildings Are Treasures Worth Preserving

Iwas out the other night, when I stopped in to see Laura Genitti, second generation owner of Genitti’s Hole in the Wall, located in a historic building in the heart of downtown Northville that has become probably the most wellknown events center in town. Laura gave me a tour of the place, which dates back to the 1880s and has housed many different businesses over that time. As she walked me through the building, I couldn’t help thinking about all the people who had been in there over the years. If only the old bricks and stones could speak. The Genitti family has done a wonderful job giving their old building new life. And they aren’t the only ones. Downtown Northville is filled with historic buildings that have been given a new lease on life by visionary owners who recognized the value older structures possess.

Our cover story this month, written by Maria Taylor, focuses on some of the most visible examples of this, including

the Water Wheel Centre, The Hangar (formerly the Village Workshop) and The Garage restaurant, which was once a gas station. You can find her story on Page 14. Of course, Maria could only focus on a fraction of the buildings that have been restored. It was tough to narrow it down, because she could have chosen many others, all with their own unique stories. Northville’s Historic District encompasses 144 acres and nearly 350 properties including residential structures, parks, commercial and public buildings (churches and schools), factories and even utility structures.

Preserving old buildings is never easy, and over the course of the last couple years there have been a few high profile cases that have created battles over the fates of some of these structures. In one case, with the former Main Street School, preservationists did not prevail and the building was demolished to make way for new housing that is well under way.

Then there is the case of the long vacant building at 341 E. Main Street. The three-story, 12,000-square-foot structure that dates back to the 1800s was in jeopardy of being demolished for a new building. The city’s Historic District Commission in 2018 overruled owner Eric Guidobono’s application for a demolition permit, however. The long vacant building at 341 E. Main Street.

Not much has happened since, but Guidobono and partner Ed Funke did apply to the HDC last summer to construct a new foundation for the building, and did pull permits for some interior demo work and asbestos removal. They told city leaders they expect to continue work this coming construction season. This isn’t the course they wanted, or I’m sure the cheapest route. I believe, in the end, however, they will be glad they saved the building and preserved a bit of Northville’s past. Old buildings have a certain magic that just can’t be replicated with new construction. Hopefully a hundred years from now, the building will still be standing and visitors will wonder about all the people who walked within its walls, even if they can’t talk.

Kurt Kuban is editor and publisher of The ‘Ville. He welcomes your feedback at kurtkuban@thevillemagazine. com.

Strike A Chord

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For The Love Of Food

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40 The 'Shoe' Fits

Your Voice: Letters to the Editor 4 Past Tense: New chapter for iconic Griswold estate 10 Restored historic buildings bring new life to town 14 Unified basketball squad brings people together 22 Planning meetings will lay out downtown’s future 26 Out & About: What’s happening this month 30 It’s Your Business: Urban You 38 Dishin’ With Denise 44

Let us live in peace I recently received an invitation to attend a series of planning sessions hosted by the Northville Planning Commission to discuss redevelopment of Northville and the downtown master plan. Apparently, someone else has eyes on Northville to make it into something other than the small historic village that has existed for over a century. I’m disappointed because I actually believed that after the recently proposed sale of the Northville Downs racetrack and surrounding area fell through, Northville could return to simply being Northville. However, it appears that the “Target Areas” are too valuable to leave alone and investors have too much money to just let us live in peace in homes we have owned for decades. So, I am urging everyone (who cares) to attend these Planning Meetings at 7 p.m. on March 24, March 31, April 14 and April 28 at the Community Center, and voice your opinion on this subject.

