Downtown Pontiac, Michigan
The Foundry.
A place to shop local, discover something unexpected, build a small business, tell a story, and become part of what is happening in downtown Pontiac.
The Foundry by History Loves Company is a creator marketplace, vintage mercantile, small-business incubator, media studio, and community gathering place inside the historic Riker Building at 35 W Huron Street.
Start Small. Grow Downtown.
Big ideas don’t always need big beginnings.
The Foundry exists to give creators, makers, collectors, artists, and entrepreneurs a place to start before they’re ready for a storefront of their own.
Start with a display. Grow into a pod. Build an audience. Learn what works. Create a real customer base. Then, when you’re ready, take the next step — hopefully right here in downtown Pontiac.
Marketplace
Michigan makers, independent brands, handmade goods, apparel, art, gifts, vintage pieces, and things you weren’t expecting to find.
Incubator
An affordable way for entrepreneurs to test products, learn retail, build customers, and grow toward something larger.
Mercantile
Vintage objects, architectural finds, Detroit and Michigan memorabilia, furniture, artifacts, and one-of-one pieces with stories worth keeping.
Studio & Gathering Place
Podcast, video, photography, workshops, live music, premieres, pop-ups, and community programming.
Life at The Foundry
Come for the store. Stay for what happens here.
The Foundry is designed to be active — a place where there is regularly a reason to walk through the door, meet someone, learn something, or discover something new.
Tuesday
Try-It Tuesday
Hands-on workshops, demonstrations, and opportunities to try something new with Foundry creators.
Wednesday
Side Hustle Wednesday
Small-business conversations, creator spotlights, networking, education, and shared experience.
Thursday
City Stories Live
History Loves Company programming, local stories, conversations, interviews, and special events.
Friday
Sound Sessions
Local musicians, acoustic performances, open mic opportunities, and music inside The Foundry.
Saturday
Discovery Day
Makers, demonstrations, special guests, shopping, premieres, and rotating programming built around discovery.
Sunday
Community Sunday
A slower day for meetups, local organizations, games, conversations, community, and wandering the shop.
Built for Small Business
A storefront shouldn’t have to be your first step.
Opening a traditional retail location can mean rent, utilities, staffing, insurance, fixtures, inventory, marketing, and a long-term commitment before a business has even proven its concept.
The Foundry creates a middle step. Businesses can establish a real-world presence, build a customer base, test ideas, and grow at a scale that makes sense for where they are today.
Explore Vendor Spaces →History Loves Company
The story behind the space.
History Loves Company is a Michigan-based media and real estate brand founded by Chris Hubel and built around historic places, architecture, preservation, neighborhoods, cities, and the people whose stories live inside them.
Through documentary video, writing, photography, historic real estate, and community storytelling, HLC explores why places matter — and what happens when we choose to remember, restore, reuse, or lose them.
The Foundry gives that mission a physical home. Here, preservation isn’t something that exists only in a documentary or an old photograph. It becomes part of everyday life.
Restoration Is the Work
Restoration isn’t only about saving old buildings.
It can mean restoring a storefront to activity. Helping an entrepreneur believe their idea is worth trying. Bringing people back downtown. Saving an object because of the story attached to it. Finding a new use for an old room.
The Foundry is an experiment in that kind of restoration — putting an old space back to work while helping new ideas take root inside it.
Why Pontiac?
Because downtowns don’t rebuild themselves.
Pontiac has spent generations building, reinventing, losing, and rebuilding. Its downtown still carries the architecture, street grid, history, and character of a city that mattered enormously to Michigan.
The next chapter won’t be created by one massive project. It will be built storefront by storefront, business by business, event by event, resident by resident, and idea by idea.
The Foundry intends to be one small piece of that work.
Historic Riker Building
An old building doing new work.
The Foundry lives inside the historic Riker Building at 35 W Huron Street in downtown Pontiac. The building isn’t simply a backdrop for the concept. It is part of it.
Historic bones, downtown storefronts, old materials, and rooms designed for previous generations have been given another job.
Come See It →Stay Connected
Follow the story as it grows.
Follow History Loves Company and The Foundry for Michigan history, preservation stories, new videos, vendor announcements, behind-the-scenes updates, events, new arrivals, and one-of-one Sunday Drops.
The Newsletter
Stories We Keep
Get Michigan history, preservation stories, new episodes, behind-the-scenes updates, Foundry news, Sunday Drops, and stories worth keeping delivered directly to your inbox.
Subscribe to Stories We Keep →Start Here
Shop something different. Build something new. Help keep a downtown moving forward.
However you find your way into The Foundry, you’re becoming part of its story.
History Loves Company also specializes in historic and architecturally significant real estate throughout Michigan. Chris Hubel is a licensed REALTOR® with @properties Christie’s International Real Estate. Historic Real Estate →