Main Street Stories: Opera House Block

Postcard view of the Opera House block about 1910

There has been a pharmacy operating in the Opera House block on the southeast corner of Main and Fourth streets ever since the building opened its doors in late 1890.  John T. Norton was the first drug store proprietor there, and his store was followed by the pharmacies of Zeno Schoolcraft, T. Kenneth Fetters, Richard J. Morley, and Robert A. Lytle.

The man behind the construction of the Opera House block was Charles A. Burr (1857-1934). Burr was one of eight sons of German immigrants Louis and Eliza Gendrick Burr, who came to America in 1850 and soon thereafter settled in Sterling Township in Macomb County.  Charles Burr was truly a "man of all trades" and had a varied career that followed several occupational paths. He started out as a school teacher, traveled to California in 1876 to mine gold for three years, then returned to the Utica area to run a hardware business. He brought his hardware business to Rochester in 1882 and also served as the town postmaster for a time. Among the other businesses he engaged in while in Rochester were undertaking, men's clothing, real estate, and fire insurance; he also served as an agent for the local express company.

C.A. Burr's diversified business interests must have served him well.  He built the substantial business block at Fourth & Main in 1890, providing retail space on the first floor and an entertainment and public meeting venue, known simply as the Opera House, on the second floor. He also founded the Bank of Rochester along with partner A.F. Newberry, and was financially interested in several other banks in the greater Detroit area.

At the same time that Charles Burr was building his new block, his brother Frank H. Burr, was building a two-store block immediately to the south of the Opera House block.  At the close of 1890, the two Burr brothers controlled the first four storefronts south of Fourth on the east side of Main.  Ten years later, in 1900, another of their brothers, George Burr, would join them as members of the merchant community in Rochester.

The Opera House block, with its signature Richardsonian arches which were restored by owner Robert A. Lytle in 1986-87, is still one of the most recognizable structures in any image of Main Street.  The building was listed on the State Register of Historic Places and received a Michigan Historical Marker in 1991. The Opera House block celebrates its 121st birthday this year.

Bygone Business: Petker's Place

1975 Clarion ad for Petker's Place

This week's post is a blast from the past for those of you who grew up in the Rochester area in the 1970s and '80s. The Campus Corners shopping plaza on the southeast corner of Walton & Livernois held its grand opening on July 19, 1975, and one of the charter businesses in that shopping center was Petker's Place, a restaurant and bar owned by Steve Petker. A former teacher from Lake Orion who had also operated a restaurant in Florida, Petker debuted his restaurant several months ahead of the Campus Corners grand opening, and wasn't able to sell liquor at the beginning.  That was just fine with Steve Petker, however; he wanted his establishment to be thought of as a restaurant that also served liquor rather than a bar that also served food. He wanted it to have a reputation as a family restaurant, and boasted that a family of four could have pizza and soft drinks at Petker's for a total tab of about six bucks.

Petker's location directly across Livernois from Rochester High School made it a natural hang-out for the high school set during my teen years. As I recall, it was the bar of choice for senior class members who were of legal age (eighteen in those days) and looking for a liquid lunch. It was also the favorite after-rehearsal watering hole for a certain church choir that I know of.  If you have memories of Petker's and would like to share them, please post a comment.

Bygone Business: Gebert Hardware

In the days before the big box warehouse stores, downtown Rochester had plenty of hardware merchants to serve the home repair and home improvement needs of the community.  One of these was Gebert's Hardware, located at 405 S. Main, in the building now occupied by Molnar Tuxedo. Mr. and Mrs. Walter Gebert opened the hardware business in 1948, but they were already known to area residents as the operators of the former Metz & Buchanan Coal Yard on Diversion Street.

Gebert Hardware closed in the mid-1960s, as did competitor Burr Hardware, a few doors up the block; a devastating fire did in Case's Hardware in 1968.  Hardware chains soon took over the territory once owned by these family-operated stores.

The accompanying ad for Gebert Hardware appeared in the 1957 Rochester area telephone book and is provided courtesy of Rod and Susan Wilson.

Main Street Stories: Masonic Block

Masonic Block as it looked in 1978

The building on the northeast corner of Main and Fourth Streets is known as the Masonic Block, as the second floor of the building housed, in its early years, the rooms of the local Masonic lodge. The block was built in 1899 by the Rochester Building Association on a subscription basis, and the Rochester Savings Bank was one of the early tenants on the ground floor.  Edward R. Prall (1857-1913) of Pontiac was selected as the architect for the building, which is designed in the Romanesque Revival style and features rock-faced sandstone trimmed with limestone.  Architect Prall was well-known in his day; among the buildings he designed are the Traverse City Opera House (now on the National Register of Historic Places) and some of the State Hospital buildings at Traverse City.

Not long after it was built, an addition was made to the rear of the Masonic block to house George Burr's implement warehouse; this space later became the location of the Rochester Post Office, and was used for that purpose until a new building was erected on the corner of Walnut and Fourth in 1937.  Over the years, the Masonic block has housed the Rochester Savings Bank, a Kroger grocery store, Carpenter's Men's Wear, the Lucille Shoppe, the Bright Ideas home furnishings store, and a number of boutique businesses on the first floor.  After the Masonic lodge departed the second floor it was used for professional offices (Justice of the Peace Luther Green had his law office there for many years), and the Rochester School of Ballet, among other things.

The Masonic Block was listed on the State Register of Historic Places in 1987 and has a Michigan State Historic Marker on the south wall.  The building celebrates its 112th birthday this year.

This Month in Rochester History

Fifty years ago this month, the Rochester Clarion was telling its readers about the latest exploits of a Rochester resident who was a very familiar face to the community's youth.  Lt. Col. Leroy Clark Felton came to Rochester in 1948 to accept a position as industrial arts teacher at Rochester High School. Felton had enlisted in the Army Air Force in 1942 and spent fifteen months in the Pacific theater flying the P-51/F-51 fighter. In 1951, he joined the 403rd Troop Carrier Wing, U.S. Air Force Reserve, at Selfridge Air Force Base, where he served as the unit's Director of Operations, and he later went on to serve as commander of the 911th Military Airlift Group.  Mr. Felton retired from the Air Force Reserve at the rank of full colonel in 1979 and relocated from Rochester to Florida, where he died in 2006.  In recognition of his long military service, his ashes were inurned at Arlington National Cemetery.  If you remember Mr. Felton and would like to read more about him, click here.

Vanished Rochester: Ground Observer Post GN58R

During the early Cold War era, Rochester was an outpost on the nation's civil defense early warning system. On a hill near St. Andrew's School (now Holy Family Regional School), a small building with windows on all four sides was erected for the use of the community's Ground Observer Corps volunteers. The volunteers worked in pairs around the clock, each team standing a two-hour watch to scan the sky for low-flying enemy aircraft.

The Ground Observer Corps was a U.S. Air Force initiative that began as an experimental program during the Korean War, when it was feared that gaps in American radar defenses might allow low-flying aircraft to invade U.S. air space. After the initial roll-out proved promising, the expanded program, called Operation Skywatch, was promoted nationwide.  Eventually, more than 800,000 civilian volunteers stood watches at 16,000 Ground Observer Corps posts strategically located across the country.