David Bryant

You’re invited to help On April 1, Northville’s American Legion Auxiliary Unit 147 will NOT be hosting a party! However, we will be raising money for the Fisher House Foundation, which builds comfort homes where military and veterans families can stay free of charge, while a loved one is in the hospital. These homes are located at military and V.A. medical centers around the world. Again, we will not be hosting a party. You do not have to show up on time, there will be no dinner served, no dancing or karaoke. We request your absence. Best of all, you can donate late to not attend this event. Founded in 1920, Northville’s American Legion Auxiliary Unit 147 is your community of volunteers working to support our veterans and their families. Please join us in our commitment to help. We are a registered nonprofit organization licensed by the State of Michigan. Donations may be made to American Legion Auxiliary Unit147 and mailed to us at 22200 Pondview, Novi, MI 48375-5039 or visit our Facebook page (Northville American Legion Auxiliary Post 147) and use our donation link directly to Fisher House Foundation.

Cris Doering President American Legion Auxiliary Unit 147

Bring orchestra to Marquis The Northville school district is starting a string orchestra class as part of the academic curriculum in the fall. This is the first time string instruments (violin, viola, cello and double bass) will be included in Northville’s music program. The community’s interest in string ensembles will most likely increase and the Marquis Theatre would be the perfect venue for a chamber orchestra. I have directed a free chamber orchestra for the children in Northville for the past eight years. The Northville Strings Youth Orchestra has given many young string players the opportunity to play in an orchestra. I would love my orchestra of 20 young string players to perform at the Marquis Theatre. They would always remember performing at this historical landmark in their own city. The new string orchestra program will need support from Music Booster Funds. My colleagues, some of whom are DSO string players, would like to perform at the Marquis to help raise funds for the new program. I hope there can be more discussion on this use for the Marquis.

Lynda Fulgenzi

High school sports important I loved reading Editor Kurt Kuban’s column about Bryan Masi, former athletic director at Northville High School. My children were involved in high school sports and I can relate to how impressionable coaches can be to our children. I do not know Mr. Masi personally, but truly respect The ‘Ville’s opinion of him and hope he secures a place in the new Northville High School Sports Hall of Fame. P.S. -- I just love The ‘Ville! Charlene Laginess

Appreciate local news Thanks so much for The ‘Ville every month! As a lifelong resident of Northville, I can’t tell you how many people rave about your publication. It’s so great to read useful, localized news every month. Also, it’s great to have Brad Emons covering local sports even after his “retirement” from Hometown. Wishing you continued success!

Brian Friel

Setting goals for our schools

I’m excited to provide the members of our community my one year update of serving on your Northville Public Schools Board of Education. As your trustee I am especially proud to report that the Board of Education, in collaboration with our district leadership, has set our district goals for the next five years (2020-2025). We have established our “Big Rocks” as we move our district forward for the next five years. Academic excellence through analytical thinking, continuous learning and meaningful student growth remains our focus and priority. However, recently we have begun the emphasis on the whole child, which includes Social Emotional Learning (SEL) as well as mental and behavioral health. These inclusions in our district framework will reap lifetime benefits for our kids. The district has strengthened our Multi-Tiered Support System (MTSS) program through hiring additional social workers, school psychologists and learning interventionists. We will continue to look for opportunities to grow our MTSS framework as the need and benefits are evident.

A Community Wellbeing Council is in the process of being formed in partnership with Northville community stakeholders. This is a great way for parents and community leaders to get involved. All in all this incredible work is done on a limited and conservative per-pupil allowance. I have attended advocacy forums for school funding reform, reached out to Lansing and our governor. In the meantime, we continue to be fiscally responsible and emphasize the importance of our sinking fund and bond work allowing us to protect our general fund specifically for the instructional goals of our students and staff. Thank you, Northville, for your continued support of our schools. Strong schools are the foundation of our strong community.

Angela Jaafar Trustee Northville Board of Education

StrikeAChord

Northville Schools adding strings orchestra program next year

Story by Lonnie Huhman | Photos by Bryan Mitchell

The decision by Northville Public Schools to add a new orchestra program for the 2020-21 school year was met with a standing ovation from many in the community, especially the parents, students and orchestra lovers who have been asking for this.

