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Okay, now you are going to have to take a drive to North Street and check something out for me.  Following is a picture of the house at 121 North Street.  At the time of my road trip around the village with my friend, who was pointing out all sorts of houses and their former residents, he mentioned the house lived in by Ike Harris, the owner of the Orr Theatre.  But, now from my squiggly notes, I'm not sure it was 121 or 115 North Street.  So, if you want to take a drive, maybe someone can let me know which house he lived in.

Here's a 1959 picture of the Orr Theatre when it was located in the west portion of what is now Fowlerville Hardware:

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Hidden behind far-reaching branches of a crimson maple is the former home of Glenn Boussard, at 121 North Hibbard.  Mr. Boussard used to have one of the many meat markets throughout the history of the village.

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W. Bruce Campbell was a local Ford dealer in Fowlerville and this used to be his residence at 146 North Maple Street.

So often, when anyone advertised in The Fowlerville Review, addresses seemed to be unnecessary.  Therefore, I have not definitively figured out where the Ford dealership was when Mr. Campbell owned it -- was it basically where it always was at the southwest corner of the main four, until it was relocated south of the highway?

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On North Maple Street, there is this long white ranch house.  At one time, this was the home of Stirling Douglass.  Some may well remember him, and his brother, Wendell "Bud" Douglass.  Bud passed away a few years ago.

While research for The Fowlerville Chronicles, I came across a notebook of pages and pages of reminiscing done by Stirling Douglass, typed up by the person that interviewed him, and provided a ton of information of the village during the mid 1900s.

 

 I also came across this picture of Mr. Douglass when he was a $100,000 lotto winner in 1983.

If anyone would like to add some remembrances of him, that would be wonderful!

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Across from the Methodist Church on South Second street, this cozy bungalow sits quietly behind bushes and pine trees.  At one time, this was the home of Nellie Gardner, a local piano teacher.

Are there any of her former students out there?

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This house on South Second street, which is going through a facelift, used to be the home of Sam Tomion.  Mr. Tomion was the manager of the Detroit Creamery.  The building that housed the Detroit Creamery was torn down in 1998.  By that time, it had sat unused for many years except to serve as a storage facility for old equipment.  Following is what the building looked like shortly before being torn down: 

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I have done a considerable amount of research and have become very familiar with so many Fowlerville names.  According to my friend, this house was the home of Ford Grostic.  It is located on South Second street.

I do not know this name -- does anyone have information on Ford Grostic?  Possible spelling might also be Grostick or Grostik?  If you would like to leave a comment, that would be great.



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Kiddy-corner from the house shown in the squint shot from two days' ago, this house stands at the northeast corner of South Second and East Frank streets.  According to my source, this was the home of Frank Burkhart at one time.  The Burkhart name may not really be found locally anymore, but years ago, it was associated with the grain elevator that used to stand at the east side of the railroad tracks on South Grand where the Fowlerville Feed and Pet store can now be found.

The grain elevator burned in 1960, for the most part because, reportedly, it was a winter day when the building caught on fire and the snow was so deep, the trucks were not able to get to this location in time to save it.  Following is a picture of the elevator, taken along about 1958, given to me by Duane Herbert.

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Even though we have been looking at houses in the village, I did want to include this barn.  Yesterday's squint shot showed an old, beautiful house at the southwest corner of South Second and East Frank streets, which had once been the home of E.E. Walton and, in later years, of Thomas and Bessie Woods.  This barn stands behind the house, fronting on South Second.  It is weathered, still standing, and really quite gorgeous in its old age.  Makes one wonder if this barn held a horse and carriage and all of the extraneous equipment, and then maybe one of the early cars in the village.

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This house is just way interesting!  It is at the southwest corner of South Second and East Frank streets, and its current owners are working hard to refurbish this house to its glory days.  Some information on this house can be found under the "Tour" tab.

This house has been around since the mid-to-late 1800s and, at one time, was the home of one of Fowlerville's dentists, E.E. Walton.  Dr. Walton had his offices on the second floor of the Harmon building, which was known as the Palmerton block many years ago.

At one point in my research, I came across the following article that might give a bit of a visual of what kind of dentist Dr. Walton might have been:

Another homeowner of this house was Thomas Woods, and his wife, Besse.  Many may still remember Woods Drugs.

