Memorial Weekend Fun, Circa 1921

If you're looking for some family entertainment in Rochester this Memorial Day weekend, you'll probably pay a visit to the Greater Rochester Heritage Days in the Rochester Municipal Park.  Rochester has hosted the festival for more than three decades now, and it always delivers fun for all ages while educating audiences about our history.

Well, that's today. Do you know what families did for fun on Memorial Day weekend 92 years ago?  This advertisement from the Rochester Era issue of May 27, 1921 gives us a clue.  Townspeople gathered at the corner of Fourth & Wesley streets for a vaudeville circus called the Robbins Overland Show. This traveling show was started in 1921 by an Eaton Rapids farmer named Cadwell Robbins.  In his 1952 book entitled The Only Eaton Rapids on Earth, historian W. Scott Munn tells us this about Robbins and his show:

He carried a score of actors besides his band and laborers, and gave his audiences a regular circus with all the frills.  The second year was rough going. A farmer does not speak the same language as the "profess," so he bowed out of the picture, and sold out to George Miller, who operated [the show] until 1926 when he disposed of the outfit and joined the Tiger Bill Show, retiring in 1929.

It seems that the Robbins show was short-lived, so this was probably its one and only performance in Rochester.  If you live in the neighborhood of Fourth & Wesley today, imagine looking out your window to see Opal the Wonder Pony and Julia the Educated Monkey parading down your street!

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.

Where Do You Think You Are?

OK, history buffs and long-time Rochester residents, here's a geography quiz for you. All you have to do is follow the instructions listed below from point to point and tell me where you end up!  All locations are within the municipal limits of the City of Rochester, so if you end up out on Avon Road, you to a wrong turn somewhere.  Those who are up for some exercise may want to physically walk the route, but for the rest of you, this trip can probably be taken right inside your head, with or without the aid of a map.  For helpful hints and information about some of the historic sites referenced in the clues, I recommend following the route on the Oakland Regional Historic Sites web site.

Ready? Here we go:

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.)

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.

3. Walk straight north to the corner where the old Village Hall and police station stood.

4. Walk straight west to the street corner in front of the old 1937 post office building.

5. Walk straight north to the next street intersection. Cross the street and walk straight west to the street corner in front of the old Nichols Funeral Home stood. Walk straight north to the  Charles W. Case house.

6. Walk about 220 feet due northeast from the front of the Charles W. Case house.

Where do you think you are?

Feel free to tell me where you ended up in the comments.  I will hold all comments until Tuesday, April 16, and then I will release the comments for publication and post the answer.  Enjoy!

Pioneer Farmsteads: Albert Terry Farm

Near the southwest corner of Auburn & Livernois roads stands a beautiful brick farmhouse that dates from the Rochester area's pioneer era.  The Greek Revival residence was built by settler Albert Terry about 1840 when the land on which it stands was still wilderness, and it has survived 173 years of development swirling around it.

Albert Terry was born in Livingston County, New York in 1817, the year in which the village of Rochester was founded. He was the eldest of a family of fourteen children. Terry taught school for a time as a youth, and then made a visit to Michigan in 1838. He decided to move permanently to Michigan and returned the following year, when he purchased the northeast quarter of section 33 of Avon Township and thereafter built his home. In the fall of 1839 he returned to New York to claim his bride, Delia Lathrop, and brought her back to his new home in Michigan.  The Terrys  had seven children.  Delia Terry died in 1859, and the following year Terry married Lucina Richardson, the daughter of Isaac Richardson of Pontiac.

The Terry house as it looked in 1877

The farm was prosperous, and Terry added more acreage until he had a farm of 192 acres, one of the largest in the township. He grew fruit and won several agricultural awards for his apples and pears. Albert Terry was a leader in local politics and was elected to the office of Supervisor of Avon Township for 14 years, from 1862 to 1876.

Terry died in 1880; his farm was subsequently owned by Samuel Durrant and later by Georgiana Kersting.

This Month in Rochester History

The members of the first graduating class of Oakland University received their diplomas fifty years ago this month.  Commencement was held on April 19, 1963 for 125 graduating seniors, 19 of whom were residents of the Rochester area.  Beverly Donato of Auburn Hills was valedictorian of the first class to earn degrees from the new university. At the ceremony, Matilda Dodge Wilson received the institution's first ever honorary doctorate.

OU's charter class had enrolled in 1959 with 570 members, but suffered a high rate of attrition. According to the university's web site, so many students flunked their first semester at the new school that officials created a policy whereby failing grades could be "erased" from the student record if the student successfully repeated a failed course.

Half a century later, Oakland University has an enrollment of nearly 20,000 students and a first-year retention rate of better than 70%. The university boasts more than 80,000 alumni.

At Home in Rochester: Lewis Ward Curtis House

If you've ever visited the Victorian Rose at 118 West Third Street, chances are you've sipped tea in Lewis and Madelin Curtis's living room. Dr. Lewis Ward Curtis and his wife, Madelin Hipp Curtis, built this prairie box style house in 1912; Dr. Curtis had purchased the lot in 1911.

Lewis Ward Curtis was born in Macomb County in 1879, but he grew up in Rochester where his father, James Ewell Curtis, operated the grist mill at the south end of Main Street. (Known for many years as the Curtis Mill, this structure was later known as the Barkham Mill.)  The young Curtis attended Rochester High School and was graduated with the class of 1897. He then enrolled at the University of Michigan College of Dental Surgery and, according to his college yearbook, served as president of his class. After receiving his D.D.S. degree from the University of Michigan in 1902, Curtis returned to his home town to establish a professional practice. He built a brick business block at 307 S. Main in 1907 and later bought property up the street at 315-317 S. Main (where Arizona Saddlery is located today).

