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    Broadway Virtual Walk

    Walk old Broadway

    Cassopolis, Michigan, from the 1860 plan to today: 11 stops down the main street, each with what stood there, who ran it, and what is there now. Walk it from your chair, stop by stop on the old plan, or bring this page to Broadway and stamp each stop on the spot.

    The map opens here.

    Walk it in 3D The full 1860 plan Next: Front Street, Dowagiac ›

    Every stop

    1. Stop 1 of 11 · built about 1836 (gone)

      Site of the first courthouse

      Then. Cass County’s first courthouse was a plain wooden building, 34 by 24 feet, ordered by the county board in 1835 for about $450 and built by Joseph Harper. All three county histories put it on Lot 4, Block 2 north, Range 1 west of the village plat: the west side of Broadway, in the second block north of State Street. It served until the second courthouse opened in 1841.

      Now. Nothing of it survives. This stop marks that stretch of Broadway; the exact building line is not known.

      West side of North Broadway, second block north of State Street

      source 1 source 2 source 3 source 4 source 5 source 6 · The square on the 1884 Sanborn sheet

    2. Stop 2 of 11 · built 1908-1909

      Local History Branch (Carnegie Library)

      Public Library, Cassopolis, Mich, on an old postcard
      The Public Library, Cassopolis, on a postcard of 1914 Tinder Collection, Clements Library, University of Michigan · source

      📷 Photo spot. Stand where the photographer stood: line up the rooflines and corners with the postcard, take the same picture, and send it to us. The best go up beside the old view, with your name.

      Then. Built over the winter of 1908-09 with a $10,000 gift from Andrew Carnegie, this was the town’s public library for more than 80 years; Cassopolis was one of 53 Michigan communities to receive Carnegie library money. From 1947 to 1957 its basement also housed the Cass County Library, and after the 1993 merger that created the Cass District Library it reopened in October 1994 as the Local History Branch.

      Now. The Cass District Library's Local History Branch, a genealogy and county-history research library (Mon-Thu 9-4), restored in 2012 and renovated again in 2020-21.

      145 N. Broadway, Cassopolis, MI 49031

      source 1 source 2 source 3 source 4 · Open the 1884 Sanborn sheet

    3. Stop 3 of 11 · built 1898-1900 (cornerstone Oct. 5, 1898; accepted Oct. 1900)

      Cass County Historic Courthouse

      Cass Co. Court House, Cassopolis, Mich, on an old postcard
      The Cass County Court House on a postcard of about 1910 Tinder Collection, Clements Library, University of Michigan · source

      📷 Photo spot. Stand where the photographer stood: line up the rooflines and corners with the postcard, take the same picture, and send it to us. The best go up beside the old view, with your name.

      Then. The stone courthouse with its tall clock tower was designed by the Grand Rapids firm Rush, Bowman & Rush and finished in 1900 by the contractors James Rowson and August Mohnke, after the county dismissed its first builder in 1898. It cost $43,797.88 with furniture and heating, and stands on the northeast quarter of the old public square, where the 1841 courthouse stood for nearly sixty years. The county jail of 1852 stood just north of it.

      Now. Empty after the courts moved out in 2003, it was restored with federal ARPA and USDA money and reopened in October 2024 as county offices: administrator, clerk/register of deeds, treasurer and the Board of Commissioners.

      120 N. Broadway, Cassopolis, MI 49031

      source 1 source 2 source 3 source 4 source 5 source 6 source 7 source 8 source 9 · The square on the 1884 Sanborn sheet

    4. Stop 4 of 11 · built 1860

      “The Fort”: the county office building

      Then. Built in 1860, this brick building held the county’s offices — the clerk, the probate court, the register of deeds and the treasurer — until the stone courthouse across the way was finished in 1899. The supervisors ordered it built fireproof, after a fire in the village had alarmed them about the county’s records. It was later a laundry, and in 1923 the Masons bought it for their temple and added the large hall at the back in 1925. By 1906 it was “commonly called the ‘Fort’”; no source we have read says why.

