Squint Shot 041411

At the southeast corner of Church Street and South Grand Avenue, the village offices can be found. A few years earlier, this former residence served as a funeral home -- that is when the large, one-story addition was placed at the north side of the two-story house. That addition was used for viewings and funerals -- it is now the council chambers.

When I began my research, I would come across this old picture (first one shown) labeled the "S.L. Bignall House" which didn't mean a thing to me and I didn't recognize what house it was in the village. As I waded my way through all the newspaper articles, I found a 1990 blurb in the Fowlerville News and Views about the Liverances purchasing the old Bignall house with plans to expand it for their funeral services. That was when I started comparing the structure (windows, porch, doors, rooflines) of the Bignall place with the Liverance funeral home building. The southern portion of what is now the village offices is that old house -- mystery solved in my book!

So, here are the two pictures for you to do the comparison also.

Of interest, I also recently found the following short blurb published in The Fowlerville Review in 1905:

The residence of W.B. Gale, also the new residence of S.L. Bignall, and the new Evangelical Parsonage are all being wired for electric lights.  The Fowlerville Lighting Co. is certainly giving very satisfactory service and are acquiring a large amount of new business.