“We are thrilled with the district’s decision to offer a string orchestra class as part of the academic curriculum,” said Lynda Fulgenzi, Director of the Northville Strings Youth Orchestra, which is a group that formed because the lack of a program in the schools. According to Aaron Baughman, NPS Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Services, students will be able to select from violin, viola, cello, or double bass. Next school year, NPS will begin with a sixth grade orchestra program and then each subsequent year it will layer in another grade level, and that would happen for the next four years: 6th grade Orchestra in 2020-21; - 6th/7th grade Orchestra in 2021-22; 6th/7th/8th grade Orchestra in 2022-23; and 6th-12th grade Orchestra in 2023-24.

Fulgenzi said there is some disappointment from students who have been advocating for an orchestra class since 2012 because they will not be able to participate. However, she said they are proud to be a part of this accomplishment. Some of these students are in high school or have recently graduated. “Even though I will have graduated by the time the program is offered to high schoolers, I am very excited to see all of our hard work pay off and that our community is finally going to offer orchestra as part of the curriculum,” said Quinn Cassar, a sophomore at Northville High School and violinist in the Northville Strings Youth Orchestra.

Baughman said the program is being added to further strengthen the offerings NPS students have available to them, and to provide an even more robust music program for our middle schools and high school. “This was a collaborative project with great input from parents, students, and community members, who were all instrumental in bringing this to reality,” Baughman said. A lot of that collaborative effort came from the Northville Strings Youth Orchestra, which Fulgenzi has directed for the past eight years.

The strings group has more than 20 members and rehearses weekly at Our Lady of Victory Church in Northville. They have developed over time a regular schedule of annual performances in Northville, including at the Northville Historical Society Christmas in the Village, Ladies Advent Tea at Our Lady of Victory Church and Northville Art House Young Artist Art Fair, which is scheduled Saturday, March 14, 2020 at the First Presbyterian

Church.

In getting to this point, Fulgenzi said considerable research was completed by Northville music teachers (Johanne Ray-Hepp) in 2004, but it was in 2010 when she and Melissa Hirn began inquiring with the district about adding orchestra.

She said they started the free orchestra in Hirn’s living room in 2012, and their first public performance was Christmas in the Village in 2013. From

2013-2019, Fulgenzi said they attended many NPS Board of Education meetings and brought in several orchestra specialists to advocate their support of adding the program. Baughman said in the near future all six elementary schools will be visited by representatives from the music department to hear about band and orchestra offerings prior to making their course selections. In the spring, a Parent Night will be held for parents to

come and talk with the music companies about instrument selection, fittings and rentals. “We are excited about this new addition and we cannot wait to see how it further enhances an already stellar music program offered by Northville Public Schools,” Baughman said.

The gradual roll-out will allow the program to be built with fidelity and strength, so that it’s successful long term, Baughman said. In the spring, he said at both Hillside and Meads Mill middle schools, current fifth graders may select between band, orchestra or choir for their sixth grade year. He said the new orchestra class is like any new class in that NPS will offer it in the spring for students to select. However, he said it will only run if there is sufficient interest in the course and enough students elect to take it in the fall. He said these decisions are all made once student selections are completed.

Fulgenzi doesn’t think interest will be an issue. She said when string players, parents and orchestra advocates promoted the new first-time String Orchestra 6 class during the Parent-Teacher Conferences back in November,

Nessia Thomas, 11, and Tenessa Thomas, 9, (top photo) perform at a rehearsal at OLV. Tarun Bala, 13, (above) is also a member of the Northville Strings Youth Orchestra.

there was considerable excitement.

She organized a team of 25 volunteers to help promote and filled the schools with music, handed out informational flyers, taught younger students how to play violin and addressed many questions. She said the group covered three hours at each of the six elementary schools, reaching perhaps 1,800 parents and students throughout the week.

“This is a historical moment to celebrate for all future generations of Northville children,” Fulgenzi said.