Lewis W. Curtis practiced dentistry in Rochester until 1929. He was also very active in community affairs and served as president of the Rochester Board of Education. He died in 1976.  The former Curtis house at 118 W. Third has served as the home of the Victorian Rose Tea Room in recent years; before that it was the home of the offices of Buckerfield Engineering.

Bygone Business: Rochester Motor Lodge

From the mid-19th century through the early decades of the 20th century, Rochester had two lodging houses - the Lambertson House/St. James Hotel at Fifth and Main, and the Sidney House/Detroit Hotel at Third and Main.  Both of these hotels had faded away by the time of the Great Depression, and for a couple of decades there were no hotels available in Rochester. That changed in the late 1950s, when two new establishments opened: the Spartan Motel on North Hill, and the Rochester Motor Lodge, south of the village.

Rochester Motor Lodge opened in February 1959 in a brand-new building on the west side of South Rochester Road, near the corner of Hamlin. Harold H. Brown was the proprietor, and designed the 12-unit building with the assistance of Mount Clemens architect Elmer Parke.  The Rochester Motor Lodge stood at this location until about 1998, when Walgreens purchased the property as a site for one of their stores.

This advertisement ran in the Rochester Clarion on February 12, 1959, to announce the grand opening of the motel.

Subdivision Stories: Avon Hills Estates

The Avon Hills Estates subdivision was laid out on the northeast corner of Adams and Auburn roads, south of the old Grand Trunk Railway line,  in 1925. Officially known as Wheaton and Worrall's Avon Hills Estates, the development was created on land that was formerly the farm of Orrin W. Harris and his wife, Dora. Harris's wife died in 1921, and in 1925 he contracted with local developers Arthur O. Worrall and Harold L. Wheaton to transform the property into a subdivision.  Ladd Brothers, a Rochester real estate agency, handled the original sale of the lots.
The streets in Avon Hills Estates were originally named Welling and Sylvan; when Avon Township renamed many of its streets in 1950, Welling became Avalon and Sylvan became St. Clair.

This advertisement for lots in Avon Hills Estates ran in the Rochester Clarion when the subdivision was first opened in 1925.

Vanished Rochester: Barkham Mill

Barkham Mill (Courtesy Rochester Hills Public Library)

If you could travel back in time to the Rochester of 1900, you would find two grist mills in the downtown area, one standing at each end of Main Street, like bookends. Rochester had been established because of abundant water power along Paint Creek, Stoney Creek and the Clinton River, and the mills that stood along these waterways were the first economic engines of the area. At the north end of the village was the Neely Mill on Paint Creek, and at the south end, near the foot of today's South Hill bridge, was the Barkham Mill.

Steven W. Barkham was the name of the final owner of this mill, which stood on the west side of Main, north of the Clinton River, for ninety years.  It was built in 1837 by Johnson Niles, a founding pioneer of the settlement of Troy Corners, and had many owners and operators in its nine decades of operation.  According to a memoir of Theodor Dahlmann that was published in the Rochester Clarion in 1927, Niles and his business partners sold the mill in 1850 to Charles Nathaniel Griffin, a native of New York, who operated it for nearly ten years before selling out and moving to Detroit.  During the Civil War years, the mill was owned by Baxter Gillett and operated by his brother, Hartson Gillett. Several other owners and partners followed until 1885, when James Ewell Curtis became owner of the business. Curtis, a son of area pioneers, was also the father of Dr. Lewis Ward Curtis, a Rochester dentist who later built business blocks at 307 and 315-317 S. Main Street.  The Curtis heirs sold the grist mill to Steven W. and Beal Barkham in 1903, and so the old wooden structure was known as the Barkham Mill when it was completely destroyed by fire on December 2, 1927, consigning it to the pages of Vanished Rochester.

At Home in Rochester: Irving J. Coffin House

A stately Dutch colonial home that stands atop a bluff on the west side of North Main Street, between Ferndale and Glendale is connected to a prominent Detroit area man and a tragedy that took his life.  Irving J. "Duke" Coffin built the house in 1927, on a lot he had purchased in 1925.  Coffin was born in Rochester in 1875, and served with the Michigan Naval Brigade aboard the U.S.S. Yosemite during the Spanish-American War. Following the war, he moved to Detroit and worked for the D.U.R. for a few years. In 1910 he took a job as a process server for the Wayne County Prosecutor's office, and worked his way up to county detective. In 1918 he ran a successful campaign for Wayne County Sheriff and served in that position until 1923.

The Rochester Clarion reported in the spring of 1927 that "I. J. Coffin has broken ground for a Dutch colonial type eight-room house on his lot adjoining H.A. George's home on North Main Street." Coffin also owned a farm home two miles north of Rochester, and it is unclear whether he ever lived in the new house in town. On July 28, 1928, Coffin was driving his Lincoln sedan south on Rochester Road when a vehicle turning in front of him forced his car onto the D.U.R. tracks and directly into the path of the oncoming northbound limited interurban car, which was on its way to downtown Rochester.  In the car with Coffin were his eleven-year-old adopted daughter, Evelyn,  and two adult women passengers.  Evelyn Coffin was instantly killed and Irving J. Coffin died of his wounds - a crushed chest and fractured skull - soon after arriving by ambulance at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Pontiac.

The funeral service for Irving J. "Duke" Coffin was an impressive one, with full military honors. Fifteen Lincoln sedans were sent out from Detroit by Henry Ford to convey funeral attendees from the home to the cemetery.  Michigan Governor Fred W. Green, who made the trip to Rochester from Lansing by airplane, served as one of the pall bearers.  The Henry Ford band provided music at Mount Avon Cemetery, where Coffin and his daughter were laid to rest.

This Month in Rochester History

Cemeteries were on the minds of Rochester area residents fifty years ago this month. Members of the Avon Township Board of Trustees expressed their extreme displeasure at the application of LePage & Associates to establish and operate a cemetery on Hamlin Road, on land formerly occupied by the Ferry-Morse Seed Farm.  The township itself operated two cemeteries and did not welcome competition from the outside; furthermore, trustees were concerned that the land in question would be removed from the property tax rolls if used for cemetery purposes.  Trustees commented that Avon Township (now Rochester Hills) had "no need" for a new cemetery.

