Ann Arbor Observed: Selections from Then and Now

109 Catherine—Car Age Services

109 Catherine—Car Age Services From humble garage to elegant office Many buildings are changed as new uses are found for them, but the building at 109 Catherine has gone through a more dramatic transformation than most. The simple tile block structure was built around 1918 and in its first four years was used as an auto livery, a junk store, an agricultural implement store, and a harness factory. In 1922 it became the City Garage, and for the next forty years, it bore the stamp of its energetic, promotion-minded owner, Ed Kuhn. Kuhn’s own life was rife with career changes—he was variously a policeman, a mechanic, the owner of a taxi service, a restaurateur, and a mail contractor—and he found uses every bit as varied for his building. Ed Kuhn was born in Ann Arbor in 1882. According to his son, Bob, and his widow, Josephine, he was an inveterate tinkerer who became involved with automobiles early in his career. In 1910, he joined the Ann Arbor Police Department, where he was the first police officer to drive a patrol car. He pursued and caught up with Robert W. Kempfert, whom he suspected of surpassing the ten-mile-per-hour speed limit. The case never got to court because the chief of police, Frank Pardon, refused to believe that the REO Kempfert was driving could surpass eight miles an hour. In 1917, Kuhn left the department to become a partner at the City Garage, then at 300 North Main. He kept the name when five years later he bought the building next door at 109 Catherine. Kuhn evidently had a taste for promotion; the motto on his business letterhead was “Comes In All Shot/Goes Out ‘Red Hot.’” The City Garage offered “general automobile repairing and storing” as well as oils and supplies and tire and tube repairing. Kuhn also operated a Dodge taxi service out of the shop. In 1927 he remodeled the building, adding a second story to be used as living quarters. During the Depression, Kuhn started to diversify. He began in 1935 by leasing some of his garage space to the post office to store their vehicles. He also worked out a contract with them to deliver mail to the Ann Arbor and New York Central railroad stations and to make special 95 The inside of the garage. (Courtesy of Bob Kuhn.) The City Garage as it looked after a second story was added in 1927. The zigzag pattern on the second level remains today, although the tile blocks are covered . (Courtesy of Bob Kuhn.) The inside of Bob’s Lunch, 1936. The customer at left is unidentified. Next are John Schumacher, an employee of Crippen Drug Store; a postman; Pat Hickey, a foreman at Snyder Excavating Company; and Pat Hickey’s son, Jim Hickey, owner of Hickey’s Standard Service next door on Main Street. Behind the counter is cook Frank Petrick. (Courtesy of Bob Kuhn.) runs to the Ann Arbor Airport to pick up and deliver the airmail that was transported in open cockpit planes. In 1936, Kuhn turned part of the front of the building into a small restaurant, which he named Bob’s Lunch after his son. He himself was the manager and dishwasher. Josephine waited tables, with her sister, Helen Roy. Bob Kuhn was the all-around helper. One of his jobs was delivering meals, by foot, to people who could not get away from their jobs. Bob’s Lunch had its own matchbooks that urged people to come “for a light lunch” of “tasty . . . toasted sandwiches” and bragged about the “delicious coffee.” In the 1920s and 1930s, Catherine Street was closer to the hub of downtown Ann Arbor than it is today. Lunchtime customers were mainly people who worked in the area as employees of the post office across the street, the Ann Arbor Dairy next door, the White Swan Laundry , Godfrey Moving and Storage (later the Workbench), and nearby stores on Main Street, as well as customers from Hickey’s Service Station , the City Garage’s successor at 300 North Main. Farmers’ Market days would bring additional diners. By 1939, Kuhn had given up the garage operation entirely. He rented the remaining street frontage to Charles J. Morgan for a barbershop known as Charlie’s. It remained in operation until 1970, and then the space was occupied...