Wallace Block-Old Saline Village Hall

The Italianate Wallace Block features the best-preserved nineteenth-century commercial storefront in Saline and serves as a key visual reminder of the historic character of the City's four-corners. The present building replaced a series of wooden Greek Revival structures destroyed in the fire of 1881. The property also served as the site for an earlier brick structure known as the Miller Block. Since post-fire abstracts still refer to the Miller building, it is uncertain whether the existing structures are built over, or incorporate some of the walls and/or foundations of, the earlier building. On May 2, 1887, the Village Council Minutes report the purchase of land for an engine house and the appointment of a committee to select plans and specifications. On June 6 of that same year the minutes note that 'Toledo parties' would provide the cornice and building plan, which also included a village hall upstairs, and that Conrad Schaffer of Saline had agreed to provide the brick. The fire station has since been remodeled for commercial use, and the Village Hall portion now features carpeting and dropped ceilings. That same year, Edwin Wallace built the adjoining Wallace Block of six stores with a second story hall in which Wallace and successors operated the Saline Opera House for a number of years. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the Opera House was one of the social centers of Saline, offering local and travelling shows and providing space for church socials and dances. The Saline Observer notes in 1912 that Henry Rentschler installed a new maple dance floor (May 30, 1912). The Opera House space subsequently served as a meeting hall and basketball court. The raised stage and 16 foot ceiling are still intact above the southern two bays; however, the present owner is remodelling the upper story into one and two-level office suites. Original owner Wallace also had an apple orchard, manufactured cigars with Henry Mandt from 1879 to 1881, and served in several Village posts, among them deputy marshall in 1868, trustee in 1873, and supervisor in 1879-80.

Although built for different owners (see #8 below), the Old Village Hall and the Wallace Block have always formed a structural whole. The nicely detailed two-story Italianate structure occupies 116 x 70 feet of commercial property on the east side of S. Ann Arbor just south of the alley which separates it from the neighboring Union Block at 100-110 E. Michigan. Like the neighboring building, the S. Ann Arbor block fronts the sidewalk and forms a key component of the historic four-corners of Saline. The L-shaped, seven-and-one-half bay red brick structure has one-story brick and two-story tile-sheathed rear additions and is topped by a roof which slopes toward the rear. The building's design features are similar to those of the Union Block: recessed second-story panels articulated by twin rectangular window openings with hoodmolds, a dentillated cornice with brackets, a secondary wooden cornice above the street-level facade, and the typical Italianate first floor design of a central recessed entry way flanked by large display windows set on slightly raised foundations. The north one-and-one-half bays, which comprise the Corporation Building portion, have undergone the most alteration. The crowning tower above the half bay was removed in 1931, and during the 1960s the City bricked over the upper upper story windows. Renovations begun in 1977 included removal of aluminum awnings and intrusive signage, addition of electric gaslight reproductions and ceiling skylights, and interior remodeling into office suites and commercial use.