The objections of the township board notwithstanding, the proposed cemetery was soon after established on Hamlin Road as Christian Memorial Cultural Center. It has recently changed names and management and is now known as Christian Memorial Gardens West.

Old News That's New Again: Community Gardens

Last summer, the City of Rochester established a community garden, and the City of Rochester Hills is planning to establish one this year.  In both cases, the community garden was hailed as something new, but if we turn back 80 years in the pages of Rochester history to the Rochester Clarion issue of June 9, 1933, we find this story on the front page of the newspaper:

WELFARE GARDENS ARE PLANTED
Forty-Seven Acres Sown For Community Project in Avon Township

   Avon Township's Community welfare gardens are underway. Forty-seven acres have been planted to root crops including potatoes, carrots, rutabagas, cabbage, sweet corn, squash, pumpkins and tomatoes. Twenty-seven acres have been tilled and sown on the former J. C. Day farm, just west of the village limits on the Pontiac road and the remaining twenty acres are located on the Crooks road. The gardens are being worked by welfare men using time slips the same as when they worked on the road. It is expected that a sufficient amount of vegetables will be raised on these gardens this summer for next winter's welfare supply.
   In addition to these community gardens, each welfare family has an individual garden which they take care of and have for their own use this summer.
   The township furnished the seeds for this project, purchasing them at a very reasonable price.
   Township officials have secured the assistance of K. D. Bailey, county agricultural agent. Mr. Bailey has stated the gardens were planted in excellent sod and heavy productivity can be assured. He will visit the gardens each month to note their progress and if at any time his assistance is needed he will gladly give it.
Similar projects are being carried out in neighboring townships and cities for their welfare use.

Avon Township is known as Rochester Hills today.  The J. C. Day farm referenced in the story later became known as the Great Oaks Stock Farm, located along West University/Walton on what was formerly referred to as the Pontiac road.

Bygone Business: South End Garage

1920 newspaper ad for South End Garage

South End Garage was a Rochester institution for over half a century. Opened around 1920 by W. C. Calkins, the business was originally located at 121 S. Main Street, near the foot of the South Hill bridge. In the 1950s, it was located at 101 S. Main, and in 1964, the garage moved to its final location at 198 Diversion Street, just to the east of the South Hill bridge.  All locations were at the south end of town, in keeping with the business name.

After Calkins, South End Garage was operated at various times by Lester F. Pickering, Henry Kraus, and David R. Hoffman. The business closed several years ago, after a long run, but the building still stands on Diversion Street. Readers, if you have more information about this business, or memories of it, please post them in the comments!

Subdivision Stories: John R Highlands

The John R Highlands subdivision in Rochester Hills is one that has changed greatly from its original plat. The subdivision was laid out in 1924 on the southwest quarter of section 36, previously the farm of August and Caroline Dobat. The Dobats, along with Detroit real estate developer John P. Hehl and the Alex E. Michelson Land and Home Company, platted the land as the John R Highlands subdivision with interior streets named Evans and Ransom.  Ransom Street was presumably named for John P. Hehl's wife, the former Susie Ransom; the origin of the name of Evans Street is unclear.  In any event, both names were changed in 1950 when the Township of Avon renamed many of its streets at the recommendation of the county road commission. At that time, Ransom Street became Michelson, and Evans became Enfield.

The other major change to this plat, as can be seen by comparing a modern map to this original drawing, is that most of the eastern half of the plat is occupied today by Thelma G. Spencer Park and its 38-acre  Frederick S. Carter Lake. The park was opened in 1981.

At Home in Rochester: James S. Stackhouse Residence

In the summer of 1899, carpenter and contractor James S. Stackhouse built this home at 426 West Fifth Street (now West University Drive) as his family residence, after purchasing his lot on the Sprague Addition from Albert G. Griggs. The Rochester Era told its readers on July 28, 1899 that: "The frame of J. S. Stackhouse's new house is up, the roof is on and work is rapidly proceeding toward completion."

James S. Stackhouse was born in Northampton County, Pennsylvania in 1846, the son of James Stackhouse and Kattie Shiffer. He married Frances M. Frutchey, also a native of Northampton County, and the couple migrated from Pennsylvania to Michigan about 1880. James and Frances Stackhouse were the parents of ten children; their son, James, was the operator of a meat market at 413 S. Main Street in Rochester and was married to Rochester's postmistress, Jessie McDonald Stackhouse.

In 1920, James S. Stackhouse died in his home at 426 W. Fifth Street; his wife died in 1929. The Stackhouse heirs sold the family home in 1937 to Joseph I. Moore and his wife Margaret, who used it as their family residence.  The Stackhouse residence is currently the location of the offices of Communicare on Canvas, an artistic rehabilitation program.  The building celebrates its 114th birthday this summer.

This Month in Rochester History

The location of Crittenton Hospital was on the minds of Rochester area residents fifty years ago this month. The Suburban Unit Committee of Detroit's Crittenton General Hospital board of trustees, headed by Howard L. McGregor, Jr., had been working to identify a suitable location for the new hospital facility for some time. The first site selected by the committee was on Auburn Road near John R, but that location had to be rejected because of "serious sewage and drainage problems." Casting about for an alternative, the committee chose a portion of the McGregor stock farm on the south side of Walton Boulevard, east of Livernois, and the decision was announced in the Rochester Clarion on February 7, 1963.  Ground was broken for the  new hospital in 1965, and it opened in August 1967. The rest, as they say, is history.

If you're interested in the history of Crittenton Hospital, take a look at this slide show.