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Estate’s Roots Run Deep A new chapter begins for iconic property on Griswold

By Michele Fecht

When the Living & Learning Enrichment Center moves onto the 14-acre campus at Eight Mile and Griswold, it will mark a new chapter for the site and its imposing main house. The Griswold property’s storied history — along with its legacy of notable, distinguished owners — dates back to the community’s roots in the early decades of the 19th century. And to set the record straight, though 801 Griswold has a Northville mailing address and is within the Northville Public Schools’ district, the property is actually in Novi.

The current 14-acre site is a smidgen of the original 110 acres that occupied the Beal farmland. Most of the property extended north of Baseline unimpeded until 1959 when Eight Mile was constructed

Florance D. Eatherly on the steps of Braeside's expansive porch. thus dividing the land into two parcels. In 1990, the largest parcel of farmland on the north side of Eight Mile was sold for the Chase Farms development. The Beal family — among Northville’s earliest settlers — owned the property until 1899 when Francis R. Beal, president of Northville’s Globe Furniture and Manufacturing Company, a former Village president and namesake of Bealtown, the neighborhood south of the former manufacturing site, sold the 110-acre parcel to Florance — or F.D. — Eatherly.

It is probably no coincidence that Beal sold the family farm in the same year the Globe manufacturing site was destroyed by fire. Though the factory was rebuilt, the enterprise would never regain its former status as a global leader in school and church furniture manufacturing. COOLING BREEZES & SPANISH MOSS

Born in Scotland, Florance Eatherly made his fortune in Detroit through the lumbering business and shrewd investing as a major stockholder in the pharmaceutical company, Parke, Davis & Company, as well as the Detroit Creamery Company and other entities. He served as president of the Union National Bank of Detroit and was police commissioner under Detroit Mayor Hazen S. Pingree.

His purchase of the Beal farm made front page news in February 1899. The Northville Record noted that Eatherly paid $10,000 for construction of the new residence to be “equipped with all the modern conveniences.” It was anticipated that construction would be completed in May and the family “will spend the Living & Learning's Rachelle Vartanian at the historic estate, which the organization recently purchased. Photo by Bill Bresler.

summer amid Northville’s cooling breezes.” In addition to the modern conveniences, Eatherly also ordered loads of Spanish moss to be used as insulation between the home’s studs and siding. Though insulation was not a common material for housing at the time, Eatherly was an early advocate. The insulation proved effective; its existence to the next homeowner proved elusive . . . and ultimately calamitous.

In a nod to his Scottish roots, Eatherly named his estate “Braeside,” meaning hillside. With his primary residence in Detroit, the Northville estate was intended as a summer home. Eatherly hired local resident George Schoultz as farm manager and George’s teenage son, Charles, as his chauffeur.

Eatherly died in 1916, leaving the estate to his widow, Kate. In April 1921, George B. Yerkes, a descendant of the pioneering Yerkes family, purchased the home. Born and raised in Northville — he was a member of Northville High School’s Class of 1881— Yerkes’ purchase brought the hometown boy back to his roots. The former Wayne County prosecuting attorney and his family moved from Detroit and settled into Braeside.

RENOVATION GONE AWRY Almost a year to the day that George Yerkes closed on Braeside, plans were under

way to renovate the home with local contractor Myron Taylor hired to do the work. In Northville ... The First Hundred Years, author, historian and former Northville Record editor Jack Hoffman offers a colorful description of poor Myron Taylor’s attempt at removing paint from the home’s siding. “Getting ready to paint it, he used a blow torch to remove the old peeling paint. But poor ol’ Taylor didn’t know about the Spanish moss, and the flame licked through a crack in the siding and ate into the moss like my seven-year-old eating cotton candy. In seconds, fire raced from top to bottom.”

In its April 21, 1922 account of the fire, The Northville Record noted that “our fire fighters and many citizens responded to the call for help quickly and soon a great crowd of men were on the scene... There was no available water supply and while the men fought heroically to save the building their efforts proved of no avail and it was with difficulty that the contents of the house were saved. The furniture and furnishings of the first and second floors were removed but the fire burned so rapidly and the heat soon became so intense that very little of the furnishings on the third floor were removed.” An ice house on the property also was destroyed.

