GRAND LEDGE HOTEL COTTAGE
117 East Scott Street

1940 Cottage
Home Tour 1999

The little building that now houses the Cat’s Meow gift shop was originally built as a small apartment unit around 1940.  The building stands behind the old Grand Ledge Hotel at 316 Taylor Street, which was owned by the Decke and Fritz families.  The building at #316 today houses the Deming & Maurer Law Office.  The hotel was originally built in 1902 as a private home for A.R. Gillies, a local businessman.  In 1933, George and Louise Decke bought the house on Taylor Street and moved the Grand Ledge Hotel from the corner Bridge and Jefferson to this home.  Later, their daughter and son-in-law, Lenora and Joseph Fritz, took over the business.

 The Fritz family had other business interests in town too.   Joseph Fritz operated the Fritz Market, a poultry shop, in the Alexander Block, and later in a shop on South Bridge Street, near where Eschtruth Appliance Store is today.   Joseph and Lenora bought the house at the corner of E. Scott and Taylor Streets to use as a rental property.  They owned sufficient property at the rear of the hotel that they were able to build several small rental houses there.  One of those was the building that now houses The Cat’s Meow, and it was built by Joseph Fritz around 1940.  Its original address was 316 B Taylor Street.  Part of the building was already there; it was the garage/workshop for the hotel.  The little apartment that Joseph Fritz built was attached to the garage, but did not open into it as it does today.

We believe the first tenant was Ruth Hodge and her family.  Ruth and her husband Raymond Hodge were from St. Johns Michigan, and were not related to the Hodge family already living here in Grand Ledge.  Ruth was widowed suddenly and left with three young children to raise.  Her youngest, Lois, was about 18 months old at the time her father died.  Ruth went to work at the telephone company which was located in the city parking lot by the Public Library.  She worked there for over thirty years, and rose to the position of chief operator.  She moved into the small apartment with her mother,  Nora Coykendall, and her daughter, Lois, around 1940 or 1941.  Ruth  was able to walk to her job at the telephone company from her apartment.  Her daughter Lois Hodge remembers that the apartment had a living room, an L-shaped kitchen, one large bedroom upstairs, and a bathroom.  Mr. Fritz used the garage attached to the back of the unit as his workshop, although he allowed the Hodges to store things in the garage.

 Lois Hodge remembers that her mother planted a garden around their home, and that the purple phlox she put in multiplied so rapidly  that it  was like a beautiful sea of purple flowers looking out of the window.  She recalls that the linoleum on the floors appeared to be quite new when they moved in, so we believe that the Hodges might in fact have been the first tenants.  Lois spent her high school years in that home, graduating from Grand Ledge High School in 1946.  She worked at the telephone company too, and she became the long distance operator there during the years of World War II.  She met her future husband, Richard Hodge (no relation), while he was in the service.  He graduated from Grand Ledge High School in 1941 and went into the service during the war.  Lois had a teacher who told the class that it was their duty to correspond with servicemen, and she decided to write to Richard because she knew his mother, Ann Hodge. Lois and Richard married in 1948. Nora Esther Coykendall died in the little home, and Ruth Hodge stayed on in the apartment until her own death in 1958. 

The little apartment was rented to a number of tenants over the years while Fritzes operated the hotel.  William and Janet Larsen bought the old hotel in 1983  and converted it to Larsens Fabric Shop.  They continued to rent out the small unit on the property.  They tore down the other apartment unit after a time but continued to rent the Cats Meow building out to tenants for awhile.  

John Deming bought the old hotel building at #316 for his law practice in 1991. The little apartment was vacant at that time.  He used it for storage and thought to do some work on it to make it a rental.   The building was in a sad state of disrepair, and it turned into a major project.  In 1998 Nancy Block and her daughter, Julie Haan, decided to move their gift shop from W. River Street into the little building, which they rent from John Deming.  Nancy had always liked the building, and the River St. shop was  not  large enough for their business, which is an antiques and gift shop opened by Nancy and Julie in November 1997.  Ken Block, Nancy’s husband, is a carpenter, and he and the family did most of the work themselves, with some help from John Deming.  The old kitchen was already gone.  John Deming  converted what had been a full second floor into a loft and moved the stairs. 

The shop now opens  into the old Fritz garage, and the window in what is now the office was the doorway into the garage. The electrical service and  water lines had to be repaired.  They put up dry wall, and then added a coating of plaster which they let dry rough, without smoothing out, to add to the “cottage” look they wanted.  Ken made the trim around the windows and doors.  They put in the circular stairway leading up to the loft.  They added flower boxes and window shutters and a delightful garden area. The cement  wall that separated the building from the adjacent parking lot was opened up to provide easy access from the parking lot, and they  asked the city to change the address from 316 B Taylor to 117 E. Scott Street.

The end result of all of their hard work is to show how a building can be renovated and adapted to a new use, giving it a new lease on life instead of tearing it down.  The “cottage” feeling adds to the cozy atmosphere of the gift shop, and the sweet smell of the potpourri invites you to sit and enjoy a cup of tea in the cozy garden area.  A delightful oasis in the middle of the city!