Pioneer Farmsteads: William Hulsizer Farm

William Hulsizer farmhouse in 1897

One of Avon Township's early farms, settled before the Civil War, was the William Hulsizer farm on Section 24, located on the north side of today's Hamlin Road, just east of John R. William Hulsizer was born in Lebanon, New Jersey in 1818 and emigrated to Michigan with his wife and children in 1859. The couple established a farm on 86 acres of land southeast of the village of Rochester and reared twelve children there.  (One of the Hulsizer children, William H. Hulsizer, was a well-known auctioneer in the Rochester area for many years.) In September 1894 the family suffered a setback when their farmhouse was lost in a fire, but they quickly built a new house on the same foundation, finishing it in 1895.  The Hulsizers called their farm "Maple Villa," and lived there until their respective deaths in 1904 and 1905; in all, they were married for 64 years.

The William Hulsizer farm was subdivided in 1920 when the Ferryview Homelands plat was approved. Today, the Hulsizer farmhouse is 118 years old; it still stands on a small remnant of the farm at the corner of East Hamlin and Gravel Ridge roads, looking much the same as it did in this 1897 view from the booklet Beautiful Rochester.

Bygone Business: A & P

A & P at 637 N. Main, decked out for its 1954 grand opening

Rochester's A & P grocery store was found in at least three different locations on Main Street before it moved out in the early 1990s.  In 1925, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company opened a store at 307 S. Main; by 1929, the store had relocated up the street at 419 S. Main. On March 10, 1954, the grocery store held a grand opening in a brand-new building at 637 N. Main, and Rochester had its first supermarket-style grocery in an impressive 11,662-square foot facility.

The new A & P store was built by local developer George Knorr and leased to the grocery company. Cy Borst was the manager at the time the new building on N. Main was opened. I grew up on the north end of town in the Albertson Addition, so the A & P at 637 N. Main was our neighborhood grocery store.  By the time I was old enough to shop there, Al Klous was the manager and our neighbor, John Parker, worked in the meat department.  The store had many long-time employees who were there from the time I was a small child until the store moved to the North Hill shopping center in the 1990s.

After the A & P moved to North Hill, the building at 637 was completely renovated for other use.  Today it is the home of the Rochester Athletic Club.  Meanwhile, the A & P in its North Hill location gave way to a Farmer Jack, and when the Farmer Jack brand went under, Hollywood Market moved into the space.

Are there any Rochester A & P alumni out there? Do you remember the Ann Page house brand?  The Jane Parker bread and the big coffee grinder to grind your Eight O'Clock coffee? If so, please share your memories through the comments.

Subdivision Stories: Wilcox Addition

In the city of Rochester, the lots lying north of West University Drive, on the west side of Madison and both sides of Wilcox Street, are part of a modern subdivision plat known as Supervisor's Plat #3, but a century ago and earlier they were part of an unrecorded plat known as the Wilcox Addition.  The Wilcox Addition lies on property that was once owned by early Rochester settler Lyman J. Wilcox and his son, Elliot R. Wilcox. (In addition to his roles of attorney, state legislator and officer of the Detroit & Bay City Railroad, Elliot R. Wilcox was a prosperous farmer who owned the entire area that we know today as Great Oaks.)

A subdivision plat must be presented to the local government authority and receive a vote of approval before being recorded as an official plat in the county register of deeds office.  The Wilcox Addition was laid out in the middle 1880s, but was never approved and recorded in the register of deeds office. Although numbered lots in the Wilcox Addition were sold, the deeds for those lots were still recorded as fractional acreage described in metes and bounds terms, rather than as lots in a plat.  This did not change until 1949, when the Supervisor of Avon Township imposed order by creating Supervisor's Plat #3, officially organizing the lots in a recorded subdivision plat.

One of the most interesting points of history in the Wilcox Addition is the Wilcox Paper Mill that was built in that area in 1873 by Elliot R. Wilcox. Here's how the Rochester Era described the building when it was under construction:

NEW PAPER MILL
Mr. E. R. Wilcox has made arrangements for the erection of a new paper mill, a short distance north of the Eureka Mills, having let the contract for the construction of the buildings to Mr. J. W. Eastman, of this village. The main building which with the exception of a stone basement will be of brick, 32x48, and two stories high. The machine room will be 24x80, bleaching room 20x24, and engine room 12x24. The location of this mill is one of the finest in the country, while the water power, being 17 feet fall, cannot well be surpassed. The work we understand will be pushed forward to an early completion.

This mill went through several owners and was never an economic success. It was destroyed by fire in 1901.  The Wilcox Paper Mill stood approximately between the northern dead end of today's Wilcox Street and the Rochester Community House.  Traces of the mill race for the paper mill are still visible along the edge of the parking area in the Rochester Municipal Park.

The accompanying map image shows the unrecorded Wilcox Addition as it appeared on the 1908 plat of the village of Rochester.

Vanished Rochester: D.U.R. Car Barns

D.U.R. car barn fire, May 19, 1923

 It may be difficult to visualize now, but a century ago the village of Rochester was a mass trans-portation hub. On the east side of North Main Street, just south of the Paint Creek bridge, the Detroit, Rochester, Romeo and Lake Orion Railway built a powerhouse and car barns in 1899 when the company brought an interurban railway line through town.  The D.R.R. & L.O. was soon absorbed into the Detroit United Railway (D.U.R.) system, the name by which it is more commonly recognized. The Flint Division of the D.U.R.  line drew all of its electric power from the generating plant in Rochester, and rolling stock on the line was repaired in the adjacent car barn facility.

