ADRIAN — The Adrian Armory Events Center will open to the public for an open house on Friday, July 5, giving residents a chance to see the renovations the building has undergone over the past several years and learn about the programs that currently take place there.

The open house comes as the armory celebrates its 100th anniversary. The process of building the armory a century ago was a long, drawn-out one — so much so that the building didn’t open until March 1926. But 1924 is the year inscribed on the front of the building, so the armory’s current owners have chosen to mark the centennial this year.

Mark and Mary Murray led the effort to rehabilitate the building after the Michigan Army National Guard stopped using it about a decade ago. 

At the time, there was a lack of appropriate gathering spaces for large community events in Adrian. Though the armory was primarily a military installation, it was also built with the intention of filling an unmet need in the city. 

“This is a really cool, unique armory because it was designed to be a community service facility as well,” Mark Murray said.

The armory is steeped in local heritage — both because of its own history and because of the elements of other Adrian buildings that were integrated into its renovation. For example, wood salvaged from Garfield and McKinley elementary schools was used in the project. And a stained glass window, which was donated to the old Adrian High School by a graduating class in the 1930s, occupies a place of pride.

The renovations, which started in 2017, were extensive. A drop ceiling had been installed underneath the beams in the drill room. Much of the beautiful trim was soiled from years of people smoking in the building. 

However, Mark Murray said, “the goal was to not make one change to the original building that we didn’t have to.”

Today, the armory combines one of its original purposes — that of serving as a community gathering space — with a new one. The armory is now the home of Launch Lenawee, a small business development center whose purpose is to expand Lenawee County’s economy from the ground up.

Often, Mark Murray said, people feel that economic development is a matter of getting a 600-person factory to move into town and save the community. But throughout Lenawee County’s history, much of its economic development has actually come from within.

“People like Elmer Kapnick, people like Orville Merillat, started in a garage or a living room,” he said, referring to the founders of Kapnick Insurance and Merillat Cabinets.

Launch Lenawee runs an annual training program for entrepreneurs and also has a commercial kitchen where people who want to start food-based businesses can get their ventures off the ground without having to bear the up-front cost of kitchen equipment.

The July 5 open house will take place from 5 to 8 p.m., during Adrian First Fridays and before the city’s fireworks display.

Volunteers will be on hand to take visitors through the armory and talk about its story.