32 South Main Street

Historically there was a wooden structure on this site by 1856. The structure probably resembled the Greek Revival style building seen in a c.1877 photo of Frank Yeager's blacksmith shop. 1850 tax rolls listed Washington L. Clark for the property. (He also owned a house on the northeast corner of South Main Street and East Church Street.) This property in 1855 was listed as belonging to Perry and Clark, but the assessed value does not indicate a building on the Lot at the time. In 1856 Robert Perry was taxed for both pieces with an increased assessed value indicating a building on the site by then. The 1872 Map of the Village has a building footprint with J. M. Clark as the owner. James M. Clark was one of Clarkson's first blacksmith's. This building became the site of Yeager and Son, a blacksmith shop. Jedediah Yeager, also one of Clarkston's early blacksmiths, had shops previously on West Washington and North Main St. (Jedediah's son, Frank, lived at 8 E. Washington. There was a barn in the southeast corner of that property where he also did some of his work. That barn in the 1850s was shared by more than one craftsman.) Frank owned this 32 South Main Street property until about 1914. In 1919, the Seeterlin brothers, built a new building here to house their Chevrolet Sales & Service. The Seeterlins moved their business to the north side of East Church Street. Henry Buck & William Chase started a Ford dealership and Ward Robbins had a service station here also. Reuben Beattie bought the building in 1927 and the Beattie's took over the Buck & Chase dealership. E. A. Baker had a custom auto repair shop in the rear of Beattie's building for a time. In 1943 a fire burned the building of Beattie Motor Sales. The building was subsequently rebuilt. (The last location of the Beattie Ford dealership was on Dixie Highway at the intersection of Andersonville Road). The last car dealership on this South Main Street site, Bill Spence Rambler moved from here in 1961 to Dixie Highway. The building then became the Haupt Bump Shop, an extension of Haupt Motor Sales on M-15 north of the Village.