With only the chimney remaining, George Yerkes pledged that day to rebuild. By the following year, the Yerkes were back in their home and “inviting all their friends to call on New Year’s day between 3 and 7 o’clock at Braeside.” The current mansion at 801 Griswold is the structure that rose from the ashes. Braeside, the summer home of Florance D. Eatherly, on the former Beal family farm.

WINE AND CADILLACS When George Yerkes died, the house was passed down to his son, Robert. The home continued to be called Braeside. In 1937, William Chase and his first wife, Pearl Jane, the inventors of shatterproof glass and founders and owners of Shatterproof Glass Company, purchased the main house and surrounding land for $38,000. Chase family lore has it that William Chase slept on the floor of the empty house for a night to make sure the neighborhood wasn’t too noisy. Chase farmed the land until the Eight Mile cut through divided the property. He constructed a barn to store corn and hay for his large herd of cattle and maintained a sizeable apple orchard.

Pearl Jane Chase died in 1958. It was Pearl who invented the name Shatterproof when the couple first started the company in 1922. In 1970, William Chase married Georgianna Couse, who with her late husband, Walter Couse, bought a farm on Seven Mile in 1947 and developed the Edenderry Subdivision, naming the roads for places in her father’s native Ireland. Walter and Georgianna originally moved to Northville in 1935, purchasing the home of William and Edith Yerkes on Cady. The Carpenter Gothic structure is now located in Mill Race Historical Village.

William and Georgianna Chase spent time on their farm property skeet shooting and pheasant and partridge hunting. William Chase, a renowned wine authority who held a wine importer’s license, was an avid collector amassing more than 11,000 bottles of wine that he stored in a cellar of the Griswold home.

William Chase died in 1985. Four years later Georgianna Chase sold the 14-acre estate to Larry and Anita Bennett. Larry Bennett was president of Premier Video. The following year, the farm property was sold for the Chase Farms development. The Bennetts undertook nearly 19 months of extensive renovations to the main house including stripping paint inside and out (no Spanish moss to contend with), reglazing 68 original windows, replacing the steam boiler and 70-plus radiators, undergoing extensive redecorating and adding a swimming pool and Jacuzzi. A kitchen call box used to ring for servants and still bearing Mrs. Yerkes’ name was saved. In 1997, car dealer and “Cadillac King” Don Massey purchased the estate, adding the wrap-around porch and veranda. Massey died in 2011. After several years on the market, the nearly 6,000 square foot home and remaining 14 acres of the original Beal family farm begins a new chapter when the Living & Learning community puts its stake in the ground. With plans for a bee farm, lavender and vegetables gardens and other sustainable activities, the campus will be a nod to the site’s original roots.

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New Historic building renovations make Northville unique What‘s Old is New

By Maria Taylor

Everyone loves a classic makeover story. Whether it’s Cinderella, the Ugly Duckling, Pretty Woman, or This Old House, there’s one for every age and every genre. When it comes to historic building makeovers, downtown Northville can hold its own with the best. Historic preservationists have a name for this: it’s called adaptive reuse. Passers-by might call it a really cool place for a business.

Either way, homes- and factoriesturnedbusinesses are part of Northville’s DNA. And while developers looking to make a quick buck might insist that keeping an old building alive just isn’t affordable, a walk through Northville’s business district soon shows otherwise.

Dr. William Demray owns one of those historic buildings. In fact, he considers Preservation Dental the eastern gateway into downtown Northville.

Demray bought the 1885 house at 371 E. Main Street in 1975, turned the upstairs into his apartment, and started what would be a seven-year renovation to convert the three-story Victorian into a dental office: putting in a dropped ceiling, updating wallpaper, installing heat and air conditioning, and – of course – adding everything required by a modern dentist.

Demray has clients whose business at Preservation Dental is generational tradition, and he even has patients who used to live in the house.

