135 North Main Street

This house was built in 1905 for/by Austin Taylor. Architecturally the original section of this house was built as a late Victorian, Queen Anne style building with some Stick Style elements. It looked very much like those houses at 122 , 130 & 177 N. Main and 18 N. Holcomb. An item in the 8/29/1905 issue of the Oakland County Post noted " With the near completion of the tow new Reese houses on upper Main street in the village the boom in the building line is continuing by the beginning of a new home for A. J. Taylor, just acress the street from the Reese property." The front door was originally placed across the southeast corner. It was covered by a porch which wrapped around from the middle of the south facade to the middle of the east facade. A gable with shaped shingles in the peak was centered over the door with wide steps to the sidewalk. Instead of the turned posts supporting the porch roof and balusters beneath the railings, as seen in old photos of the other similar houses, photos circa 1920 and 1950 show simple round doric, Classical Revival style, columns supporting the porch roof. Below the porch railing clapboard is seen instead of turned spindles. This simpler porch was apparently a replacement, or update, for a deteriorated porch built in the Queen Anne style. In the 1950s the diagonally placed front door was replaced with a street facing entrance and the wraparound porch was removed. In the 1970s a utility room and a family room were added to the rear of the house where an attached garage once stood. This attached garage was probably an addition to the original house built circa 1940. The shaped shingles and spider web windows in the second story gables are picturesque details typical of the style or combination of styles.