Early in the morning of May 19, 1923, the car barns were destroyed by a fire that the Rochester Clarion described as "the most disastrous and spectacular fire ever witnessed in Rochester." The Clarion's account of the event read in part:

     Fire, of unknown origin, had broken out in the vestibule of one of the six large limited cars which had been run under cover in the barns after their daily runs, and was being fought by the sweeper who was attending his duties in the barns, and for which purpose the power had been shut off -- water and electricity not mixing well together. Not being able to extinguish the blaze which was gaining great headway in the car and spread rapidly on account of the large amount of grease accumulated in the car and barns, it was then too late to turn on the power and run out the cars, which otherwise might have easily been done.
     Our local fire department soon responded and did valiant work in keeping the fire which was already beyond their control in the barns, from igniting the thousands of gallons of oil in the large transformer tanks, kept in a separate room at the rear of the burning building.
     An alarm call was sent the Pontiac fire department and a fire truck and several firemen were soon upon the ground, but only to aid in extinguishing the blaze as the building was then a complete wreck.
     The loss of the building, six cars, tools, etc. is estimated at above $200,000.

D.U.R. car barn fire, May 19, 1923

The company's intention at first was to repair the burned out car barns, as the walls appeared to remain sound. This effort soon proved unworkable and the structure was demolished, relegating it to the pages of Vanished Rochester. A short eight years later, the entire D.U.R. line through Rochester was abandoned as motor vehicles siphoned away the company's business.

The photos shown here were taken by one of the firefighters later in the morning when D.U.R. workers and bystanders moved in to survey the wreckage.  In the photo at the top of this post, notice the curved track which runs from the left side of the frame (beginning at the brick street) into the center of the car barn.  This is part of the track that was uncovered in the summer of 2012 during the Main Street reconstruction project.

To view a map of the Detroit United Railway system as it looked in 1913, click here.

This Month in Rochester History

Happy New Year, Rochester history fans! Rolling the calendar back half a century to January 1963, we find that the big news of the day was the dedication of an addition to the Avon Township Library building. The library at the corner of West University Drive and Pine streets had been funded by a bequest of the late Eva Woodward Parker and was built in 1951; within a decade, it was already inadequate to serve the needs of the growing community.  Another bequest by the late Grace Currey provided a little over $33,000 to the library board to expand educational resources for the youth of Rochester and Avon. The funds were used to add a room to the back of the library building which was named the Currey Room in honor of Grace Currey's parents, Daniel and Mary Ellen Currey. (The Currey family is also remembered in the Golden Hills and Currey Hills subdivisions, which were also named for them).

In addition to the new library room, which was dedicated on January 20, 1963, the Currey bequest funded the acquisition of a lot adjacent to the library to the north which was converted to a badly needed off-street parking lot for the facility.

At Home in Rochester: William E. Rice House

Current view of 120 E. University Drive

If you travel on East University Drive in downtown Rochester, you have passed the William E. Rice house, but you may not have realized it. This house has stood at 120 East University since 1906, but the structure is hidden from view today because it has been sandwiched between two modern-style additions which make it appear, from street view, to be a contemporary commercial building.  Step across the street or walk down the East Alley, however, and you will notice the architectural features of the American foursquare-style house peeking out from between the additions.

William E. Rice was a carriage mechanic and blacksmith who had a shop on the East Alley at the south end of his lot on what was then known as East Fifth Street. In 1906, he and his son, Lee, manufactured concrete bricks for the construction of a new home on the north end of the lot. The 1907 booklet  Beautiful Rochester tells us this about Rice and his house:

1907 view of 120 E. Fifth (now E. University Drive)

William E. Rice is engaged in the wagon and carriage repair and blacksmith business in his own shop on East Fifth street. Mr. Rice is a good workman and has an extensive business in his lines, always aiming to give satifaction to his customers. Last year he completed a fine cement brick residence on East Fifth street, every brick of which was made by himself and son.

The concrete house was very popular during the first decade of the twentieth century, as mail order catalogs sold hand-operated brick and block forming machines that the typical homeowner could operate to manufacture his own building materials.  Concrete homes were widely advertised as durable, fireproof, and maintenance free, and many of the kit and mail order house catalogs of the time offered multiple plans for such structures.  There are examples of these houses dotted throughout Rochester's older neighborhoods, and a collection of several of them can be found on the first block of Griggs Street.

Ben Jones

There are many organizations throughout our community that solicit donations during the holiday season to provide assistance to the needy among us.  There was a time in Rochester's history when that effort was managed by one man - Ben Jones.  Jones came to Rochester in 1914 from his native Cincinnati, Ohio, and found a job at Parkedale Biological Farm.  Three years later, he established the Ben Jones Welfare Fund to provide clothes and Christmas gifts to needy children in the area.  He sold newspapers on the street and solicited donations of food and clothing for his annual holiday distributions.  Upon his death in 1956, the Rochester Clarion described Jones' efforts:

For years he carried on this Christmas solicitation for money practically alone, doing acts of charity constantly and making sure no child lacked clothes or food.  At Christmas time he was assisted by committees from local churches in his fundraising newspaper sale to bring a merry Christmas to even the most humble home.
He always said that he was only repaying the kindness that was shown him as a boy in Cincinnati by local charities.

In 1948, the Metropolitan Club joined Jones and established a Goodfellows newspaper sale to boost his charitable fund.  Jones sold papers with the Goodfellows until just before his death, when his health prohibited his participation. Over half a century later, he is still remembered in Rochester for he joy he brought to needy homes for over four decades.

Subdivision Stories: Parker Addition

In 1902 the Detroit Sugar Company, which operated a large sugar beet processing mill on Woodward Street in Rochester, deeded a parcel of its land to Edward Horatio Parker, who was the secretary of the company at the time.  Parker and his wife, Eleanor Carroll Parker, were very prominent residents of Detroit. Edward Parker had attended Yale University before taking a job as the assistant manager of the Diamond Match Company's Detroit factory. He later became an officer of the Detroit Sugar Company, and after its demise, went into the real estate and insurance business. He was also appointed a fire commissioner for the city of Detroit by Hazen S. Pingree.

