Mack Building renovation about to get underway

(Chelsea Update would like to thank Jan Bernath and Bill O’Reilly for the information in this story.)

Through the efforts of the City of Chelsea and the Downtown Development Authority, funding was secured from the State of Michigan for the redevelopment of the Mack Building with developer Joe Ziolkowski who plans to rehabilitate the building on Jackson Street.

The lower level will be turned into retail space and the upper level into apartments. Completion is set for no later than next year.

At a dedication event held on March 20, those gathered included Ziolkowski, Chelsea City Manager John Hanifan, State Rep. Donna Lasinski, Chamber Executive Director Bob Pierce, City Clerk Laura Kaiser, Chelsea Administrative Director Kim Garland, and several board members from the Chelsea Area Historical Society.

The oldest middle brick building in the Longworth Complex was constructed circa 1901 by A. R. Welch. With the prior success of Chelsea Manufacturing Company making bicycles, they moved in to build about 10 prototype Welch automobiles. One of the early investors of the Welch Manufacturing Co. was Chelsea banker George P. Glazier. The Chelsea-made Welch car was exhibited at the 1903 Chicago Automobile Show.

Only four Welch autos are known to exist today; one is displayed at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. After Welch went bankrupt, he left Chelsea, merged with Pontiac continuing to manufacture the Welch and Oakland cars until 1911 when the firm was sold to General Motors Corp.

Glazier Stove Company bought the Mack building in early 1904, using it as building No. 18 to store or assemble Brightest and Best stoves until 1907. The Chelsea Tribune moved into it in late 1907 and published a new newspaper that year, which lasted until 1923. Space was shared with Chelsea Screw Co. starting in 1913 and Chelsea Elevator Co.

Mack Co. of Ann Arbor bought the building in the teens. Fluorescent light bulbs were once manufactured in the building, and a Chelsea branch of Klager Hatchery installed incubators to hatch 20,000 chicks.

Sometime in the 1920s, Warren R. Daniels of Daniels Motor Sales took over this building. Daniels was a sub-dealer for Dodge Brothers automobiles. He received his first car the day before Thanksgiving in 1917, and sold his first two cars in March of 1918 to Jules Strieter and Herb Paul. In 1925, Daniels was Chelsea’s Buick dealer, and by 1933 he added the Oldsmobile line.

The second floor is said to have been used by Chelsea Milling Company in the 1930s. Mabel Holmes, the creator of packaged Jiffy mixes, may have packaged some of the first boxed mixes there.

In 1952, Marion Longworth bought both the Mack building with attached car showroom, and the Livery barn. The company specialized in industrial electroplating, which included decorative auto parts and hand-rack plating using cadmium, nickel, tin, copper, zinc and chromium. Plating mechanical components with these metals provided protection against friction, heat, rust and corrosion.

For many years, the Longworths loaned the vacated front car showroom and adjoining floor space for various community uses. After Heydlauff’s Frigid Products’ devastating August 1970 fire, the Longworths loaned this space for Heydlauff’s to continue business until their new appliance store could be built.

Marion Longworth retired in 1984 during his 38th business year. Longworth Plating was carried on by his son David, and daughter Flo Ann. David’s daughter Kim, and son Kent, represented the third generation in the business. Through the years, Longworth’s work force averaged 10 employees.

Longworth Plating closed in 2002, selling the property to the City of Chelsea in December of 2008.