Looking Back: The bank that never was

NOVI — On the southeast corner of the intersection of Novi Road and Grand River Avenue stands the “old bank building.” The name makes some locals chuckle, as the building, although intended to be a bank, has been used for everything but a bank. 

“The way I know the story, and I’ve not done deep research on it — I’m hearing it from others — is that it was actually built as a bank building, but it never became a bank because of the economy then,” said Kim Nice, chair of the Novi Historical Commission. “So, it never opened as a bank, but it had been many things.”

Nice said that, according to longtime resident Kathy Crawford, the bank building was erected in the 1920s to be a bank. However, after the stock market crashed in 1929, it never opened. Instead, the bank remained dormant until the 1940s when it opened as the Novi Inn. 

The Novi Inn, according to Nice, offered both lodging and a bar. She said it was not a family-friendly place. 

“It was not a place that just anybody would go to,” she said. “Like you didn’t bring your family there. It was kind of the hangout of people for drinking and smoking and so forth back when it was first built.”

The building was used as the Inn through the 1970s and then was turned into a comic book and sports card store in the 1980s or 1990s, and it is now the site of a veterinarian’s office.