“They walk in, and they’re sitting in a dental chair in what used to be the living room or the Dr. William Demray and his staff at Preservation Dental.

bedroom or the sitting room,” he said. But of course, it doesn’t look like that now. Inside, the dental office is quite modern – except for the stained glass windows, which are original to the house.

“We never throw anything away,” he said. During the last renovation, he was able to pull old woodwork out of the attic and add it to the office.

Running a business out of a historic building requires more work, more time, and more finances, Demray said.

“I treat it as a landmark,” he said. “Granted, it’s not National Register level; it’s not restored properly enough to get that designation. But that’s not what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to make it reasonably restored and unique and up to modern day standards – and yet functional and practical, because we’re not a museum. You’ve got to run a balance between making it work for you and maintaining it as it was, as much as you possibly can.”

LIKE A FRIENDLY FACE

Across the street, Corriveau Law has its offices in a historic house at 324 E. Main Street. Joseph Corriveau is convinced that Henry Ford has been there. But that’s not its only appeal. Clients know the building like a friendly face.

“Every one of my clients, almost,” Corriveau said. “There are days when I’m paying bills and I said, ‘Boy, I could have bigger space with more amenities for a lot less cost.’ But it’s those kind of comments, and the continual comments that we get where people point to it and say ‘We Richard Corriveau converted the 1930s home (bottom) into his law offices.

love that building’ -- it has increased our profile a great deal.”

The house was built in the mid-1930s by Dr. Harold Sparling and his wife Dr. Irene Sparling, who operated a joint medical practice.

“He was a general practitioner, and people said that he patched everybody up and that she delivered every child in Northville,” Corriveau said.

The Corriveaus bought the house in 2001, by which time it had been converted to offices. The kitchen is the administrative staff’s offices. Joe Corriveau’s office is the old dining room – complete with a little button on the floor that would turn on a light in the kitchen and summon the waitstaff to bring the next dinner course.

It’s evident that a lot of craftsmanship went into this house. As with any old building, it’s a labor of love, Corriveau said. They’ve had to replace the roof, install central air, and add amenities like cable, parking, and internet.

“I try to do things as closely to the original design, so it still maintains its old-town, pure integrity,” he said. “There’s a lot of investment, and there’s a lot of pride that comes from that. Homes like mine are unique – are what make Northville, Northville. If you take all of the uniqueness and the historic value out of it, it’s going to be just like anywhere else.”

For those not of that mindset, there’s a million other cities to pick from, he said.

“They can choose any one of those and build whatever they want, and people will welcome them with open arms,” he said. “But here in Northville, it’s important to have a balance. And while I would say there are certainly buildings that are old but lack any type of historic value, we should leave the ones that do ... the way they are.”

SOMETHING UNIQUE It’s not just homes that get a second life in historic downtown Northville. At 455 E. Cady Street, the last remaining structure from Northville’s original industrial complex – once open as The Village Workshop – is converting to a co-working space called The Hangar. Several tenants have moved in already, said Dennis Engerer, who owns the building along with Brian Donovan. Plus, North Center Brewing Company is relocating there from its current location, with an opening date planned for some time in March.

Old-New Continued from page 15

Originally built in 1876, the 27,000-square-foot structure has served as manufacturing space for the Globe Furniture factory (which produced schoolhouse furniture) as well as the Stinson Aircraft Company.

“When we bought it, it was in really rough shape,” Engerer

said. “The bones of the building are still there ... but we had to pretty much gut it” – plus bring it up to code with things like elevators, LED lighting, and heating and air conditioning, which are “really efficient now,” he noted. The renovation took about two years and included a mural paying homage to Stinson.

“It does cost a lot more to take something old and make it

usable, but you have something unique when you’re done. It’s something that you can’t build anew,” Engerer said. “Sure, it’s easier and cheaper to knock it down and start afresh. But if you take care of the old stuff, it adds just a lot of dimension and character to a workplace. I think it’s going to be a centerpiece for that creative district that’s going to be occurring in Northville around that area.”