The Parkers subdivided the land that they acquired from the Detroit Sugar Company and platted it as the Parker Addition to the Village of Rochester, placing the lots on the market in late 1902.  Since the plat lay immediately to the north of the W. C. Chapman and Ludlow additions, Ludlow Street was extended through the Parker addition all the way to Paint Creek.  The Parkers were never residents of Rochester, and lived their entire lives in Detroit. They are buried in Elmwood Cemetery.

Rochester on the Road: William C. Chapman Grave Site

There is a small town in south central Vermont called Ludlow, after which our Ludlow Street in Rochester is named. It is the home town of the wife of William Clark Chapman, who was a Rochester industrialist and real estate developer from 1891 until his death in 1946. Chapman, who came to Michigan from a smaller town near Ludlow with his parents and brother, never lost his ties to his Vermont home after settling in Rochester to help run the Western Knitting Mills. Chapman and his wife, the former Ada Barney, regularly made trips back to their native state to visit family there.

Although William and Ada Chapman stayed in Rochester, reared a family, built a magnificent house on Walnut Street, and eventually died here, their remains were returned to their native Ludlow, Vermont for burial.  If you are ever in the vicinity of Ludlow, Vermont, you will find the final resting place of William and Ada Chapman in the town's Pleasant View Cemetery, where this monument reminds visitors of their life in Rochester, Michigan.

This Month in Rochester History

Fifty years ago this month the citizens of the village of Rochester were debating the subject of cityhood. A community forum was held at the old Central Junior High School (now Rochester Community Schools administration building) to discuss a proposal to incorporate Rochester as a city and extend its borders northward to Tienken Road and eastward to Dequindre Road.  The resulting city would have covered an area of 4.8 square miles.

The Avon Township Board of Trustees opposed the plan because it annexed the land of its third-largest taxpayer, the Parkdale Farms campus of Parke-Davis and Company.  Parke-Davis officials announced that they, too, were "violently opposed" to being part of the new proposed city of Rochester, because the plan would hamper the company's plans to expand at Parkdale.

The Rochester Clarion reported that the community debate was very civil in tone, despite high emotions on both sides of the question.  When voters went to the polls a few weeks later, they defeated the cityhood proposal by a 4 to 1 margin.  Only three years later, a cityhood proposal which preserved the existing village boundaries passed successfully, and Rochester became a city in February 1967.

Subdivision Stories: Charles O. Renshaw Subdivision

The Charles O. Renshaw subdivision on the south side of the Village of Rochester was platted in 1896 and was the fourth addition made to the original village plat during the nineteenth century.  Streets were laid out on the former farm land of Charles O. Renshaw and his wife Harriet Castleman Renshaw, who were both born in England and had emigrated to the United States just before the Civil War.

The Renshaw addition lay south of First Street and included the streets named Renshaw, Quarter, Peach, West, Hacker and Helmond Streets. Helmond was originally named Harrison on the subdivision plat, but was renamed in 1950 to avoid confusion with another Harrison Street in the village.

Charles and Harriet Renshaw reared a family of nine children in Rochester. Harriet Renshaw died in 1904, and Charles Renshaw died in 1909.  Both are buried at Mount Avon Cemetery.

At Home in Rochester: Thomas Jefferson Jones House

The house at 302 Walnut Street currently occupied by the Peppertree clothing boutique has stood at the corner of Third and Walnut for approximately 144 years. Tax and deed records indicate that the house was likely built in 1868 as the family residence of a carpenter named Thomas Jefferson Jones, who had purchased the lot from the heirs of the late John F. Hamlin. Jones was born in New York state in 1828, and came to Oakland County with his family when he was about seven years old. He married Phoebe Delight Collins in 1854 and the couple had three children, the youngest of whom, Anna, may have been born in the Walnut Street house in 1868. (Anna later became the wife of Commodore George Newberry).

The Jones family lived in the house until 1873, and then it was purchased by Henry Marshall Look. H. M. Look was a deacon of the Congregational church, and had served as probate judge of Oakland County under territorial government, as justice of the peace of Avon Township, and very briefly, as president of the Village of Rochester. He lived at 302 Walnut until just before his death in 1887, and his heirs sold then sold the house to John Mackey Axford, who owned it until 1903.  In the first half of the twentieth century, the house was the residence of Eva Banghart Gunn and her family, from about 1920 until 1954.  After the death of Eva Gunn, 302 Walnut Street made the transition from a private residence to an office building, as by that time there was already development pressure on Walnut Street to expand the downtown business district.

In the early 1960s, 302 Walnut was the home of the Rochester X-Ray Center, operated by Dr. Otis W. Schorling. A medical lab business also occupied part of the space.  In those days, Crittenton Hospital had not been built yet;  Rochester was being served only by a tiny osteopathic clinic on South Hill, so before the Rochester X-Ray Center opened, most citizens had to travel to Pontiac for diagnostic testing.

The X-Ray Center closed in early 1964, and the house eventually became a retail location. Since 1984, the Thomas Jefferson Jones house has been the home of the Peppertree women's clothing boutique.

Old News That's New Again: Oil Drilling

(Clarion photo by Leslie Palmitier, 1976)

Recent news that the Jordan Development Company of Traverse City is seeking leases in Rochester Hills to conduct exploratory drilling for oil reserves has caught the attention of our citizens, but as one Remembering Rochester reader reminded me, this topic is really old news.