In Rochester, the Ground Observer Corps post designated GN58R was built in the summer of 1956.  Sarah Van Hoosen Jones and the Chamber of Commerce donated the binoculars for use of the GOC volunteer observers.  Nelda Carmichael served as chief observer.  The little building had a direct phone line to Selfridge Air Force Base to allow volunteers to report suspicious aircraft directly to military authorities.

Many ordinary Rochester citizens, my father and grandfather among them, stood their post in the tiny shack, watching and waiting to sound the alarm for the Soviet attack that never came. The GOC post in Rochester didn't last long; the entire program was dismantled by the Air Force on January 1, 1959, because advances in technology had allowed the U.S. military to close the gaps in its radar defense system electronically. The Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line had been activated in 1957, as had the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD). Human "eyes on the sky" were no longer required, and our Ground Observer post passed into the pages of Vanished Rochester.

This image is a Rochester Clarion photo from 1956 and shows Mrs. Bruce Moore (in the doorway) and Mrs. Nelda Carmichael (inside the building).

Bygone Business: Lake Jewelers

If you grew up in Rochester from the 1950s to the mid-1980s, perhaps you bought a special piece of jewelry from Lake Jewelers, located in the former Barnes building at 309 S. Main Street.  Lloyd Lake held his grand opening there in 1953 and staged a diamond and precious gem exhibit to attract customer attention to the new business. A year later, he told the Rochester Clarion that his first year had been very successful and that judging from the positive response, Lake Jewelers was "just the type of store Rochester needed."

Lake's was a fixture at the same location on Main Street for more than three decades; the store closed in May 1985.

This view of the Lake Jewelers storefront at 309 S. Main dates from 1961 and is taken from the collection of Marjorie and the late Walter Dernier.

At Home in Rochester: The Reuben Immick Residence

Reuben Immick home in 1897 Beautiful Rochester booklet

This Folk Victorian residence on the corner of Third and Oak Streets was built by Reuben Immick as his personal family home in 1890. Immick was born in Lower Mt. Bethel, Pennsylvania in 1852, the son of Aaron and Catherine Immick.  Aaron Immick was a carpenter, and Reuben learned the same trade and brought his skill to Rochester, Michigan in 1876.  He was one of a number of people to migrate from Northampton County, Pennsylvania to the Rochester area about that time; others from his old home town in Pennsylvania who also settled here were Dr. William Deats, John Ross (also a carpenter), the William Fox family and Francis Stofflet, a schoolteacher at Avon #5.

Reuben Immick married Ida Butz in 1880, and ten years after the couple built this home in the village of Rochester. The house was featured in the 1897 booklet, Beautiful Rochester, which had this to say about Reuben Immick and his new home:

Reuben Immick was born in Lower Mt. Bethel, Pa., in 1852, and came to Rochester in 1876, and for twenty-one years has been one of Rochester's best carpenters.  He has built for himself and occupies one of the handsomest residences in town.  Has served several terms on the village board and is considered a man of excellent judgment.

Immick's house is still handsome today, and fortunately for us, the delicate spindle decoration on the porches has survived the 121 years since the home's construction and may still be admired by passers-by.

Memory's Eye: Main Street Traffic

Today's Memory's Eye view shows us that traffic has certainly changed on Main Street over the last century or so. This composition was created by combining a current photo of Main looking northwest between Third and Fourth streets, with the Morse block at the center of the frame, with a circa 1890 photo of the same section of the street. 

This Month in Rochester History

Fifty years ago this month, another school year was coming to an end and Rochester was talking about the impending retirement of school district buildings superintendent Roy H. Schoof. When he was hired in 1931, Roy Schoof was one of a staff of three charged with the maintenance of the main school complex at Fourth & Wilcox streets, plus Woodward Elementary School. He took his duties very seriously and was remembered for the immaculately groomed terraced lawn he cultivated in front of the old Rochester High School. When he retired at the end of the 1960-61 school year after thirty years on the job, he was directing a maintenance staff of twenty-five in a much larger school district than the one he had started with during the Great Depression.

When interviewed on the occasion of his retirement, Mr. Schoof observed that his job had grown and the buildings had changed over the years, but the students were pretty much the same.  I wonder what he would think today.

Rochester, Please Remember Memorial Day

This is a photo of my grandfather taken in 1945 in front of his home at 131 E. Fourth Street in Rochester.  As you can tell from his uniform, he was among the ten percent of all residents of Rochester and Avon Township who served in the armed forces during World War II. That wasn't ten percent of the population eligible for military service, folks - that was ten percent of the entire population.  One person in ten living in this community went to war during that conflict. If you visit the World War II honor roll  on the east lawn of the Rochester Municipal Building, you'll see their names inscribed there.

This Memorial Day, please take time out from whatever else you are doing to reflect on the sacrifices of members of our greater Rochester community throughout all of our nation's conflicts. Tend a grave, take part in the services at Mount Avon Cemetery and Veterans Memorial Pointe, or read the names on the World War II Honor Roll.  Some of those names have a gold star next to them.

I recently found a wonderful short video on the meaning of Memorial Day. It was created by a group of students and it offers a great way to pause and reflect upon the importance of the day.  If you'd like to view it, click here.

Vanished Rochester: Rochester Paper Mill

On the banks of the Clinton River, at the southern edge of the emerging village of Rochester, Colonel Stephen Mack built a flouring mill in 1824.  The settlement of Rochester was only seven years old at the time. Mack, a native of Connecticut and veteran of the Revolutionary war, had migrated to the territory of Michigan in 1810 and lived in Detroit for a time before leading a group of investors who purchased land to plat the future city of Pontiac.  After making his permanent home in Pontiac, he established the aforementioned flouring mill in Rochester.

In 1857, Mack's old mill was converted to paper making,  and seven years after that it was purchased by William H. Barnes. Barnes had been born in Connecticut and had worked in paper mills across New England and the mid-Atlantic before coming to Michigan in 1863. With his brothers, Cyrus and Charles, he operated a paper wholesale business in Detroit. In 1864, William H. Barnes moved to Rochester to operate the paper mill on behalf of the Barnes Brothers firm. The Barnes mill was very successful and was an important employer in Rochester for more than a century.  The company took a hit in 1875, however, when a local woman named Ann Strong who had a grudge against William Barnes set fire to the mill early on a Sunday morning.  The building burned to the ground and Barnes suffered a loss of approximately $32,000. He immediately rebuilt upon the old foundation a mill of brick and slate, and it is this building that is shown in the accompanying photograph.

After the death of William Barnes in 1903, the paper mill operated under several different names and owners.  It was for a time known as the Peninsular Paper Company, the Rochester Paper Company, and the James River Company. The paper mill is remembered as the only Rochester industry to operate continuously throughout the years of the Great Depression, offering much-needed jobs for local residents when other factories were shuttered.

In April 2002, the paper company ceased operations, ending a 127-year run of paper making at the site. The property was sold for redevelopment, and in 2005 the old mill was razed; 161 years after Stephen Mack established the first mill at that location, the paper mill passed into the pages of Vanished Rochester.


This postcard view from the collection of the Rochester Hills Public Library shows the paper mill as it looked about 1907.

