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BUCHANAN — A collaboration between local business entities is giving the historic Redden Building a new lease on life in downtown Buchanan.

Michael and Elaine Rowland of Rowland Property Group and Ann Tuite of Buchanan Craft LLC – parent company of River Saint Joe – have been hard at work transforming 103 Days Ave. into Thistledown & Row, a restaurant and cidery/winery coming to downtown Buchanan this fall.

Thistledown & Row will feature a sitdown restaurant on the north side of the space (Thistledown) and a cider/wine bar on the south side of the space (Row), as well as a walk-up/takeout window designed with the social district in mind. The restaurant also plans to host live music.

“We want to be able to support local music for sure and bring that to the community, so we’re really excited about that too,” Elaine said. “We’re working on coming up with a good menu that everyone can enjoy and we’re just excited to bring an additional option to not only Buchanan but the surrounding area, too.”

The name of the restaurant comes from the native thistle found in southwest Michigan poet Benjamin Franklin King mentions in the opening stanza of his poem, “The River St. Joe.” The poem was also the inspiration for the name of Buchanan Craft’s other project, River Saint Joe Brewery and describes the beauty of relaxing along the banks of the St. Joseph River in the summertime.

The “Row” in Thistledown & Row comes from the sport of rowing, a passion that Anne’s sister, Fran, of Flatwater Farms, loves to participate in on the St. Joseph River.

“The reason she came to Buchanan and the reason she bought the farm that the brewery is on is because of rowing,” Tuite said. “So we’re calling the bar area ‘Row’ and the restaurant ‘Thistledown.’”

Built in 1884 by brothers Samuel and Levi Redden, the “Redden Building” has watched over downtown Buchanan for 140 years. The second story is said to have been built subsequent to the construction of the first story in 1884, and at one time housed one of the two Buchanan Masonic Lodges which existed in the 19th Century.

Having sat vacant for years, the Redden Building was a shell of its former self when the Rowlands purchased the property in 2020. The roof was in the basement and the building was in need of extensive repairs. After four years of hard work, the building is almost ready to be reintroduced to downtown Buchanan.

“We drove by it every day, like everyone else does,” Elaine said. “It had been sitting empty and vacant and just deteriorating and it’s just heartbreaking. Michael and I just took the leap and we’ve been supported by the City of Buchanan and the community as a whole and that means a lot. We care deeply about our community, and we chose to move back here from Denver and it’s just important for our kids to grow up in a place like we grew up. We want to leave that legacy and we want to make our community even better than we found it when we moved back.”

With the bulk of the renovation work completed by the Rowlands, many of the building’s original features – from the original brick walls to the tin ceilings – have been restored or repurposed in a new way.

“Things like that are important to maintain the history and integrity of the building,” Rowland said. “Preservation is so important to us but we’re also making everything modern so that’s super exciting. (River Saint Joe) has been open to reusing or repurposing a lot of the things that have been in areas of the building. It’s important to them, too, so I like that we’ve been able to be on the same page.”

“Part of our mission is to recycle – sustainability has always been part of that,” Tuite added.

The first phase of the Redden redevelopment project, Hometown & Co. – a small business incubator for emerging businesses in the food and retail sector managed by LiveBuchanan – opened its doors last December at 101 Days Ave.

According to Tuite, the concept of a downtown Buchanan restaurant came about after conversations with Rowland, who is also the marketing director at Fernwood Botanical Garden.

“I think conversations of supporting each other with our stuff and just Elaine’s expertise in marketing and her interest in trying to help us promote (River Saint Joe), I think that’s where it started,” Tuite said. “It was a big call in Buchanan through surveys that people really wanted a restaurant and because that’s what this was, it made sense.”

After reviewing community survey data emphasizing the desire for more restaurants in the area, the Rowlands felt that Buchanan Craft/River St. Joe would make for the perfect partner.

“Michael and I have always been big fans of River St. Joe and the leadership team there,” Elaine said. “I feel like we’re on the same page with a lot of values and when we bought this space, we thought wouldn’t it be cool if we had our friends at River St. Joe do something down here fitting the needs of downtown and the central Buchanan community. We just knew now was the time to jump on board and join in and Buchanan is in such a great spot right now. So many wonderful things are happening, and we really wanted to be a part of that.

“We wanted to bring our friends along for that and we wouldn’t have wanted to do it with anyone else, so it’s nice to be able to have people you can trust and know that they’re the experts in that field.”

The Rowlands and Tuite have been overwhelmed with generosity from the downtown Buchanan community and are looking forward to contributing to its positive momentum.

“We’re just as excited as everyone else to get it open and to have meals with our friends and family here,” Elaine said. “We are working as quickly as we can.”