Bygone Business: Cole Brothers Sugar Bowl

If you are looking for a good place to have dessert in downtown Rochester today, you have several excellent options from which to choose.  In 1921, you probably would have visited the Cole Brothers Sugar Bowl at 433 S. Main (currently occupied by the Funky Frog resale shop).  The building at 431-433 S. Main was built in late 1919 and opened to tenants in 1920.  On April  22, 1921, the Sugar Bowl ice cream and confectionery shop opened to the public in the north side of the building.  The location was an excellent one, being one door south of the Idle Hour Theater, which was the only movie venue in town at the time.  The Sugar Bowl operated in this location until 1930, when Adolph Zimmerman moved his shoe store into the space.

This ad ran in the Rochester Era in on April 29, 1921, just a few days after the store held its grand opening.

At Home in Rochester: George Washington Vandeventer House

This beautiful upright-and-wing house with Italianate details was built in 1875 by Rochester carriage maker George Washington Vandeventer. Born in New York state in 1829, Vandeventer came to Michigan with his parents in 1836, one year before Michigan became a state. He married Julia Pixley, one of the daughters of Avon Township pioneer Jonathan Pixley, in 1853, and the couple had two children, Marshall and Blanche.

Vandeventer operated his carriage business in Rochester and was active in community affairs. He served three terms as president of the village of Rochester and helped to organize a fire brigade after his original house located on this lot was completely destroyed by fire on March 6, 1875.  This house served as the family home of George Vandeventer until his death in 1909 (Julia had died in 1908), but it remained under the ownership of Vandeventer family members well into the 1930s.  In 1998 it was listed on the Michigan Register of Historic Places and a Michigan Historical Marker was erected on the property.

Subdivision Stories: Oak Bluff

Lying east of North Main Street and south of Romeo is the Oak Bluff subdivision, platted in 1948.  Frank R. Chapman and his wife, Lou Blackwood Chapman, along with Frank's sister, Doris Chapman Blackwood, developed the subdivision on family property which had originally been part the the Charles Sherwin Chapman estate.  Frank and Doris had grown up in a grand, shingle-style estate house that stood atop the bluff north of the downtown area, overlooking the Western Knitting Mills pond, sometimes known as Chapman Pond. Charles S. Chapman had built the house in 1899, when he was serving as president of Western Knitting Mills, which was at the time Rochester's largest employer.

The Chapman siblings named the streets in the new development after their father, Charles, and their uncle, William Clark Chapman.  They retained ownership of the property on which the estate home stood, but did not live in the house.  After several failed attempts to find a suitable use for the house, the property on which it stood was sold for development in 1968 and the house was razed.

This Month in Rochester History

Fifty years ago this month, the Rochester Board of Education was considering how to re-align office space within the school district's buildings.  Some administrative offices were located in a house at the corner of Walton & Livernois, on the high school campus, while the business and personnel offices were housed at the old Stoney Creek School.  In May 1963, the board voted to spend $16,000 to convert the former Harrison school on Fourth Street to and administration building and hired Frank Rewold & Son to do the construction work.  The Harrison building had been declared unfit for classroom use the year before and had sat vacant for several months.  This building, constructed in 1889, is now 123 years old and is still used for administrative purposes today.

At Home in Rochester: Benajmin C. Harrison House

The house at 420 East Street, known today as the home of the Rochester Folk Workshop, was built in 1870 as the family home of Benjamin C. Harrison and his wife, Almira Fancher Harrison. The Harrisons were married in 1865, and two years later bought two lots on East Street. Tax and census records indicate that the house was built on the southernmost of the two lots in 1870.  Benjamin Harrison was born in New Jersey and was a shoemaker by trade.

In 1873, the Harrisons sold the house and both lots to an Oakland Township farmer named Lemuel W. Shoup and his wife, Laura. Lemuel Shoup was the son of one of Oakland Township's pioneer settlers, Conrad F. Shoup, who had served as the township's treasurer and supervisor. Lemuel's nephew, Frank D. Shoup, was the proprietor of the Rochester Elevator from 1913 to 1922.

The Shoups' daughter, Lydia, married Marcus Eugene Carlton in 1881 and her parents sold the vacant lot to the north of their house to the young couple in 1884 so that they could built their own house. The Carltons hired prominent architect John Scott to design their home, which still stands today at 428 East Street.

Lemuel Shoup left the house at 420 East to another of his daughters, Lillian Shoup Horn, when he died in 1901. Lillian's daughter sold the property in 1919, and after brief ownership by a man named James Wortman, the house was purchased in 1922 by Fred Hart Main.  Fred Main, a carpenter, and his wife, Olive, made their family home there for more than four decades.  Their daughter, Helen V. Main Allen, who grew up in the house, later became the treasurer of Avon Township and served in that office from 1949 until her death in 1970.  The city of Rochester Hills named Helen V. Allen Memorial Park on School Road in her honor.

The property stayed in the Main family until 1970.  In the early 1970s, the current owners, Vincent and Karen Sadovsky, established the Rochester Folk Workshop in the building.

The Benjamin C. Harrison House celebrates its 143rd birthday this year.

Bygone Business: Hacker Meat Market

If you were shopping for groceries in Rochester 119 years ago, these are the prices you would have found at the Hacker Meat Market and grocery at 330 S. Main (now 324 S. Main, where O'Connor's Pub is located).  Thomas W. Hacker established his market in Rochester in 1886, and operated it at this location for about 20 years.  This ad from the Rochester Era shows Hacker's prices from 1894, when five pounds of good coffee could be had for $1.00.

Where Do You Think You Are - The Route

1. Start on the street corner in front of the old Congregational Church (the old one - not the one where the congregation is currently located on North Pine St.) - This is the northwest corner of Third & Walnut, in front of Smackwater Jack's.

2. Walk a straight path due east to the place that was the site of the first house in Oakland County and the first school in Rochester. This takes you to the Rochester Settlement Marker located on East Third Street at the East Alley.

3. Walk straight north to the corner where the old Village Hall and police station stood. This location is at the northeast corner of Fourth Street and East Alley, where the municipal parking lot is.

4. Walk straight west to the street corner in front of the old 1937 post office building. This is the location of the Penny Black restaurant on the northeast corner of Fourth & Walnut.

5. Walk straight north to the next street intersection. (Intersection of Walnut & West University Drive).Cross the street and walk straight west to the street corner in front of the old Nichols Funeral Home stood (now the corner of West University and Oak Streets; Nichols was the predecessor of Pixley Funeral Home). Walk straight north to the  Charles W. Case house (522 Oak Street).

6. Walk about 220 feet due northeast from the front of the Charles W. Case house. Where are you? You are at the plaza east of the police station entrance where the World War II Honor Roll and Harris Fountain are now located.

If you liked this little exercise, stay tuned, because the Rochester Avon Historical Society's downtown walking tours will soon be starting a new season.  The first walk will be held on Tuesday, May 14 at 7 p.m., and you can meet host and tour guide Rod Wilson in front of the Rochester Mills Brewing Company on Fourth Street. For other tour times and dates, visit the RAHS web site or Facebook page.