Walking Tour-49 North Main Street-Walking Tour
(West Side of Street)

This house was built for Mr.& Mrs. Roy Spencer in 1919. The architectural style of the house has element of the Arts & Crafts California Bungalow style: a low building profile; deep eaves under the roof; and a wide veranda style front porch. While many of these houses were brick or stucco this adaptation was totally constructed of wood clapboard over a wood balloon frame..

Plans for such bungalow derivatives, large & small, were available in the 1920s and 1930s in great variety in catalogs for homeowners & builders. It was also during the 1920s & 1930s when Sears Roebuck sold mail order houses, that is, prefabricated houses shipped in marked pieces to a site for final assembly. Two books about this phenomenon, "America's Favorite Houses" and "Houses by Mail" have drawings of houses like this one, "The Vallejo", page 157 of the first book and "The Sheridan", page 136 from the second, with porches similar to the original porch which was on this house. The present porch was constructed in 1980. The original clapboard below the porch banister was replaced with commercially made turned spindles. At that time the porch was extended around the northeast corner of the front facade. A brick fireplace was added then also.

Official Property Description:

• Lot 7 Block 24 & part of Brandon St. of Nelson W. Clark's Original Plat of the Village in the Southwest 1/4 of Section 20 in Independence Township.
• Lot 20 of the Supervisor's Replat of the Northwestern Addition & part of the Original Plat.

Significant Property History:

[A Synopsis Of Property Transfers Derived From Abstracts
(when available) And Periodic Changes In Ownership Or
Assessed Value Derived From Township Tax Records]

• Note: All the properties currently located in the Historic District were originally part of a tract registered by Butler Holcomb with the federal government on October 22, 1831. Thus, abstracts for these properties, when they exist, show the original transfer to be from the United States to Butler Holcomb and may also include references to then President Andrew Jackson.
• 1844 Nelson W. Clark, Block 24, assessed value $350.
• 1846 Nelson W. Clark, Blocks 23 & 24, assessed value $250.
• 1847 Nelson W. Clark, Block 24, assessed value $200.
• 1848 Nelson W. Clark, Lots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7 Block 24, assessed value $475.
• 1849 Nelson W. Clark, Lots 1 - 7 Block 24, assessed value $480.
• 1850 N. W. Clark, Block 24, assessed value $485.
• 1872 Map of the Village has no building footprint on this part of Nelson W. Clark's property.
• 1875 George Sibley, Block 24, assessed value $1300.
• 1884 E. G. Clark.
• 1896 Map of the Village. Parcel owner, Edwin G. Clark.
• 1917 W. E. Clark, estate.
• 1918 Roy C. Spencer, assessed value $500.
• 1919 Roy C. Spencer, assessed value $800.
• 1920 Roy C. Spencer, assessed value $3500.
• 1957 Roy C. Spencer died.
• 1970s Duane Hursfall.