The Old Commercial Exchange Building, Jackson: 1885

The building is currently called The Sparks, but it has been known under a few different names since 1885.

Located at 2301 E. Michigan Avenue. in Jackson, Samuel Collins and Dwight & Henry Smith founded the Collins Manufacturing Company, built a factory at this site, and started manufacturing buggies, carts, sleighs, surreys, and wagons.

By 1895, with an employee roster of approximately 400, the company was cranking out 20,000 conveyances a year.....but that same year, a fire broke out and destroyed the factory. Collins immediately rebuilt and turned the building into a U-shaped complex.

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In 1897, the Collins Manufacturing Company was taken over by the National Wheel Company, who occupied it until 1908.

In 1908, the site was purchased by the Jackson Automobile Company. They constructed a second building that closed up the U-shape and in 1909 built another two buildings. The company continued manufacturing automobiles until they scrubbed the whole company in 1922.

The Cardon-Phonocraft Corporation took over the property, making neon signs, phonograph receivers, and radio tubes.

In 1930, the Sparks-Withington Company bought out Cardon-Phonocraft and started manufacturing radios and auto parts. Sparks-Withington changed their name in 1956 to ‘Sparton’ (using parts of their original name: SPARks-WithingTON) and hung in there until the late 1950s.

In 1961, the complex was sold to new owners and renamed the structure as the Commercial Exchange Building, leasing spaces to several tenants.

The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993, and is currently known as simply “The Sparks”.