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.