Since 1886, all Upjohn Company pharmaceutical manufacturing was located in Downtown Kalamazoo. By the mid-1930s, new warehousing was needed. A brick warehouse was built north of Kalamazoo on N. Pitcher St after Mosel Ave (Building 27) in 1937. A second warehouse (Building 28) was added there in 1941. Part of the attraction of this location was these warehouses could be served by two different railroads, the Pennsylvania RR and the Grand Trunk RR. At that time, all Upjohn products moved out of town by rail. In 2025, these two warehouse are still standing in good condition. The two articles below from The Overflow internal sales magazine are from 1937.

When all Upjohn Company manufacturing moved to Portage between 1948-1951, these two warehouses were surplus to requirements. The photo below shows one of the warehouses in the 1950's, unused and for sale. Building 27 was eventually donated to the Kalamazoo Foundation in December 1960 and Building 28 was sold to the City of Kalamazoo in September 1960. These two warehouses have beat the odds - they still stand in 2025. They look the same as when Upjohn owned them! 

Here are the two warehouses in November 2025. 

The boxcars in the September 1930 photo below would not have been shipped from the North Pitcher warehouse as that opened in November 1937. This product would have been shipped directly from railroad spurs in Downtown Kalamazoo.