Cobbs and Mitchell Building

About this property

The Cobbs and Mitchell Building is an office building located at 100 East Chapin Street in Cadillac, Michigan. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1980. and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. George A. Mitchell, the youngest son of Congressman William Mitchell, arrived in the Cadillac area in 1869, exploring the proposed route of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad. Mitchell was particularly interested in the area near Clam Lake (now Lake Cadillac). In 1871, he returned to the area and platted a village on the shore of the lake, and by January 1872 the village had 300 inhabitants. Mitchell was able to induce many influential businessmen and lumbermen to settle in his new community, including his nephew William W. Mitchell; John R. Yale, who opened the Pioneer Sawmill in June 1871; and Jonathon W. Cobbs. Cobbs was born in Westville, Ohio, in 1828, the son of Joseph and Tacy Cobbs. He learned his father's trade of woodworking, then moved to Butlerville, Indiana, to operate a sawmill. There in 1855 he married Nancy J. Preble; the couple had three daughters: Tacy, Fauna, and Isabelle, and adopted a son, Frank. Cobbs eventually owned three sawmills in Indiana, but decided that the Cadillac area held more promise; he moved there in 1874 and purchased the Pioneer Sawmill from John R. Yale. In 1877, he took on William W. Mitchell as a partner. William W. Mitchell was born in 1854 in Hillsdale, Michigan, the third son of Charles T. Mitchell. He went to school at Hillsdale College, and in 1873 followed his uncle George to Cadillac. There he married Ella Yost; the couple had two children, Charles T. and Marie. He worked for his uncle for a few years, and in 1877 entered into a partnership with Jonathon W. Cobbs, marking the beginning of the firm of Cobbs & Mitchell. Cobbs & Mitchell was among the largest lumbering firms in Michigan, supplying hardwood flooring and other products to consumers. At its high point, Cobbs & Mitchell used 100,000 feet of raw lumber daily. Jonathon W. Cobbs remained active in the business until approximately 1895, when he fell ill and turned over his duties to his son Frank. Jonathon W. Cobbs died in 1898. William W. Mitchell continued on as president of the firm; he also formed Mitchell Brothers with his brother, Austin W. Mitchell, to make flooring. In 1905, Cobbs & Mitchell hired George D. Mason of Detroit to design this brick and limestone building as a showplace for their products. The building was completed in 1907, and served as the headquarters and sales offices of Cobbs & Mitchell and of Mitchell Brothers Company, with space leased to other lumbering interests and local firms. In 1938, the State Highway Department (now the Michigan Department of Transportation) purchased the building; they used it as a headquarters for planning expansion of roadways in the northern Michigan area.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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