43 North Main Street

This Queen Anne style house was built for Mr. & Mrs. Henry Kingsley in 1883 on the site of a barn which was a part of Nelson W. Clark's residential property. Mrs. Kingsley was the daughter of E. S. & Mary Hirst/Hurst. (See photo, page 59, Heritage.) The Hirsts/Hursts owned the Clarkston mills property for a time after purchasing it from Jeremiah III & Nelson W. Clark in 1859. The next owners of this house were Mr. & Mrs. Charles Lambert. At the turn of the century the Lamberts had a cottage described in the Pontiac newspapers of the time alternately as being on the shores of Deer Lake or on Cemetery Lake. Charles owned Clayton & Lambert Manufacturing Co. in Detroit. The Lamberts used this house only in the summer. Their son Frank & his wife, Elizabeth Edmonson, continued to use the house until their deaths. Frank founded Shore Acres Creamery in Pontiac. Then he was Vice President of Clayton-Lambert until his retirement in 1946. Elizabeth's grandfather, J. Edmonson, for a time, had a store on the northwest corner of S. Main St. & Depot Rd. The house stood much as it was originally built until a major restoration in 1994. A two story addition was constructed to join the rear/west facade. The three car garage was also built as a part of this project. The house has retained many of the picturesque details of the Queen Anne style: the tower with cone-shaped roof and lancet windows; the wrap-around screened porch with turned posts; the bay window on the third story of the east facade and the shaped shingles in the gables.