Coney Island- Hall Block
General info – Building history
Built – 1895 – by George D.B. Hall, a real estate speculator.
First businesses in the ground floor were the Chicago Pant Company – a tailor named Herman Fischel in the ConeyIsland storefront and Richard Maus, a druggist in the east storefront where Ouzos is today.
Maus had moved his drugstore from a building adjacent to Gilmore building.
Retail uses on the ground floor – about 1900 – the first floor became saloons for the next 15 years.
Kalamazoo went dry in 1915 by adopting the “Local Option” to prohibit the sale of alcohol.
At that time this 200 block had over 10 saloons on both sides of the street.
Some other uses were barber shops.
After World War I, the storefronts were usually restaurants, one auto supply dealer in the 1920s, and the long lived Rosenbaum Shoe Store from the 1930s to the 1960s.
Coney Island has been in the same storefront since 1916 under two owners.
2nd floor and possibly 3rd floors were originally offices facing the street – this allowed the business names to be painted on the windows.
Sometimes the business also manufactured something like an arthritis tonic made from celery.
Behind the offices were furnished rooms for rent. Some were residential, some were offices.
4th floor was originally a ballroom for the Knights of America, a Fraternal Organization. Later it was a reception and meeting hall for rent.
1910 – converted to the Windsor Hotel because of proximity to the train station. All the rooms shared the toilets and bathing rooms at the rear. Each room had its own sink.