Another former factory started its transformation more out of necessity than by design. Richard Cox purchased the 1936 Water Wheel Centre, formerly the Ford valve plant, in 1994 because his manufacturing company needed a bigger space. “That didn’t work out,” he said, “because while I was fixing the rest of it up, I had people coming to me and saying, ‘How long before we can get in [to rent] this corner over here?’”

The first tenant was All Star Gymnastics; today, the roster includes Planet Fitness, a taekwondo studio, and multiple offices including HKS Architects, the third-largest of its kind in the world.

When Cox bought the building, it was a completely open floor plan and in dire need of repair.

“Most everybody was afraid of the environmental issues in the building – and there were a few,” he said: a failed roof, 3½ inches of water in the basement, asbestos, and lead paint. As a registered professional engineer, Cox was able to tackle those issues, funding the renovations by selling some of the surrounding property to the City of Northville.

“I later heard from one of my friends at Ford Motor Company that a cheer of relief went up when I agreed to buy the building,” he said, “because they knew that I would fix it.”

As each tenant rents space, Cox puts up walls to create an area that fit their needs. For HKS Architects, the Northville office is the global corporation’s showplace.

“They have 23 offices around the world,” Cox said, “and all 22 of the other presidents agree that Northville is their nicest location. I said, ‘How can that be?’ They’ve got a place in Dubai, in Milan. He said, ‘But not one of those five offices has a park-like setting with a river running by it, and a Northville a thousand feet away. It does not exist anywhere else in the world.’”

The Water Wheel Centre building has three layers of brick. The walls are a foot thick. The floor on the main level is 19½ inches of reinforced concrete.

“You don’t get buildings like that anymore,” Cox said. “We in America build buildings that can be torn down in 20 or 30 years – and then you build another one, just to tear it down. So while yes, it is costly to fix them, I think very few people envision how much people like to be in them once they finish.” And that building supports Northville’s local economy.

ECONCOMIC IMPACT “There’s almost 150 professionals in that building,” Cox said. “You see them walking in groups of eight, three, 12, up to town to have lunch. It is just amazing what it does.”

One of the restaurants that benefits is the Garage Grill and Fuel Bar. As its name implies, the watering hole at 202 W.

The Water Wheel Centre (top), a former Ford valve plant, is home to more than a dozen businesses, including Amity Coworking (left). Photos by Bryan Mitchell

Main Street was originally a fueling station of a different type: a Gulf gas station, built around 1940. Longtime Northville residents might recall it as a Sunoco gas station, an appliance store, a Chrysler dealership, or (most recently) Gardenviews landscape and flower shop.

Bill Evasic, co-owner of the Garage restaurant, found out about the building through a “for lease” sign in the window. “My brother Mark and I had talked about developing a restaurant for a long time, and at that moment, we were not exactly looking for something,” Bill Evasic related. “But he passed it one day and saw the sign up in the window and called me. Of course, I knew which building he was talking about and immediately, we both thought it was perfect for what we wanted to do.”

The brothers ended up buying the building in 2010 and opened it in 2012, after two years of renovations, remediations, and rezonings. “It was in very rough shape. But the whole goal from the very beginning was trying to stay true to the structure that was there and the heritage of downtown Northville, and trying to bring it back to life as opposed to make it something different,” Bill Evasic said. Today, he said, it’s a “new building in an old shell.” The building’s exterior walls remain, and the rest has been updated but made to look old, often with inspiration of old photos of that site.

Customers love that a part of old Northville has been preserved and reused.

“Everybody’s always got great things to say about the building,” Bill Evasic said. “We get a lot of people that stop in because they were from Northville years ago, and they remember hanging out at the gas station, or driving up and down Main Street, or meeting in the gas station parking lot. It’s a lot of really, really neat old memories that people bring up to us.”

The former Gulf gas station built around 1940 (left) was renovated in 2012 and reopened at the Garage Grill and Fuel Bar (right). Photo by Bryan Mitchell

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