Bygone Business: L.L. Ball Confectionery

You've probably got a favorite ice cream store or dessert spot that you enjoy in the Rochester area, but if the magic time machine dropped you into Main Street, Rochester in 1902, where would you go for a sweet treat? One of your options in those days would have been the L.L. Ball confectionery store, located in the - you guessed it - L.L. Ball building. Photographer Lyman L. Ball built a new store at 308 S. Main (the building we know today as Holland's Floral and Gifts) in 1900, with space for his photography studio on the second floor, while the first floor was leased to a bakery. The bakery didn't last long, and Ball needed another business on the street level, so he opened a confectionery store there in 1902. The confectionery store also met a quick demise - despite the claim in this ad that it offered the BEST ice cream soda in the city. Ball sold his building in 1904 to Lafayette Mead for use as a steam laundry.

Pioneer Farmsteads: The John Fairchild Hamlin Residence

For at least 165 years, the home at 1812 South Rochester Road (west side, just north of Hamlin) has stood on a rise of ground like a sentinel guarding the southerly approach to the town of Rochester. Likely built in the early 1840s by pioneer Avon farmer and contractor John Fairchild Hamlin (1799-1863), the residence was well-appointed for its day, as befitted the home of a man as successful as its owner. J.F. Hamlin was born in 1799 in the state of New York and migrated to Michigan during territorial days. He married Laura Andrus of neighboring Washington Township in 1831 and the couple settled in Avon Township. Hamlin amassed significant real estate holdings; by 1857, he owned more than half of section 22 and part of section 23, totaling 545 acres, as well as lots in the village of Rochester and acreage in other sections. According to his probate file, when John Fairchild Hamlin died in 1863, the land in his estate was valued at more than $30,000.

Part of J.F. Hamlin's fortune came from farming, but some of it came from contracting work for transportation infrastructure in the new state of Michigan. Hamlin was one of the contractors for the section of the Clinton-Kalamazoo Canal running from Utica to Rochester, and after the project was bankrupted, he spent the next decade - along with others - petitioning the state legislature to pay him for his work. Hamlin was also a commissioner of the Rochester and Royal Oak Plank Road Company, chartered by the state of Michigan in 1847.

John's widow, Laura Andrus Hamlin, died in 1883 and ownership of the Hamlin farm, known as Oldhome, passed to John and Laura's daughter, Belle. Belle was married to Marsden C. Burch, who had a long and noteworthy career in law and government service. Burch had begun his law career at the age of 21, as the first clerk and attorney for the newly-minted village of Rochester in 1869; two years later he was appointed probate judge of Osceola County. He also served as a federal district attorney in Grand Rapids before moving on to Washington, D.C. where he joined the Department of Justice. Since the Burches resided for much of their married life in Washington, D.C., they used the old Hamlin homestead as a summer and vacation residence, visiting the Rochester area for a few weeks each year. Judge Burch continued the farm as a going concern by hiring a superintendent to operate it in his absence. In October 1903, the Rochester Era informed its readers about recent activity at the old Hamlin place:

Judge Burch has returned to Washington D.C. and his duties in the department of justice. During the summer the Judge has built over the old Hamlin home, two miles south of Rochester, until it is now one of the finest country residences in Avon township. Always a stately mansion, it has been added to and overhauled until now it is a most desirable home. Robert Featherstone, a good farmer and citizen, occupies the house and works the farm.

In 1916, the Burches sold part of the Hamlin farm holdings for subdivision, but retained the house and other buildings and a generous section of the property for themselves. In announcing the partial sale of the farm, the Era said:

It will be gratifying to the people of this region that Mrs. Burch holds onto the place where she was born [in 1846] and lived until her marriage, and that not one of the buildings is to be parted with, and Oldhome will remain as it is, and has been. It has been known far and wide as the Hamlin Place practically as long as Rochester itself, the mansion and many of the other buildings dating back to the early part of the last century.

A few weeks later, while reporting that some of the outlying farm buildings were being moved from the sold parcels to the property being retained by the Burches, the paper made this comment about their effort:

Their [the Burches'] anxiety to preserve these reminders of the past should be regarded as an example worthy of invitation [one assumes the editor meant to say 'imitation' here] by those who have and can retain the works of their ancestors.

Indeed.

Fortunately for the Hamlin house, it survived when it passed out of Hamlin family ownership in the 1930s. In 1993, the owners of the property were presented with the Earl Borden Award for Historic Preservation for their sympathetic additions to the building which preserved the original house. Today the building houses medical office suites.

This Month in Rochester History

This month in Rochester history, we mark a musical milestone in the golden anniversary of the Rochester Symphony Orchestra. On May 11, 1961, the Rochester Clarion announced to its readers that the organizational meeting of the new Rochester Civic Orchestra had taken place. The fledgling orchestra, thirty-eight members strong, offered its first public concert at Rochester High School on May 18 of that year, under the baton of Frederic Johnson. An enthusiastic audience of 150 turned out to hear the inaugural program, which featured, among other pieces, Praise Ye the Lord of Hosts by Saint-Saens, the finale from Handel's Water Music and Mozart's German Dance, K.605 no.1.

The orchestra soon changed its name to the Rochester Symphony Orchestra, and quickly grew to be a treasured cultural institution in the community. You may follow the RSO's activities and concert schedule by visiting the orchestra's web page. Happy birthday, RSO!

Memory's Eye: 543 North Main

Today the Memory's Eye camera points at 543 North Main Street, long the location of the Dillman & Upton lumber yard. The Dillman & Upton company dates to 1910, but even before that the Daniel Kressler lumber and planing mill stood on this site. This location was an ideal spot for a lumber business in the days when the Michigan Central Railroad tracks ran along the northern edge of the property. In 1987, Dillman & Upton relocated to a former industrial property on Woodward Street - where the business is still found today - and the old building on Main Street was razed to make way for new development.

Even though the old Dillman & Upton building has been gone for a quarter of a century now, when I travel past the site my memory's eye still sees this old view. The image shown here is created from a current photo of the site taken a few days ago, and a vintage view of the site taken by my father in the early 1980s.

Bygone Business: Wallace Cleaners

The building at 621-623 North Main Street was built just before the U.S. entered World War II as the new home of Wallace Cleaners. Proprietor "Skinny" Wallace moved his business into the new structure in August of 1940. Wallace Cleaners was located there for about ten years, and was followed by ArtCraft Cleaners and the Day and Night Laundromat. In the 1970s, Anderson Sewing & Vacuum Service occupied the 623 address, while Lipuma's Coney Island moved into the 621 address.

Currently Lipuma's Coney Island occupies 621 N. Main and the Soy Valley Candle Company occupies 623 N. Main.

This newspaper advertisement boasts a three-piece suit and three ties cleaned for one dollar - such a deal!

Vanished Rochester: Swayze Livery Stable

For about a century, Rochester had a fine livery stable on West Fifth Street (now University Drive), just west of Main Street. The brick livery barn was built by William Swayze, a New Jersey transplant, most likely around 1872 or 1873, right after the first railroad line came to town. It was situated on the north side of the street, directly behind Swayze's residence, which stood on the northwest corner of Main and Fifth (where the gas station is today), and directly across Fifth Street from the rear of the Lambertson House hotel (later Hotel St. James, and now site of the Bean & Leaf Cafe). The livery stood approximately where the Morton Pharmacy/Rochester Apothecary building is now located.

In 1874, the Rochester Era ran a lengthy description of Swayze's livery business, which said in part:

The building is a fine modern brick structure 32x60 feet on the ground and two stories in height, located on Fifth street near Main. His live stock consists of fourteen horses, always kept up in fine order and ready at any time for the road. His "rolling stock" embraces six top buggies, two open carriages, one double platform spring vehicle, and one stage coach. His "sliding stock" consists of six single cutters, and one double seated cutter. The aggregate amount of capital invested in the concern figures up $10,000, while the business of the house annually runs up to not less than $7,000.

