434 Main Street (Racine, Wisconsin)

434 Main Street is the address of a building, originally known as the Edward McEnery Building, in downtown Racine, Wisconsin, on the west side of Main Street between 4th and 5th streets.

History
A fire that began in the Thrift Shoe Store basement on the morning of June 22, 1935, severely damaged the building as well as the neighboring Woolworth variety store at 436-438 Main Street, and caused lighter damage to the building's other neighbor, the Kresge variety store at 430-432 Main Street. The Woolworth store acquired the Thrift Shoe Store building after the fire, removed the wall between the two buildings, and enlarged and remodeled the store into the new space. The new space was primarily occupied by the store's new lunch counter and soda fountain. The enlarged store opened to the public on December 5, 1935.

After the Woolworth store closed on December 31, 1966, the store's lease required the space to be restored to its prior state. The company hired L. S. Jones & Sons, the same contractor which had removed the old wall three decades prior, to build a new wall in April 1967, separating 434 and 436 Main Street from each other once again. At that time, 434 Main Street was owned by William Smith. Smith sold the property to Jack Cherkinian on December 6, 1971.

Janet Cherkinian opened Cherkinian's Card Shop, later known as Jan's Card Shop, in the building in the early 1970s. The shop permanently closed with Cherkinian's death on March 31, 2017, at which time it was one of the oldest operating businesses in downtown Racine. The building was purchased by Lakebirch Properties in September 2017, which subsequently sold it to Blacktree LLC in April 2018. In November 2019, Blacktree applied for a White Box Grant from the city of Racine to help fund its ongoing renovation of the building.