Heroes in the Stones

Rochester's historic Mount Avon Cemetery is a place of stories waiting to be told and remembered. The Rochester Avon Historical Society will present some of those stories on Saturday, September 27, 2014 in its third annual Cemetery Walk, entitled "Heroes in the Stones."

Tour guests will meet some of the people buried at Mount Avon, brought back to life through the skills of historical re-enactors dressed in period costume.  The re-enactors will tell the stories of some heroes who lie at rest in our cemetery, including a Revolutionary War patriot, a War of 1812 veteran, and a World War II defense industry worker who was killed in the line of duty.  The 1925 Mount Avon mausoleum will also be open for visits by tour guests during the event.

The cemetery walk is a major fundraising event for the Rochester Avon Historical Society and supports the organization's local history education and historic preservation initiatives.  If you appreciate the work that RAHS has done and is doing, such as the restoration of the World War II Honor Roll, the restoration of the Beerbohm mural at the RCS administration building, the restoration of the historic Butts surrey, the walking tours, the free local history programs at the library, the theatre project, and more, you can support these efforts by attending the cemetery walk.

Tours will depart by shuttle van from the municipal parking lot at Third and Walnut streets at 20 minute intervals between the hours of 1:00 p.m. and 4:40 p.m.  Tickets are issued for a specific tour time, so buy your tickets early to have the best selection of tour times.  Tickets may be purchased in person at the Rochester Regional Chamber of Commerce office at 71 Walnut Street during weekday business hours, or online from the RAHS online store.

Please join RAHS on September 27 to celebrate our Heroes in the Stones.

At Home in Rochester: Godfrey F. Hamlen House

Hamlen house on North Oak in 2014

 This house on the west side of North Oak Street was built around 1925 as the family residence of Dr. Godfrey F. Hamlen and his wife, Anna.  The house originally stood at 725 North Main, directly across from the old Charles S. Chapman estate (and immediately north of the location of the Rochester Athletic Club in 2014).

Godfrey F. Hamlen was a native of Canada and an 1896 graduate of the Detroit College of Medicine. He practiced for a few years in Commerce Township and Farmington before locating in Rochester in 1906, and continued his private practice here until his death in 1933. (He was not related to the pioneer Hamlin family of Avon Township, spelled with an 'i'.)

In February 1953, as preparations were being made to build a new A & P supermarket on North Main, the Hamlen house and two others near it were moved to make way for the new construction.  The three houses stood on a hill immediately north of the supermarket construction site; they were moved to allow excavators to cut down the hill and use it to fill in the low-lying parcel where the construction was taking place. The Hamlen house was moved to North Oak, and its immediate neighbors, the Albertson and Drace houses, were moved to Ferndale Avenue.

Hamlen house at original location on N. Main, date unknown

After it was relocated to North Oak, the Hamlen house was reconditioned and offered for sale for $13,000 by Max Hartwig realty.

To read more about the history of the Hamlen house and view more photos, visit the property's record in the Oakland Regional Historic Sites database.

Bygone Business: Michigan Wildflower Company

If you ask most people what seed company was based in the Rochester area, they'll probably name the Ferry-Morse Seed Company that operated a large farm and experimental garden on Rochester Road between Hamlin and Auburn.  That is a correct answer to the question, but it is not the only correct answer.

Ferry is well-known locally for the operation they established in Rochester just after the turn of the 20th century; however, Rochester was also home to a plant and seed company before the turn of the century.  Wilford A. Brotherton, a botanist who was born in Oakland County of one of its pioneer families, lived on West Fifth Street (now University Drive) in Rochester and operated a mail order seed and nursery business from his home as early as 1891.  Known alternately as W. A. Brotherton & Co. or Michigan Wild Flower Company, the firm advertised in gardening and horticulture publications nationwide and shipped product all over the country.

Wilfred Brotherton was active in a number of professional organizations including the Michigan Academy of Science and the Michigan Ornithological Club. He also taught botany at Rochester High School for a time. He died in Detroit in 1914 and was buried at Mount Avon Cemetery.

Some of the Brotherton catalogs have survived the years; click here to view an example from 1891.

This Month in Rochester History

Fifty years ago this month, Rochester area residents were becoming acquainted with a brand new entertainment venue in the community: the Meadow Brook Music Festival.  The inaugural festival was held at the end of July and the beginning of August in 1964 in the brand-new Howard C. Baldwin Memorial Pavilion on the campus of Oakland University. Meadow Brook was the exclusive summer home of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under the baton of music director Sixten Ehrling.

During that first season in 1964, Meadow Brook Music Festival was a local event, but its popularity grew quickly. So great was the interest, that after two years the university had to open a new road from the festival area to Adams Road to create an additional outlet for concert traffic.  By the time the venue reached its third summer season, it had developed a regional following.

For more information about Meadow Brook Music Festival's fiftieth anniversary, including some photographs from the early years, click here.