      Now. The state lists it on the Michigan State Register of Historic Sites (1985) as the Cass County Office Building/Masonic Temple. For some years it has been the Turtle Lodge, an event hall with offices and apartments; it changed hands in 2022.

      105 N. Broadway, Cassopolis, MI 49031

      source 1 source 2 source 3 source 4 source 5 source 6 source 7 source 8 source 9 · The square on the 1884 Sanborn sheet

    5. Stop 5 of 11 · platted 1831

      The Old Public Square (Broadway & State)

      Carriages drawn up on Broadway, from an old postcard
      Carriages drawn up on Broadway, from an old postcard

      📷 Photo spot. Stand where the photographer stood: line up the rooflines and corners with the postcard, take the same picture, and send it to us. The best go up beside the old view, with your name.

      Then. The 1831 village plat set aside a public square of 26 by 20 rods for county buildings, with Broadway and State Street crossing at its center. In 1839 the county deeded most of it to the 'Court House Company,' which built the 1841 courthouse. Merchants then built on the other quarters, among them Asa Kingsbury's brick stores of 1869-70 on the southwest quarter. The county sued in 1879 to win the square back and lost in the Michigan Supreme Court in 1880, which is why the old square is now a row of business blocks. Early taverns faced it too: the Union Hotel on the west side of Broadway and the Eagle Hotel on the east side.

      Now. A downtown crossroads of two state highways, with streetscape improvements laid along Broadway and East State in 2020.

      Intersection of Broadway (M-62) and State Street (M-60)

      source 1 source 2 source 3 source 4 source 5 source 6 · The square on the 1884 Sanborn sheet

    6. Stop 6 of 11 · built 1841 (moved 1898-99; razed 1968)

      The old courthouse’s second life

      The Colonial Opera House, Cassopolis, Mich, on an old postcard
      The Colonial Opera House, Cassopolis, on a postcard of about 1913 Tinder Collection, Clements Library, University of Michigan · source

      📷 Photo spot. Stand where the photographer stood: line up the rooflines and corners with the postcard, take the same picture, and send it to us. The best go up beside the old view, with your name.

      Then. The county’s second courthouse was a two-storey frame building with classical columns, finished in 1841 for $6,000. When the stone courthouse replaced it, it was sold at auction for $25 and moved to the south side of State Street, west of Broadway, where the 1906 county history found it in use as a storage house. A theatre history says it later became the 420-seat Colonial Opera House, then the Colonial Theatre in 1909, and in 1937 was remodelled as the Gem Theatre, which showed films until about 1960.

      Now. The building was torn down in 1968.

      South side of West State Street, west of Broadway, Cassopolis, MI 49031

      source 1 source 2 source 3 source 4 source 5 source 6 · The square on the 1884 Sanborn sheet

    7. Stop 7 of 11 · built c. 1900 per sale listing; renovated 1990

      The bank corner

      Broadway in the days of wagons, from an old postcard
      Broadway in the days of wagons, from an old postcard

      📷 Photo spot. Stand where the photographer stood: line up the rooflines and corners with the postcard, take the same picture, and send it to us. The best go up beside the old view, with your name.

      Then. Banking began on this side of the old square in 1855, when Asa and Charles Kingsbury opened a private bank; the brothers parted in 1857. In 1868 Asa Kingsbury divided the square’s southwest quarter into six lots, and by 1869–70 two-storey brick stores stood there, with his own brick banking house among them. The First National Bank of Cassopolis was organised in November 1870 with Kingsbury as president, and around 1899 it bought $32,000 of the county’s bonds to pay for the new courthouse.

      Now. The two-storey brick building at 116 South Broadway is a former bank with its vaults still inside. Whether it is the First National’s own building has not been confirmed.