Back in 1976-1978, as a reaction to the 1973 oil crisis, independent drilling companies stepped up their efforts to locate fossil fuel resources in Michigan, and Avon and Oakland Townships were included in their explorations.  In April 1976, Reef Petroleum Corporation of Traverse City drilled a test well at the corner of Rochester and Gunn roads in Oakland Township; they were issued a permit to drill as far as 4,050 feet into a pinnacle reef formation known as the Niagaran reef (see the Clarion photo from 1976, at left).  The well, designated Axford 1-22, quickly proved to be a dry hole and was immediately plugged. Two years later, Reef Petroleum was granted another permit to drill a gas well designated Dillman 3-1 in section 1 of Avon Township (now Rochester Hills), at a location about 400 feet west of Winkler Mill Road. Dillman 3-1 was drilled to a depth of about 3,600 feet and was eventually designated a dry hole after producing very little gas; it was plugged in 1979. Although Reef Petroleum was not successful with these two wells, they did drill a group of wells in nearby Addison Township that produced both gas and oil. Overall, in the 1970s Michigan oil companies drilled a total of 4,935 holes resulting in 1,174 oil wells, 475 natural gas wells, 2,610 dry holes and 676 service wells.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality produced a map that shows the location of all of the active and inactive well units lying within Oakland County. This maps shows a cluster of well units in the northeast corner of Rochester Hills (look at T3N,11E).

If you are interested in the topic of oil and gas wells in Michigan, there is a wealth of information available from the web site of the Clarke Historical Library, as well as from the Department of Environmental Quality's GeoWebFace site.

This Month in Rochester History

 (Courtesy of Marjorie and the late Walter Dernier)

Half a century ago this month, the eyes of Rochester's citizens were focused on Main Street - specifically upon the southwest corner of Main and University Drive, where stood the aging and forlorn St. James Hotel. After months of legal wrangling with the heirs of Lottie Smith, the widow of hotel proprietor James W. Smith, a consent agreement was reached to allow the village to raze the building.  The struggle had taken up much of the village council members' time, as they contemplated initiating condemnation proceedings in order to see the old building removed.  With the matter settled in court on November 29, 1962, the village was able to proceed with demolition of the hotel in early December 1962. The accompanying photo shows how the building looked just before it was torn down.

At Home in Rochester: Cyrus and Laura Reimer House

Reimer/Fisher house ca.1957 (Swords Family Archive)

This grand house was built at 1690 S. Rochester Road (west side of the road, south of Avon) in 1922 for Cyrus Reimer and his second wife, Laura Clough Reimer. Cyrus Reimer, who was born in 1854 in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, had been a hardware merchant in Rochester, operating the store founded by his father, Joseph Reimer, which he later sold to Harvey J. Taylor. (Taylor, in turn, sold the store to Charles W. Case and it later became known as Case's Hardware). Cyrus Reimer became a traveling hardware salesmen for the Buhl company of Detroit, and also operated a hardware store in Owosso, Michigan, before settling in Cleveland, where he was sales manager for the American Fork and Hoe Company. 

In retirement, Cyrus decided to return to the Rochester area. The Pontiac Daily Press reported in March 1922:

The contract has been let for a fine residence for Cyrus Reimer, to be built on his farm, one and one half miles south of Rochester. Mr. Reimer was formerly a Rochester resident, but has made his home in Cleveland for the last 15 years.

Unfortunately, Cyrus Reimer died just over a year after this announcement was published, so he probably spent very little time enjoying his new house south of Rochester.  Two years later his widow sold the property, as revealed by this item from the Rochester Clarion of April 17, 1925:

William A. Fisher, president of the Fisher Body Works, of Detroit, has purchased the palatial farm home of Mrs. Laura Reimer, one and one-fourth miles south of Rochester on the Rochester pavement. Ward Carey has been engaged as overseer of the farm and will occupy the house, while George Stewart will occupy the tenant house vacated by George Ahrens.

Fisher's name is the one that is most associated with this house, as he owned it for a much longer span of time that the Reimers.  One of the famed brothers who founded the Fisher Body Company that later became a division of General Motors, William A. Fisher used his Avon Township home as a summer getaway and weekend retreat, while living the rest of the time at his primary residence in the Boston-Edison district of Detroit. His Avon Township property was a large parcel in section 22, and he employed local people to farm it for him.

The Fisher property was sold to the Mount Elliott Cemetery Association in 1951, but plans to develop a cemetery on the property never left the drawing board. Instead, the property was sold for development to the Winchester Association in 1969.  About that time, the Reimer/Fisher house was moved west across the fields to a lot on Crestline Street, in the Bogart's Place subdivision plat, which is where it stands today.

To learn more about the Cyrus Reimer house, visit the Oakland Regional Historic Sites record for this property.

Thanks to Melanie and Janet Swords for sharing this image from the Swords Family Archive.

Romney in Rochester Revisited

(Courtesy of Steve Cypher)

After reading my earlier blog post about George Romney's campaign visit to Rochester fifty years ago this month, Remembering Rochester reader Steve Cypher contacted me to share this image from his personal family photo archive.  The photo was taken with gubernatorial candidate George Romney on Main Street, Rochester, on October 11, 1962. Pictured from left to right are Larry Foss, George Romney, John Cypher, Steve Cypher and Ginny Foss. Betty Slazinski is driving the car (for the auto fans, Steve says that's a Fiat 1200 Sport Spyder).  Mitzelfeld's and Holland Florist can be seen in the background of the photo.

My thanks to Steve Cypher for sharing this bit of Rochester history.

Rochester on the Road: Photoflash Flares

If you ever find yourself visiting the National Museum of the U. S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, you'll find a connection to Rochester, Michigan in this exhibit from the museum's World War II gallery.  Here is displayed an example of the AN-M26 photoflash flare, which was dropped from airplanes to provide illumination for nighttime bombing missions, or to aid aerial photography.

These flares descended toward their targets on a parachute, which allowed them to burn for about three minutes over the area to be illuminated. They produced about 800,000 candlepower.  The AN-M26 device was 50 inches long and about eight inches in diameter, weighing 52 pounds. Fourteen pounds of that weight was flare charge.

McAleer Manufacturing Company, located  at the time in Rochester at Fourth and Water streets in the building we know today as the Rochester Mills Beer Company, had government defense contracts to build these flares. Thousands of the devices were built, tested and shipped from Rochester to aid the war effort. Mixing and testing of the explosive powders used in these and other McAleer munitions resulted in the injury or death of several McAleer employees.