William Swayze died in 1887 and his livery business was continued for a couple of decades by the Hadden family. From the 1940s to the 1960s, the old brick barn was a livery of a different sort, when it served as home of the Carmichael Bus Lines operated by Earl and Nelda Carmichael. (I remember sitting in the drafty - and, as I recall, smelly - old building a time or two in the early 1960s, waiting while my father did some freelance maintenance work on Nelda Carmichael's buses.) After Carmichael Bus Lines departed, the building housed Houghten's Power Center for a time, and it was finally demolished around 1971, not long after the Butts-Swayze house on the corner of University and Main was razed to make room for the gas station.

This photo shows the former Swayze livery and Butts-Swayze residence around 1970, just before both buildings were razed. The camera is looking east-northeast along University Drive toward the intersection of Main. (Photo courtesy of Clarence and Dorene Whitbey)

Memory's Eye: 501 West University

My father, who attended Rochester High School in the 1950s, tells me that during his school days there was a wooden fence along the Wilcox side of the campus. Dad recalls that students without cars sat on the fence during lunch hour, while students with cars slowly cruised past to impress the "have-nots" with their custom rides.

Today's Memory's Eye post is created from a recent color photo of the Wilcox side of the Rochester Community Schools administration building at 501 W. University (formerly Rochester High School), with a black-and-white 1950s view of the building laid over it. Notice the group of students gathered at the wooden fence.

This Month in Rochester History

Fifty years ago, in April 1961, citizens of Rochester were approving plans for a second junior high school facility in the Rochester Community School District. Up to that point, the district had been served by a single junior high school located in the main school complex on University Drive, which today houses the district's administration building.

A post-war population explosion in Avon Township (now Rochester Hills) saw hundreds of acres of farmland turned into new subdivisions, bringing new families and many new students to the district. The new junior high school was planned for a site on Old Perch Road, and was originally designed to have 22 classrooms, a gymnasium and a library. The new school was named West Junior High School, presumably because of its geographic location in the western portion of the district, while the old junior high school on University Drive was renamed Central Junior High School.

When West Junior High School opened in the fall of 1962, it was already operating at its 600-student capacity. It has since undergone additions and renovations and is known today as West Middle School; it now serves more than 800 students and is one of four middle schools in the Rochester district.

The accompanying photo of West Middle School was contributed by Alexander, a Remembering Rochester reader. Thank you for sharing!

Subdivision Stories: Oakland View

The Oakland View subdivision was laid out at the southeast corner of Rochester and Avon Roads in March, 1920. The developer was Detroit's largest bank at the time, the Union Trust Company, represented by vice-president John N. Stalker and secretary Merrill C. Adams. The property had been owned by Mrs. Olive Bromley Fisher Adams and before that was part of the William Fisher farm. The north/south side streets in the subdivision were originally named Wood Avenue (presumably for Walter C. Wood, the civil engineer who laid out the development), Adams Avenue, and Wayne Avenue. The original plat contains a notation that Adams Avenue was changed to Pleasant Street by resolution of the Avon Township Board in 1941, probably to avoid confusion with Adams Road on the west side of the township. The subdivision's east/west street was named Overlook Boulevard, honoring J.J. Snook's Overlook Farm, which was located directly across Rochester Road to the immediate west of the new plat.

None of the street names in the Oakland View subdivision remain today as they were originally platted. In 1950, the Avon Township Board accepted recommendations of the Oakland County Road Commission to change Wood Avenue to Rainier, Pleasant Street (formerly Adams Avenue) to Princeton, Wayne Avenue to Thames, and Overlook Boulevard to Avon Road.

The Oakland View subdivision celebrates its 91st birthday this year.

Memory's Eye: 129 East University

If you're like me, and you've lived in the community long enough to have observed many changes to the local landscape, there is sometimes a big difference between what your eye sees and what your mind's eye, or memory shows you. As I look around Rochester, I find myself "seeing" things that aren't really there any longer. The image shown here is a digital attempt to show you what I see when I look at the building at 129 East University. I created it from a contemporary photo, snapped yesterday, and a vintage shot taken in the early 1980s. I hope you enjoy this "memory eye" look at Rochester's past.

At Home in Rochester: The Marcus E. Carlton Residence

The handsome residence at 428 East Street, on the east side near the corner of University, was built in the summer of 1884 for Marcus Eugene Carlton and his wife, the former Lydia E. Shoup. Lydia's parents, Lemuel W. and Laura Shoup, were pioneer settlers of Oakland Township who lived on East Street in Rochester after they retired from farming. Lydia Shoup married M. Eugene Carlton in 1881, and three years later her parents sold a lot on East Street to the young couple so that they could build a home.

In May 1884, the Rochester Era announced that "M.E. Carlton will soon commence the erection of a beautiful Swiss cottage on the lot just north of his father-in-law L.W. Shoup's residence." A few weeks later, the newspaper's readers learned that the house would be a substantial one, designed by a prominent architect who was well-known in Rochester. The Era reported on June 19, 1884:

M.E. Carlton has let the contract for building his residence on North Oliver st., to Arkin & Jones, for $2,000. The design is Swiss cottage, with all the modern attachments, combinations and improvements. According to the plans and specifications, which were executed by John Scott, of Detroit, "Gene" will have, when completed, one of the handsomest and best appointed residences in this section of country.

(In the late decades of the 19th century, East Street was referred to as Oliver Street and is even so labeled on some maps, even though it was named East Street on the original plat of Rochester and is so named today.)

John Scott, architect of the Carlton house, was not only becoming a prominent Detroit architect at the time, he was also the son-in-law of Lysander Woodward of Rochester. John Scott designed a number of buildings of note, some of which are now on the National Register of Historic Places, including the 1902 Wayne County Courthouse, the 1888 Gogebic County Courthouse, and his personal residence on East Ferry Street in Detroit. In Rochester, John Scott was also the architect of the old Congregational parsonage house on Third and Pine.

The Carltons had lived in their beautiful new home on East Street for only a few years when they relocated to Flint and established the M.E. Carlton book and stationery store. The business prospered and was a major office supply outlet in Flint for decades during the first half of the twentieth century.

Today, the John Scott-designed Carlton residence serves as an apartment house. The building celebrates its 127th birthday this spring.

Bygone Business: Nowels Lumber

Nowels Lumber Yard was located at 412 Water Street, just south of the Rochester Elevator. Owner and operator Russell W. Nowels first came to Rochester in 1920, just after he had been released from the army at the end of World War I. He was an investor with a group of business men who were operating several lumber yards, and the investor group hired Nowels to manage their Rochester yard. He was successful in building up the business and was able to buy it in 1932, when he changed the name to Nowels Lumber & Coal. The Nowels family business grew and eventually included three lumber yards in the area.

Russ Nowels told a Clarion interviewer in the mid-1950s that the Federal Housing Act of 1936 had transformed his industry by popularizing the "do-it-yourself" movement among homeowners. Nowels tried to stay out front of this development with a training program that equipped his employees to instruct homeowners in selection and use of building materials and tools, and he credited this program with the success of his lumber business in the post-WWII era.

The Nowels lumber yard closed in October 1966, and Houghton Power Center took over the building at 412 Water St. Russell W. Nowels died in 1976.