      116 S. Broadway, Cassopolis, MI 49031 (corner of W. State St.)

      source 1 source 2 source 3 source 4 source 5 · The square on the 1884 Sanborn sheet

    8. Stop 8 of 11 · begun early 1890s

      United Presbyterian Church

      Then. The congregation was founded in March 1842 as the First Presbyterian Church, when Cassopolis was still 'little more than a clearing in the woods.' Its first church, begun in 1845, was dedicated in November 1846, and the present brick church at State and O’Keefe streets was completed on 10 December 1893. In 1938 the congregation joined with the village's Baptist church; it long served as a federated church for several denominations before taking its present Presbyterian name in 1968.

      Now. Still a Presbyterian congregation, half a block east of Broadway.

      209 E. State St., Cassopolis, MI 49031

      source 1 source 2 · Open the 1884 Sanborn sheet

    9. Stop 9 of 11 · late 1800s (a wainscot board inside is signed 1897)

      The old post office storefront

      Broadway when the first cars came, from an old postcard
      Broadway when the first cars came, from an old postcard

      📷 Photo spot. Stand where the photographer stood: line up the rooflines and corners with the postcard, take the same picture, and send it to us. The best go up beside the old view, with your name.

      Then. Local accounts (though not the old county histories) say this storefront was one of the village’s post offices in the late 1800s; a board inside is signed 1897. It later held a barbershop and a thrift shop, and about 2011 a local dentist, Dr. Roger Pecina, fitted it out as a Prohibition-style room with a salvaged 38-foot bar.

      Now. Steve and Shelley Schroeder bought it in 2018 and have run it since 2021 as Holden Green Tavern. Its address is given as both 151 and 159 South Broadway. Check before you go in.

      151 S. Broadway, Cassopolis, MI 49031

      source 1 source 2 source 3 · Open the 1884 Sanborn sheet

    10. Stop 10 of 11 · mid-20th century (date not found); restored c. 2009-2012

      The Sinclair Station

      Then. An old DX filling station that had stood empty for about thirty years was bought by Dr. Roger Pecina, who spent three years restoring it as a 1952-style Sinclair station, with period pumps, a vintage police car and a wrecker. It opened free to visitors around 2011, although no Sinclair station had ever stood here.

      Now. A 2019 report said the antiques had been sold and the building had become an auto-detailing shop. See it from the sidewalk.

      200 S. Broadway (Broadway at Jefferson St.), Cassopolis, MI 49031

      source 1 source 2 source 3 source 4 · Open the 1884 Sanborn sheet

    11. Stop 11 of 11 · built 1923 (first log laid May 23; dedicated June 20, 1923)

      Pioneer Log Cabin Museum

      The Pioneer Log Cabin, Cassopolis, on an old postcard
      The Pioneer Log Cabin, Cassopolis, on an old postcard

      📷 Photo spot. Stand where the photographer stood: line up the rooflines and corners with the postcard, take the same picture, and send it to us. The best go up beside the old view, with your name.

      Then. Proposed by Charles Harmon of the Cass County Pioneer Society, the cabin was begun on May 23, 1923, when its first log was laid, and was raised by a crew of 46 men under Ed Ferguson in time for its dedication on June 20. They used numbered logs given from woodlots across the county and beyond, each matched to its giver and, for most, the kind of tree. Its doors were made of black walnut boards, and its stair rail came from an 1845 barn. It opened as a pioneer relic museum in June 1924.

      Now. A volunteer-run museum in a village park, open at times through the season; news is posted on its community page, pioneerlogcabinmuseum.com.

      400 S. Broadway, Cassopolis, MI 49031

      source 1 source 2 source 3 source 4 · Open the 1884 Sanborn sheet

    The fire-insurance sheets

    The Sanborn Map Company drew Cassopolis building by building for fire insurers. Each sheet shows what every building was made of and what it was used for. Open one beside this walk:

    Historical markers in town

    Walking it for real

    Plan your visit: ready-made days out, food, lodging and festivals

    The stops come from the county histories of 1875, 1882 and 1906, the Sanborn sheets, and the village and county records, each linked under its stop. The plan is the 1860 county wall map’s inset of Cassopolis. Where a date or name could not be confirmed, the stop says so. Corrections are welcome at research@projectscroll.com.