31 South Main Street

Commercial buildings have occupied this corner of South Main Street and Depot Road (once called Livery Hill) at least since 1844. Tax records of that year listed Isaac Place for the property with the assessed value of $300, high enough to indicate major acitivity on the lot then. The listing in 1848 became Place and Hirst. ( A first name for Hirst is not noted. One of the Hirsts, Ed. S. Hirst, became the partner of Nelson W. Clark in the mill property north of Depot Road, owning it outright by 1859.) Stark and Hirst owned the west part of this Lot in 1850. The building on the site then was probably a mill operation. Beginning 1855 Taylor H. Stewart was listed, with his son, for a "clothing works" and a "dwelling house" on this property. John G. Owen had a building on the corner listed in tax records by 1859 as the site of a warehouse and storehouse. By 1860 Enos Church owned a furnace, carding mill/cloth dressing operation (previousl located on East Washington Street ) and a dwelling house on the site. The 1872 map of the Village has the footprints of two buildings on this lot. B. F. Elwood had a large building fronting on Main and was listed for a livery stable, while Lee Bingham had a building at the back of the lot with another joining it to the west designated as a foundry and wooden mill. Bingham was also listed for a building on Lot 2. This back building was probably his residence for a time. These early wooden buildings (with stone foundations) may be seen in photos circa 1910 ( photo left ); circa 1924 of the Clarkston Mills (not shown ); & circa 1940 (not shown) of G. H. Mann and Sons . In the 1930s there was a feed store at this location which was remodeled in 1940 when the cut field stone was added to the facade. Casper Warden, a local mason, ( residence, 26 Buffalo St ) is credited with the work. Rudy's Market, Rudolph Schwarze, proprietor, moved here following a fire in 1939 which destroyed the wooden buildings on the southwest corner of S. Main & W. Washington where he was previously located. Schwarz moved to the building at 9 S. Main Street in 1954. In 1954 there was an ad in the Clarkston News for Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Cashion's business, The Dairy Bar, in this building. The Clarkston Town Shop, a clothing store, was located here in the late 1960s. The 1970s saw the building converted to the Clarkston Emporium with a number of small boutiques occupying the basement as well as the main floor. Reclaimed architectural elements were used to remodel the interior and exterior (i.e. the stained glass door on the Main Street facade). In recent years the main floor has been used for offices.