Visit the Ypsilanti Heritage Foundation for more photos.
Built in 1888
Style: Built by Mason & Rice, Detroit; (renovation architect Gary Cooper) Mason & Rice also designed the Ypsilanti Savings Bank (now City Hall), the Watling Dentistry Clinic on N. Huron, The Starkwather Chapel in Highland Cemetery, and Starkweather Hall on the EMU Campus all in the Richardsonian Romanesque (H.H. Richardson) style with arches and prominent roofline
Current use #7 Ypsilanti / Ann Arbor Bank, #11 Eleven West Spa with apartments above.
- 1886 Oliver A. Ainsowrth started a mill on the property
- 1887 December 3rd building destroyed by fire
- 1888 New building up and running 50′x100′, 3 stories with 50hp engine and a steam boiler. NOTE: This mill was run by steam not water.
- ~1892 #9 & #11 O.A. Ainsworth & Co. (Oliver A. Ainsworth and William S. Whittelsey) Dealers in Grain, Seeds, Apples, Wool, Beans, etc. also custom feed mill.
- ~1892 offices of the Ypsilanti Electric Co. Note: Ypsilanti electric Co. incorporated sept 17th 1891. Alexander C. Rorison, President and manager; Frank H. Tooker V.P.
- pre-1906 buildings #9 & #11 became teh Moorman (Burton G.)-Huston Company, of which C.R. Huston is Secretary. They are extensive dealers in all farm products and make a specialty of shipping by the carload. They handle hay, grain, straw, flour, feed, wool, apples, hand picked beans and other farm products and have a large mill and warehouse at Nos 9 and 11 Congress st. west. source past present Washtenaw county pg110
- Since 1910 the building has had numerous uses; feed and grain store, a general store, lumber business, and several restaurants. Last renovation was in 2000 by Phoenix construction.
- 1966 Moormon’s closes
- Falsetta Family buys building and opens Casa Nova Restaurant — Apparently they had a great antipasto dressing
- 1978 Casa Nova closes and the Grainery Restaurant opened.
- 1982 The Grainery closes and opened as Mainstreet Restaurant on Jan 20, 1982.
- 1997 January fire closes the Mainstreet Restaurant
- 2000 Phoenix construction completely renovates and reoccupies building in 2001.
Tags: 11, 7, 9, ainsworth, ave, Congress, Michigan, moorman, Ypsilanti