This Month in Rochester History

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of Rochester's B.P.O.E. Lodge No. 2225, popularly known as the Rochester Elks. A group of interested men gathered at Knapp's Restaurant on Main Street in late February of 1961 to discuss the formation of a Rochester lodge, and at the end of March, they were granted a charter.

The Elks met for a time in the old Congregational church building at the corner of Third and Walnut, which had just been vacated when the congregation moved to its new, larger campus on North Pine. Eventually, the lodge was able to build its own club building on East University, on land that had been reclaimed from the old Chapman Pond lake bed. That building was torn down to make way for the development of the Sunrise Senior Living facility, and the Elks moved to the corner of North Main and Lysander, to the building that had once been Davey's Market.

Happy Birthday, Rochester Elks!

Ora Foster's Fifteen Minutes

Once upon a time, there was a young man from the Rochester-Pontiac area named Ora Archie Foster. When he was 21 years old, he left his work as a welder and enlisted in the U.S. Army just a couple of weeks before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Ora advanced quickly from private to corporal, and was sent to England, where he would serve as a member of the 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

On a September day in 1942, Ora Foster found himself traveling on foot through the countryside in Gloucestershire, England, when he decided to hitch a ride from a passing automobile. Apparently he did not consider, as any of us would today, that such an act might get him into considerable trouble or danger. Instead, he accepted a ride from two pleasant ladies in a large automobile and spent about forty-five minutes in their company, entertaining them with a constant stream of chatter, and commenting about his host country that "there's no place like home, but this is a nice place for a vacation." When he reached the end of his journey and thanked his hostess for the ride, she said to him,"You don't know who I am, do you?"

Cpl. Foster recalled that he could have been "knocked over with a feather" when his traveling companion identified herself as the Queen Mother, Mary, widow of the late King George V and mother of the reigning monarch, King George VI. Ora Foster's story made international news a few days later. His encounter was reported in the New York Times under the headline "The Private and the Queen," and he rated a mention in the "People" column of Time Magazine in the September 14, 1942 issue.

The New York Times account claimed that Foster was from Rochester, Michigan, but other accounts identified his home as Pontiac. I don't know which is accurate, but Ora Foster lived in Lake Orion after the war and was employed by Fisher Body for 30 years. He died in 1998 and is buried in Ottawa Park Cemetery in Waterford Township. His obituary mentioned his military service in World War II but omits any mention of his friendly chat with the Queen Mother.

A photo of Ora Foster is included in this news story from the St. Petersburg Times.

Subdivision Stories: North Hill Gardens

Lying east of Rochester Road and south of Tienken, the North Hill Gardens subdivision was opened in 1941 in part to answer the community's desperate need for additional housing for defense workers. During the summer of 1941, National Twist Drill & Tool Company was expanding its factory on the northeast corner of Tienken & Rochester in order to take on more defense contracts to fill the nation's Lend-Lease orders. McAleer Manufacturing had just moved to Rochester from Detroit in June of 1941, and was readying its factory at Fourth and Water to fill military requisitions for polishes and abrasives. Both companies were hiring more workers, and the Rochester area didn't have enough housing to accommodate their needs.

Three Rochester businessmen joined in partnership to develop the North Hill Gardens subdivision and provide affordable housing for factory workers. They were Ford dealer Larry Jerome, clothier Roy J. McCornac, and lumber dealer Russell Nowels. When the opening of the subdivision was announced in October 1941, the Rochester Clarion made these remarks, which give us a clue to the reason for subdivision's name:

The choice of this site on Tienken road southeast of the new National Twist Drill and Tool Co. plant is especially fortunate. It offers all the conveniences of the village with the low cost of land and beauty of country life. The gracious plots of ground in North Hills subdivision make it possible to have large gardens. Families should have an abundance of fresh vegetables - making it healthful and an economical place to live.

The story went on to comment about the affordability of the housing:

The lots will sell for from $235 to $495. Houses will be built as quickly as needed, the interior roughed in to be finished by the owner.

The street running through North Hill Gardens was named Orchard - a fitting label since the property in the area was an orchard, but the Township of Avon renamed it Red Oak in August 1950, when dozens of street names were changed at the recommendation of the county road commission.

William Clark Chapman

Most of us who live in Rochester admire the stately Chapman House as we travel down Walnut Street, and the Chapman name is visible elsewhere in our community - in the names of subdivisions, the name of a former lake, and even in the name of a recently-opened restaurant. So who was William C. Chapman, whose home still stands at 311 Walnut?

William Clark Chapman was born in Proctorsville, Vermont on March 1, 1866. He was the third of four children and the youngest son of Clark Howard Chapman and Ellen M. Sherwin. William Chapman's father was a prominent man in Windsor County, Vermont; he was an attorney, delegate to a state constitutional convention, and Register of the Probate Court. The family variously lived in Ludlow, Cavendish, and Proctorsville, Vermont, all neighboring towns within Windsor County, until 1882, when Clark H. Chapman decided to move his family to Detroit.

Young William was sixteen years old when his family came to Michigan. His older brother and only living sibling, Charles Sherwin Chapman, was eighteen. William attended a business college and then took a position as bookkeeper for Detroit lumber and real estate magnate William C. Yawkey. He also spent three years learning the lumber business in Wisconsin before returning to Detroit. In 1891, Yawkey and William's brother, Charles S. Chapman, organized the Western Knitting Mills in Detroit and brought William on board as secretary-treasurer of the company. WKM moved to Rochester in 1896, building a state-of-the-art factory on Water Street at the foot of Fourth, and establishing itself as the community's primary employer for a generation. Both Charles and William Chapman built impressive homes in the village of Rochester.

Chapman married Ada Josephine Barney in his old home of Ludlow, Vermont in 1890, and the couple had one son, Carroll Barney Chapman. Though William and Ada Chapman made their home in Rochester for almost all of their married life together, they remained in close touch with their family and friends in Vermont and made frequent visits to their childhood home.

Charles Chapman died in 1912, but William continued with Western Knitting Mills until the company closed about 1927. He also owned and developed many parcels of real estate in Rochester, and was involved in a variety of community organizations. When William Clark Chapman died, at the age of 80, on May 20, 1946, his remains were sent back to Ludlow, Vermont for burial with other members of the Chapman and Barney families.

This portrait of William Clark Chapman is from the collection of Rod and Susan Wilson.

What Do They Have in Common - Answers

Here are the answers to the "What Do They Have in Common?" quiz:

1. Keith Crissman, Larry Jerome, Dick Davis? - automobile dealers
2. Hale's, Stapp's, Zimmerman's, Burr's? - shoe stores
3. Deaton's, Byers', Potere's? - gas stations
4. Milton Weaver, Maurice Watson, Nina Martin? - real estate offices
5. Alward, Johnson, Plassey, Young? - groceries
6. Oberg's, Avon Theater, National Bank of Rochester, Varsity Shoppe? - all were located, at various times, at 435 S. Main
7. Lucille's, Carpenter's, Buzzell's? - clothing stores
8. Brooks, Reading, Terry? - dentists

What Do They Have in Common?

Here's another little quiz for those of you who remember Rochester of the 1950s and 1960s. For each numbered item, decide what all the named elements have in common with one another. Answers will be posted here on Wednesday, February 9.

What do these have in common?