Vanished Rochester: Winkler Mill

Winkler Mill, August 1923

In 1825, pioneer settler John Hersey built a grist mill northeast of the emerging settlement of Stoney Creek, establishing one of the earliest industries in what would become Avon Township.  Captain William Price, a pioneer of Washington Township in adjacent Macomb County, bought the Hersey property, including the mill, in 1837. As proprietor of the former Hersey mill, Capt. Price was credited with grinding the first barrel of superfine flour in Oakland County.

William Price died in 1857, and his heirs eventually sold the mill near Stoney Creek to a German immigrant named Joseph Winkler, Winkler operated the mill for half a century, from 1870 until 1920, and it is by his name that the mill property has been known ever since.

A succession of owners followed Joseph Winkler, but the building had by then seen its last days as a working grist mill.  In 1968, a Michigan historical marker was placed at the mill, recognizing it as a relic of Avon Township's era of exploration and settlement.  To the sadness of the community, the historic structure was completely destroyed by fire in the summer of 1985. The Michigan historical marker that once stood at the site was removed to the Rochester Hills Museum at Van Hoosen Farm.

This Month in Rochester History

Campaign season was in full swing in Rochester fifty years ago this month. On October 11, 1962, the Romney campaign swept into town for a hand-shaking stop.  Republican gubernatorial candidate George W. Romney stood outside the gate of National Twist Drill at Tienken and Rochester at the 3:30 p.m. quitting time, asking workers departing the plant at the close of their shift to support him in his race against incumbent governor John B. Swainson.  After leaving Twist Drill, Romney visited downtown Rochester and walked through Mitzelfeld's and most of the other Main Street businesses, greeting customers and clerks and asking them for their votes in the upcoming November election.

Romney defeated Swainson in the 1962 general election and served as Michigan's governor from 1963 to 1969. (For those of you who are students of American political history, click here to view a film clip of George Romney's announcement of his candidacy for Michigan governor.)

The Horvitz Connection

Horvitz building renovation (David Gifford)

Recently, as the Horvitz building at 301 S. Main has been stripped of its faux front, interest in the structure's history has been renewed.  We know that a dry goods merchant named Burnett A. Horvitz built the store in late 1888, but this week I decided to find out what I could about Mr. Horvitz and his personal story. An 1891 biography reveals that B. A. Horvitz was born in Russia in 1859 and that he and his family fled to America in 1869 to escape the persecution of Jews that was occurring at the time. Burnett "Barney" Horvitz then became a traveling salesman, and during a stop in Rochester in 1880 he decided to make his home here. He built his new store on Main Street in 1888 and in 1893 he married Gertrude C. Straus of Detroit.  The couple had two children, both born in Rochester: a son, Gerald Joseph Horvitz, and a daughter, Florence M. Horvitz.  The Horvitz children were reared in Rochester until about 1907, at which time B. A. Horvitz moved his family to Detroit.

Gerald Horvitz went on to attend the University of Michigan and was graduated with the class of 1916. He moved to New York and became a scientist and researcher of some note, specializing in chemistry and metallurgical engineering. Horvitz served as president of the New York Testing Laboratories and was engaged in highly classified research during the early 1940s.  His daughter, Betty Slegman, herself a U of M graduate and one of the first women journalists to work for United Press,  recalled that her father would never talk about his work, but expressed irritation at the number of security people who were hanging around his laboratory.  It was only after the surrender of Japan ended World War II that Betty found out that her father had been one of the scientists working on the Manhattan Project, and that his specific role had been to develop a key component of the trigger mechanism of the atomic bomb.

Main Street Stories: 327 S. Main

Around 1900, Rochester jeweler Theodor Dahlmann built a store to house his business at 327 S. Main. This property remained in the Dahlman family until 1936, when Theo Dahlmann's heirs sold it to Lyle "Red" Knapp. Knapp opened a restaurant and bar there, known simply as "Knapp's" (and not to be confused with Knapp's Dairy Bar, another of his businesses which opened on the opposite side of the street in 1950). Knapp's restaurant and bar was a Main Street landmark until 1976, when the property was sold to Clarence Kavan of Grosse Pointe.  Kavan, having an entirely different restaurant in mind, had the existing building razed completely, and planned a brand-new building to be constructed atop the old foundation.

As construction on the restaurant continued, Rochester residents were introduced in December 1976 to a new feature on Main Street.  The front of the new Kavan's Colony East restaurant was decorated with two large figures sculpted of wood, leaning on a table over the doorway that was the main entrance to the eatery.  The larger-than-life oak carving was familiar to Detroiters, as it had graced the front of the old Brass Rail bar on Grand Circus Park for many years. After the demise of the Brass Rail, the carving lay in storage until Clarence Kavan acquired it for his new restaurant in Rochester.

The carving is the design of Joseph Freedman, who was one of the partners in the Brass Rail bar. It was executed by the firm of noted Detroit sculptor Joachim Jungwirth, whose company of architectural modelers and wood carvers was very prominent in Detroit. Jungwirth was a talented Austrian wood carver and was the father of sculptor Leonard D. Jungwirth, who created the famous "Sparty" statue at Michigan State University, and also created a bas relief mural at Rochester High School (now hanging in the Harrison Room of the school administration building).  Joseph Freedman patented his design for the sculpture to adorn the bar's entrance in 1940.  The drawing filed with his patent application is shown here.

Kavan's Colony East opened its doors to Rochester patrons in February 1977, and lasted until about 1980, when the restaurant's name was briefly changed to Main Street bar and grille.  The Kruse and Muer organization bought it in 1989.  Names and owners may have changed in the 35 years since the carving was installed, but it has now become an immovable fixture and a noted Rochester landmark. The next time you visit Kruse and Muer on Main, note the initials "BR"  (for Brass Rail) carved in the boot heel of one of the men.