Walking Tour-1 & 3 South Main Street-Walking Tour Home Page
(West Side of Street)

This southwest corner of Main & W. Washington St. is currently the site of a parking lot which is a part of the property of the Clarkston News. According to the Oakland County Atlas, pub. 1877, this piece which was originally a part Butler Holcomb's Clarkston mill property, became the site of Milton H. Clark's store in 1844. "It was used for mercantile purposes until 1872 when his present store took its place. Mr. Clark is the oldest merchant in the place, having been in business nearly all the time since 1844." However tax records do not show him for this property until 1847 when Milton H. Clark & Co. was listed for "one storehouse on Mill property". (Clark, whose residence was the house at 62 N. Main, was one of Jeremiah Clark's sons.)

While no photos of the first building are available, photos circa 1909, left, and 1933 (not shown) show two wooden buildings on this sight. Milton H. Clark's store, built in 1872, on the right (1 South Main) and a smaller false-front one & 1/2 story building on the left (3 S. Main). According to tax records, both were owned by Clark until his death in 1892. A circa 1909 photo (Heritage, pg.47) shows a sign "SELZ' Shoes" on the corner building. This was probably the business of William Curtis Noyes Tiffany. At that time the building was owned by the Clark Bros., C. M. and Edwin M. Clark, heirs of M. H.Clark. The brothers held the property until 1920 when tax records listed Lillian Klintworth for the site.

Louis Borst opened a "modern" barber shop, "second door south of Washington on Main in the Klintworth building", in 1933. (See photos, Heritage, pg.47 & 92.) The caption for the latter says it was"Tug" Borst's, later, Dude Demond's barber shop. Dude also had a shop for a time on the site of the Clarkston Bank building, see 15 S. Main.) In the same year, Hagele's Meat Market opened a grocery store in the corner building. Hagele had a market in Pontiac previously. In July of that year, Rudy Schwarz bought the business. (Clarkston News 5/12/33 & 7/14/33.) Schwarz married Elsa Hagele on October 27,1933. The couple lived above the store for a time. (A newspaper article, 1/29/21, says Byron Beardsley, son of Franklin Beardsley, had a grocery and general store here before 1933.)

In 1939 a fire started in a building, behind the two buildings with Main St. frontage, which housed the Clarkston Venetian Blind Co., owner, Carlton V.Sloat. All three wooden buildings burned to the ground.

Official Property Description:

This was known as the "unencumbered Block" of Nelson W. Clark's Original Plat of the Village in the Southwest 1/4 of Section 20 of Independence township.
• Lot 81 of the Assessor's 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.
• 1847 Milton H. Clark & Co., "one storehouse on Mill property", assessed value $40.
• 1848 Nelson W. Clark, Mill "Lott" on the Southwest 1/4, assessed value $2000. Nelson W.Clark, the northeast corner of the Mill "Lott", assessed value $90. Milton H. Clark, the northeast corner of the Mill "Lott", assessed value $92.
• 1849 Clark and Davis, the northeast corner of the Mill Lot, assessed value $93.
• 1849 Nelson W. Clark, the northwest corner of the Mill Lot, assessed value $100.
• 1849 Nelson W. and Phidelia Clark to Milton H.Clark, 50' front on Main, 5 rods back. Known as the "unencumbered Block", in the Southwest 1/4 of Section 20 of Independence Township.
• 1855 Clark and Stearns, commencing at the s. w. corner of Main & Washington St. on the n.e. corner of the mill property, then west 5 rods, south 50', east 5 rods, north 50', assessed value $380.
• 1856 M. H. Clark, assessed value $400.
• 1861 M. H. Clark, assessed value $500.
• 1870 M. H. Clark, assessed value $550.
• 1872 See map of the Village, M. H. Clark's "store" footprint.
• 1883 M. H. Clark, assessed value $1500
• 1885 M. H. Clark, same property description as above, & Yeager/Yager (Jedediah, blacksmith) property to the west, assessed value $1800.
• 1892 Milton H.Clark died.
• 1893 M. H. Clark Estate.
• 1900 C. M. and Edwin M.Clark.
• 1904 Clark Bros., assessed value $1800.
• 1918 Clark Bros., assessed value $2000.
• 1919 Clark Bros. Property, northeast by the St., south by Walter, west by Fred Vliet, assessed value $2000.
• 1920 Lillian Klintworth (address, McLean Ave., Det.), Property northeast by Street, south by Walter, west by Ogden, assessed value $3200.
• 1927 Mrs Lillian Klintworth, assessed value $3800.
• 1930 Mrs.Lillian Klintworth, assessed value $3800
• 1931 Mrs.Lillian Klintworth, assessed value $2800.
• 1933 Mrs.Lillian Klintworth, assessed value $2700
• 1934 Mrs.Lillian Klintworth, assessed value $2400
• 1935 Mrs.Lillian Klintworth, 50' on Main, west, 82.5' assessed value $1700
• 1939 Mrs.Lillian Klintworth, assessed value $2000
• 1940 Mrs.Lillian Klintworth, assessed value $2000. She also had the piece west to the alley.
• 1941 Mrs.Lillian Klintworth, Lot 81, assessed value $250
• 1954 Lillian Klintworth.