1. Keith Crissman, Larry Jerome, Dick Davis?
2. Hale's, Stapp's, Zimmerman's, Burr's?
3. Deaton's, Byers', Potere's?
4. Milton Weaver, Maurice Watson, Nina Martin?
5. Alward, Johnson, Plassey, Young?
6. Oberg's, Avon Theater, National Bank of Rochester, Varsity Shoppe?
7. Lucille's, Carpenter's, Buzzell's?
8. Brooks, Reading, Terry?

This Month in Rochester History

Fifty years ago this month, in February of 1961, Rochester residents were saying goodbye to a familiar business on Main Street. Verne Sutton, who had operated Sutton's Market on the southwest corner of Third and Main (where Mind, Body & Spirits is today), announced his retirement in the February 23, 1961 edition of the Rochester Clarion.

Sutton told the Clarion that some of his original customers who had started out with him when he opened the market in 1934 were still with him after 27 years, and he would miss them. The day of the small grocery store was fading fast, however, as more chain supermarkets came on the scene, and Sutton's was one of the last to leave the downtown business district. Verne Sutton sold the building and liquidated his grocery inventory, and soon after a gift shop called The Dants opened in the former Sutton's location.

This view of Sutton's Market is from the collection of Marjorie and the late Walter Dernier.

Main Street Stories: DeBaene Building

The building at 419-423 S. Main Street was completed in late 1926 by local businessman Camille J. DeBaene on a lot that for half a century before had been the location of the offices of Doctors Jesse and Jerry Wilson. A native of Belgium who came to the U.S. with his family as a child, DeBaene settled in Rochester after his marriage in 1905. In 1926, the Clarion announced that a new, one story stone and brick building was going up on the Wilson site and would house the A&P grocery store when complete. The DeBaene building was part of a mini building boom on Main Street that was sparked in anticipation of the construction of the South Hill bridge, scheduled for the summer of 1927.

Over the years, the DeBaene building has house two or three businesses at a time in its three sections. Among the tenants have been the A&P, DeBaene Lunch Room, DeBaene Tax Service, The Thimble Shop, Martin's Men's Wear, Cap' Tele-Tec TV Service, Avon Printing, Avon Recreation, Shepard's Bar, Birmingham Camera, Boulevard Bridal, and most recently, Mr. B's Food and Spirits, and the Spy Shop.

The DeBaene building celebrates its 85th birthday in 2011.

This 1940s postcard view of the DeBaene building is from the collection of Rod and Susan Wilson.

Subdivision Stories: Woodward Heights

There are several places in Rochester named in honor of pioneer farmer and businessman Lysander Woodward, and one of them is the Woodward Heights subdivision located west of North Main Street between Woodward Street and the northern city limits. The property on which the subdivision was laid out was formerly part of the farm of Lysander Woodward, which totaled nearly 400 acres and included land on both sides of Main Street.

In 1920, Woodward's daughter, Emma, and her husband, noted Detroit architect John Scott, sold a part of the Woodward estate to the Rochester Development Company. Local business leaders William Clark Chapman and Milton H. Haselswerdt were the officers of the development company, and William J. Fisher, a partner in the Fisher Brothers architecture and engineering firm of Pontiac, was the surveyor who laid out the streets.

One of the street names shown on this plat of the Woodward Heights subdivision has changed; Sugar Avenue, so named for the Detroit Sugar Company factory built upon in 1899, was renamed Woodward Street by the village council in 1927. Also notable among the subdivision's street names is Scott Street (highlighted in red on the plat), a very short street - now an alley, really - between Glendale and Ferndale, presumably named for proprietors John and Emma Woodward Scott.

When the lots in Woodward Heights were offered for sale, lot #1 was purchased by Rochester businessman A.R. Dillman, and lot #2 was purchased by Milton H. Haselswerdt. The fine homes these two men built upon those lots still stand today along North Main.

The Woodward Heights subdivision celebrates its 91st birthday this summer.

At Home in Rochester: The George Flumerfelt Residence

The home on the southwest corner of Walnut and Fourth streets was built in the summer of 1895 by George M. Flumerfelt (sometimes also spelled Flummerfelt). Flumerfelt was born in Oakland Township in 1838, one of nine children of pioneer Oakland farmers William and Esther Flumerfelt. After seeking his fortune in an extensive tour of the western United States as a youth, George Flumerfelt returned to the Rochester area where he farmed a large tract of land. He also invested in the local banks, and served as officer and director of several local businesses. He was also active politically and served as village clerk, village councilman, and member of the school board.
Flumerfelt's first wife, the former Rebecca Cummins, died in 1890 and two years later he married Clara E. Crissman. The couple built their new home in Rochester at 339 Walnut Street, on the corner opposite Fourth Street from the Baptist church. The Rochester Era of May 24, 1895 reprinted this announcement from the Pontiac Gazette:

Fisher Bros. have completed plans and specifications for a very fine modern frame house for G.M. Flummerfelt, of Rochester. The structure will be 56x40 feet, two stories and an attic, with octagon corner tower.
The basement will be divided into furnace and coal rooms, vegetable cellar, etc., with cement floors, with outside and inside entrances.
The ground floor will have a parlor, hall, sitting, bed and bath rooms, kitchen and summer kitchen, pantry, dumb waiter, etc. The hall and front stair case will be of panel work; the sitting room with have mantel, grate and tiled hearth, and the whole first floor is to be finished in oak; and the dining room floor to be of inlaid beech and oak. A colonial porch will extend across two sides, divided by a corner tower.
The second floor is to be divided into four chambers and store room, with closets throughout, all to be finished in Georgia pine, and have balconies over porches. Attic unfinished.
The roof will be hipped, with gables and dormers and of slate and with galvanized iron crestings and finials. All windows to be of double thick American glass and doors of double polished plate and art glass.
This will be the finest residence in the village, and reflect credit upon Mr. Flummerfelt, as well as its young designers.

The Fisher Brothers, Charles and William, had just launched their architecture and engineering firm in Pontiac in 1895. The company went on to great success and designed many buildings that were prominent in Pontiac in their day. They also designed the granite fountain donated to the village of Rochester by Samuel Harris in 1917.

George Flumerfelt died in 1917, and in 1929 his residence became the location of the Alanson C. Hobart Funeral Home. After William R. Potere bought out Hobart in 1950, he made several additions to the house to accommodate the needs of his growing funeral and ambulance business, but the features of the original house are still clearly visible today. John and Mary Modetz purchased the funeral home from Potere in 1986 and continue to operate it in the former George Flumerfelt residence.

The George M. Flumerfelt residence will celebrate its 116th birthday in 2011.

