Copyright M Live Michigan
SAGINAW, MI — A new sports-themed bar and restaurant, Gordie’s Bar, within weeks will open inside the historic downtown structure referenced often as “The Bancroft Building” or simply “The Bancroft.” The legacy of the building extends back even prior to the development of the current 109-year-old structure, which today also houses apartment units. Here is a timeline of “The Bancroft” and the structure that preceded it: Sept. 7, 1859: Lumber baron Jesse Hoyt financed the building of the Bancroft Hotel, and named it for his friend, George Bancroft, a historian. The main entrance was on East Genesee, and a women’s entrance was on South Washington. 1915: The original Bancroft Hotel was demolished. 1916: A 200-room building of Ionic-style architecture was built in the original Bancroft Hotel’s place. 1924: The Bancroft’s roof garden, which featured bands, outdoor dancing and dining along South Washington, closed to make way for additions after being a popular entertainment spot in the early 1920s. 1925: An additional 100 rooms were added with an addition at East Genesee and Water. 1953: International Hotels Inc., a Detroit-based chain, purchased the Bancroft. 1964: A group of Saginaw and Bay City businessmen acquired the building. They made improvements such as enlarging and improving guest rooms, adding air conditioning, television, a swimming pool and more parking. The added costs led to financial difficulties. 1969: Hotel Bancroft sold for $800,000 to the Saginaw Conference Center Inc., a corporation owned by the Saginaw Community Chest and organized to take over the Bancroft property as a facility to house United Fund (now United Way of Saginaw) agencies. Saginaw Conference Center assumed the property after Circuit Judge Eugene S. Huff ordered its sale for nonpayment of a promissory note. Saginaw Community Chest spent $300,000 to remodel the building. President Robert R. Cook told The Saginaw News the building would continue to operate as a hotel while moving agencies into the building. 1981: The city sold the Eddy Building for $40,000 to Ann Arbor-based development firm Rosenberg, Freeman and Associates to develop into subsidized housing for low- and middle-income families. The firm also bought the Bancroft Hotel from United Way of Saginaw County for $250,000. The Eddy Building had remained in the Eddy family until it was acquired by the city on May 11, 1981. 1982: Newton, Massachusetts-based Wingate Companies acquired the Bancroft and the Eddy properties. 2011: State housing officials announced the 120-unit Bancroft building at 107 S. Washington and the 30-unit Eddy Place at 100 N. Washington would cease to serve as public housing and the residents would move elsewhere by the end of November. Newton, Massachusetts-based Wingate Companies, the private company that owned and managed the property since 1982, hadn’t made payments required by its purchase agreement with the Michigan State Housing Authority, the previous owner, since Nov. 1, 2010, and still owed $3.75 million. In lieu of its debt, the company agreed to relinquish the Bancroft-Eddy to the state. Saginaw planners began working to establish new, non-public-housing uses for the properties. 2012: The last tenants moved out of the Bancroft building weeks before both buildings were sold to new developers. Jan. 9, 2013: The Michigan State Housing Development Authority announced the sale of the Bancroft Apartments, 107 S. Washington, and Eddy Place Apartments, 100 N. Washington, to Lakeshore Management LLC of Lakewood, Ohio for an undisclosed amount. Summer 2014: Developers Bodnars’ Lakeshore Management LLC firm revealed the renovations to the Bancroft and Eddy buildings, including the Bancroft Luxury apartment units that remain part of the building today. September 2014: Bancroft Wine & Martini Bar opens to customers in the old Bancroft building. 2017: In the same building, in an adjoining unit, Bourbon & Co. opens to patrons. August 2019: The owner of both Bancroft Wine & Martini Bar as well as Bourbon & Co. announces the businesses will close.