Vanished Rochester: Old St. Andrew

St. Andrew Roman Catholic Church is one of Rochester's largest congregations today, and has most certainly not "vanished," but the building that served as its home for nearly half a century has, indeed, disappeared from Rochester's landscape.
The congregation had celebrated its first mass in Rochester in 1912, and two years later purchased a lot on the southwest corner of Walnut and Third streets. In 1923-24, construction of a new church facility was begun with the excavation of the basement. The congregation used the enclosed basement for several years and completed the construction of the church building on a pay-as-you-go basis over the next several years.
As Rochester experienced robust population growth in the post-World War II era, so did the St. Andrew congregation, and the church on Walnut Street became increasingly inadequate for its needs. A new site in the northeast corner of town was purchased and the parish began using its new facility there in 1969, placing the Walnut Street property on the market.
The old church was first optioned by a developer who envisioned placing boutique businesses in the building, but those plans fell through and the City of Rochester purchased the site with the intention of adding much-needed parking spots for the downtown business district. The planned demolition of old St. Andrew sparked a major public outcry, and an effort to stop it was led by a local architect. More than 500 petition signatures were gathered during a two-day demonstration on Main Street, complete with a parade and band music, and letters of support were gathered from local industrial leaders. The Oakland County Pioneer and Historical Society weighed in as well, calling the impending destruction of old St. Andrew an "irreparable loss." On the other side of the argument, city council members were firmly convinced that their duty lay in solving downtown's critical parking shortage, and after some last-minute legal wrangling, gave the order for the bulldozers to roll. On July 24, 1972, old St. Andrew passed into the pages of vanished Rochester.

This Month in Rochester History

Happy New Year to everyone and welcome to the third year of Remembering Rochester!

This year, I've decided to make a small change in my "This Month in Rochester History" posts. On the first day of each month in 2011, I'll look back fifty years in Rochester's history to find out what was making big news in town during the corresponding month in 1961. Those readers who were in town at that time are encouraged to post comments with their own memories of these events.

So, here we go - in January 1961, this is the Rochester Clarion story that caught my eye:

New Group Offers Help to Library
A group of volunteers moved this week to ease the strain on facilities of the Avon Township Public Library.
The newly-formed "Friends of the Library" will hold its first general meeting at 8 p.m. Friday in the library, 210 W. University Drive.
Persons attending the meeting will be able to become charter members of the group.

Today, this half-century-old organization is known as the Friends of the Rochester Hills Public Library, and it continues to support the library's programs and services with grants made possible through fund-raising efforts such as used book sales and the Friends' Library Store.

Happy 50th birthday, Friends of RHPL!

Rochester Elevator Listed on National Register of Historic Places

The Griggs Brothers/Rochester Elevator Company Grain Elevator, located at the corner of Water St. and East University Drive in Rochester, has just been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Brothers Charles K. and Albert G. Griggs built the elevator in 1880 on what was then the Detroit & Bay City Railroad line. At the time, the opening of the elevator was important news for the Rochester area, because it connected local farmers with state and national grain and produce markets and saved them from having to haul their crops to Detroit to sell them. The elevator was a center of commerce for Rochester and contributed to the economic success of the farmers in the surrounding townships.

Charles K. Griggs operated the elevator for about 20 years, then sold it to a business partner, E.S. Letts. In 1909, the building was enlarged at both ends to form the structure that we know today, and the name was changed to the Rochester Elevator Company. The business passed through several other owners before the Smith family took over more than half a century ago. Although it no longer ships grain to market, the Rochester Elevator is the oldest continuously operating business within the city limits of Rochester, and has been housed in the same structure for 130 years. Earlier this year, the Rochester Avon Historical Society nominated the Rochester Elevator for the National Register of Historic Places, and that designation has just been awarded by the Office of the Keeper of the National Register at the National Park Service. Congratulations, Rochester Elevator, on a well-deserved honor!

At Home in Rochester: The Lloyd G. Satterlee Residence

The cement block home on the southwest corner of North Main and Griggs streets was built by Lloyd Garrison Satterlee, an inventor and entrepreneur, in 1905. Satterlee had invented a process for manufacturing cement roofing tiles and designed the house to showcase his product. He began construction in the fall of 1905, and in the spring of 1906, the Rochester Era reported on his progress:

L.G. Satterlee is busy finishing his house in the Albertson addition, the cement walls of which were up last fall. He proposes a roof of cement shingles of his own patent and manufacture -- both house and barn -- which will furnish a practical test of their utility in all respects. The residence is a model of convenience and is to be finished in the best possible manner.

The house must have attracted positive attention, because Satterlee and other local investors including E.S. Letts, William C. Chapman and George A. Hammond formed the Twentieth Century Cement Tile Roofing Company in Rochester in 1907 to manufacture and sell Satterlee's invention. The company lasted but a few years, and Satterlee moved on from Rochester, eventually settling in Santa Cruz, California.

Eventually, houses on North Main Street transitioned from residential to business use, and the Satterlee residence became the home of Norman Hastings' Culligan Soft Water Service. Today, it is occupied by law offices.

The L.G. Satterlee house is 105 years old this year.
The accompanying photograph shows the Satterlee residence as it looked in 1907.

Subdivision Stories: Elmdale

The Elmdale subdivision at the southwest corner of Crooks & Auburn roads was platted in June 1925 on part of the farm lands of Harry J. and Kate L. Davis Serrell. The Serrells were dairy farmers, and owned a large tract of land in sections 32 and 33 of the Township of Avon, lying immediately south of Auburn Road.

When they platted their subdivision, Harry and Kate Serrell named the streets lying within it for their three children: Grant J. Serrell (1897-1956), Donald J. Serrell (1900-1981) and Alice D. Serrell (1906-1997). Grant St. still exists within the subdivision today, but in 1950 the Township of Avon renamed a number of streets at the suggestion of the county road commission. At that time, Alice St. was renamed Alsdorf, and Donald St. was renamed Donley.

The Elmdale subdivision is 85 years old this year.

This Month in Rochester History

Anyone who regularly travels on M-59 has doubtless enjoyed the recent completion of the road widening through Rochester Hills which has had the highway under construction for the past year and a half. It's an appropriate time to look back thirty-eight years to December 1, 1972, when the public dedication and ribbon cutting ceremonies took place for the original M-59 expressway between Pontiac and Utica.

On the drawing boards since the early 1960s, the road construction got underway in May 1971 and was completed at a cost of $9 million (not including the property purchases for right-of-way). In contrast, the recent widening project begun last summer to add a third lane between Crooks and Ryan cost $50 million.

At the same time that the Utica to Pontiac expressway was under construction, Macomb County officials were planning to extend it eastward all the way to I-94. At that time, Hall Road still ran through mostly undeveloped property, and the route was feasible. However, the plan never moved forward and retail and housing development along Hall Road ruled out the project after a few years.

This photo, taken by Macomb Daily photographer Robert Sassanella, shows local officials huddling against the December cold for the 1972 ribbon cutting ceremony. Shown from left are: Ron Poli, Kirby Holmes, Gail McCauley, George Nickson, Carol Harris, Thomas Guastello and Donald Bemis. (Photo used with permission from the Macomb Daily).

Bygone Business: Bill's Barn

Sixty-four years ago, the newspapers carried the announcement of the grand opening of a new entertainment venue in the Rochester area, and the place was known as "Bill's Barn." Strictly speaking, Bill's Barn is in Shelby Township, since it is located on the east side of Dequindre Road, just north of Auburn, but I'm including its story in this blog because it is right across the township line and was frequently by many Rochester people in its heyday.

The proprietor and manager of Bill's Barn was William Schroeder, who opened the dance hall on July 26, 1946, with Rochester's own Hollis Hinkel and his orchestra providing the music. The inaugural dance was a benefit for the Brooklands Fire Association, and regular public dances began the following night. The hall became a popular spot for square dance enthusiasts and teens following contemporary dance as well.

One year after the grand opening, the Brooklands Exchange Club announced that it would sponsor a youth center at Bill's Barn, serving teens from Shelby and Avon Townships, and the building became a focal point of teen social events throughout the following decade.

By the time I was a teen, Bill's Barn had been converted to its current use, the home of the local Disabled American Veterans chapter and the location of a weekly flea market. I imagine that there are plenty of "Bill's Barn" stories out there from its dance hall days - how about it, readers?

At Home in Rochester: The Burton McCafferty Residence

Not long after the interurban line came to Rochester at the turn of the twentieth century, so did a Macomb County man named Burton "Bert" McCafferty. McCafferty had been born nearby in Bruce Township in 1867, and was in business in Marine City before he relocated to Rochester to operate a saloon and cigar stand on Main Street.

Business must have been good, because in the summer of 1906, the Pontiac Press Gazette reported that Bert McCafferty was building a new house in Rochester. On October 23, 1906, the Press Gazette said, "Bert McCafferty and family are moving into their fine new residence on West Fourth Street." Although it was not mentioned in the newspaper account, local tradition says that like the C.G. Griffey house, the McCafferty house is one of several buildings in the area constructed with brick reclaimed from the demolition of the Detroit Sugar Company mill, which happened during 1906.

The McCafferty family stayed only a few years in their new house on West Fourth. By 1920, Bert McCafferty had moved his business interests to Wayne County. The Dobat family lived in the house after the McCaffertys, and by 1930, it was the residence of local businessman and owner of the Rochester Elevator, Lewis Cass Crissman.

Today, the McCafferty house is a beautifully restored private residence, and it celebrates its 104th birthday this year.

This photo, from a 1907 publication promoting Rochester, shows the McCafferty residence as it looked just after it was built.

Vanished Rochester: Danish Old People's Home

The stately old home that stood atop the bluff at the corner of Walton and Brewster roads was known as the Danish Old People's Home from 1949 to 1973. The property on which the house stood was owned for the last half of the 19th century by Oliver Hazard Perry Griggs and his wife Lovina Kelly Griggs, who migrated to Avon Township from Wyoming County, New York in 1865. Griggs farmed the land and reared his children there, but moved to the village of Rochester in his later years. The farm then passed into the hands of his son, Charles K. Griggs, owner and operator of the Rochester Elevator. C.K. Griggs continued to operate the farm but did not reside there - he had a handsome home in the village of Rochester as well.

In January 1915, C.K. Griggs sold the farm at Walton and Brewster, consisting at that time of 210 acres, to Pontiac farmer Arthur M. Butler for the sum of $21,000. Butler lived on the farm until the death of his wife, then sold it in October 1939 to Herbert M. Bray, an executive with the Ajax Steel & Forge Company of Detroit. Herbert Bray died in 1945 and in May 1948, his widow, Violet, sold the estate which the Brays had called "Diane Acres" to the Detroit Lodge of the Danish Brotherhood in America for use as a retirement home for Danish Americans. Extensive additions and renovations were planned to the house to make it suitable for its new purpose.

In February 1949 the Danish Brotherhood celebrated the dedication of the Danish Old People's Home in Avon Township. In 1962, a memorial garden and fountain were added to the property in honor of all Danish immigrants to America who had located in the Detroit area. The fountain was the work of renowned sculptor Marshall Fredericks, featured a bronze swan in flight, and was entitled "Nordic Swan and Ugly Duckling." Count Knuth-Winterfeldt, at the time the Royal Danish Ambassador to the United States, visited the Danish Old People's Home to formally dedicate the garden and fountain.

In early 1973, the Danish Brotherhood announced the closing of the Danish Old People's Home because the society did not have the funds to complete an expensive array of necessary repairs and upgrades to the property. The 20 residents at the home were moved to other facilities and the home closed on April 30 of that year. Soon thereafter, Lutheran Social Services of Michigan began plans for a modern senior living community at the location, and the old house was razed when construction of the new facility began.

Danish Village was opened to residents in 1980. The memorial garden and fountain with the Marshall Fredericks sculpture were retained and are still a prominent feature of the property today.

This postcard view of the Danish Old People's Home is from the collection of Rod and Susan Wilson.

Subdivision Stories: Spring Hill

The Spring Hill subdivisions near the southeast corner of Walton and Adams roads stand on land that was owned by the Ross family for most of the nineteenth century. The property was originally purchased from the federal government in 1825 by Needham Hemingway, a settler who came to Oakland County from Monroe County, New York and built a grist mill in Oakland Township around which the settlement of Goodison would eventually form. By 1857, John Ross, a local builder who had migrated to Michigan from Northampton County, Pennsylvania, owned the land. It later passed to John Ross's sons, George S. Ross and David H. Ross.

We have some information about the inhabitants of the area before Needham Hemingway bought the land, however. This item published in the Rochester Era on November 3, 1899, tells us:

D.H. Ross of Southwest Avon brought to The Era office last Friday a rare collection of Indian arrowheads which he picked up on his farm. In early days an Indian trail ran through the farm and the redmen were in the habit of camping near by on Renshaw's lake [the lake referred to here was on the Jacob Miller farm just to the south of the Ross property and is also known as Miller's Lake on most maps]. Mr. Ross says that he has gathered more than a bushel of arrowheads and other Indian relics, but had given the most of them away. The arrowheads are made of a flinty stone, which looks very much like that which abounds in the Lake Superior region.

The Ross land was eventually purchased by Pontiac real estate investor Edward M. Stout, and in the spring of 1955, his widow, Grace, platted the first Spring Hill subdivision on it. Subsequent Spring Hill subdivisions were platted later in 1955, in 1957 and 1959, and were developed by the Howard T. Keating real estate firm, which offered new houses in the $25-30,000 range. Today there are 323 lots in the combined Spring Hill subdivisions. The original Spring Hill subdivision celebrates its 55th birthday in 2010.

This Month in Rochester History

One hundred and twenty years ago this month, Rochester residents were invited to the grand opening of a brand new entertainment venue - the Rochester Opera House. Located on the second floor of Charles A. Burr's new building on the southeast corner of Fourth and Main streets, the Opera House became the "in" location for all sorts of public gatherings. At the time, Rochester did not yet have a movie theater, and the school building had no auditorium. The churches were large enough to seat an audience for certain kinds of events, but they weren't exactly appropriate venues for boxing matches, minstrel shows, vaudeville acts, and the like. With the opening of the Opera House, Rochester had an opportunity to house traveling acts of all kinds.

The Opera House held its grand opening on Friday, November 7, 1890. The event was a dinner at the Sidney House (later Detroit Hotel) at Third & Main, followed by a dance in the Opera House featuring music by Finney's Orchestra from Detroit. (At the time, Finney's Orchestra, led by violinist Theodore Finney, was considered to be one of the premiere society musical ensembles in the area, and later went on to make quite a name for itself when ragtime became popular.)

Over the years, the Rochester Opera House played host to a wide variety of events, including amateur and touring theatricals, boxing matches, concerts, dances, lectures, civic meetings and high school commencement ceremonies, but I have never seen an advertisement for an actual opera at that location.

In 1909, hotel operator James W. Smith began offering motion picture exhibitions in one of his buildings, and in 1914, the Idle Hour Theater opened to the public. The new high school building added a state-of-the-art auditorium a few years after that, and these new venues dwarfed the capacity of the Opera House, causing it to gradually fall out of favor as a gathering place by the early 1920s.

The newspaper ad shown here promoted a 1914 event at the Rochester Opera House. A couple of the contestants in these matches were local men. Do you recognize any names?