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Orville Dingman, some may remember, was the Pontiac dealer here in Fowlerville, at one time.  According to my friend, this was his home on East Frank Street.  If my information is correct, the Pontiac dealer used to be located about across from the old hotel -- which is now the parking lot for Curtis Grocery.   At one time, from the Baptist Church on South Grand Avenue all the way north to the intersection, there were buildings and even a house tucked in with the storefronts.  Following is a picture of "Merchants Day" sometime around 1914.  I believe Dingman's dealership was in one of the storefronts at the left side of the picture; only a few years later than when this picture was taken.

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In my recent travels, I took more pictures of houses.  One of the houses indicated by my friend last summer was this house on Frank Street.  He mentioned it was the home of Freeman Curtis.  Now, I know there have been a lot of Curtises in Fowlerville -- and there still are -- but in all of my research, I haven't happened upon the name "Freeman" Curtis.

Does anyone know what kind of work Freeman may have done?

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Yesterday's squint shot showed the house lived in by Andrew and Lena Rudnicki, at one time, editors and publishers of The Fowlerville Review.  When Mr. Rudnicki passed away quite suddenly, their son, Dick, took over the operation of the newspaper and ran it until 1972, when he sold it to the Press and Argus.  For quite a few years then it was published as an insert in that paper.

Recently, I had the wonderful opportunity to have breakfast with Dick and he did a great deal of reminiscing while we ate.  We mostly concentrated on talking about what he remembers about the northeast quadrant during his growing-up years.  As I have time, I will transcribe some of my scribbled notes and get this information on the website.  Until then, I'm offering the above picture as the house Dick and his wife lived in during their tenure in the village.

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As I continue showing houses and some of their former residents -- information as given to me last summer as a friend and I drove through the village and he reminisced -- today's squint shot is of a beautiful muted lavendar house at the northeast corner of North Maple and East Grand River.

Some of you may remember the Rudnicki name and some of you may even know Dick Rudnicki, the former newspaperman of The Fowlerville Review.  This lovely house was the home of Dick's parents, Lena and Andrew, when they were publishing the newspaper before Dick took it over.

This house was also featured last summer in the walking tour -- which you can read under the "Tour" tab -- and was built in the late 1800s by the Cook family.  Jared L. Cook, a Civil War veteran, was the hardware man in Fowlerville at that time.  His son, Fred, took over the business in later years.

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A few months back, I found some information that mentioned when the brick building housing the M.E. church at the southeast corner of South Second and Church streets was built in 1916, the wooden structure was purchased by B.D. Grover and moved to a location on North Collins street.  At the time I read about this, I went in search but didn't feel like I had found any of the houses that might have possibly been a church turned into a home.  But directly across from yesterday's squint shot house, I noticed this house.  Could this have been part of that wooden church building?

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At just about the north end of Collins Street -- #240, to be exact -- at the southeast corner of Collins and South streets, this beautiful bungalow makes me think of a summer cottage.  Years ago, it was the home of S. Walter and Flora Tomion, owners of Tomion's Dairy.

As many remember, Tomion's was located in the storefront that is now being used by a jewelry company just west of Shear Image.  If anyone would like to over some memories, please feel free.

Also, if you search on Tomion's in the search box in the upper right hand corner, just below the main header, you can find all sorts of posts for the Tomion activities.

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This house has a long history, and may well have been used by some of the Fowlers, but in my travels last summer with a good friend who is a life-long resident here, he told me J. Gordon and Gladys Harmon had made this their home.

As a bit of history, Gordon Harmon, along with Andrew Rudnicki, was a co-owner of The Fowlerville Review a few years after G.L. Adams had sold it.  They were in partnership for about a dozen years before Mr. Harmon went into the real estate business and Mr. Rudnicki continued as sole owner.  This would have been in the late 1930s until the late 1940s.

I have been told there are gorgeous oak floors in this house -- anyone care to add a bit more info? 

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Here is a well-maintained house on Church street -- at 305 -- and apparently it was owned at one time by the Robb family.  I don't really have any information on the Robbs other than I believe at one time he was involved with insurance or real estate.

Would anyone care to shine a little light on this one?

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Still on Church Street.

This house, on the south side at 310 Church street, was the home of G. Douglas and Violet Burnie.  These would have been Doug Burnie's parents, our favorite hardware man.

From information found in various articles, it would appear Douglas Burnie was possibly a salesman that had come to town and found that the hardware store was what he was interested in.  As it turned out, Ernest Krause, then the owner of this store, was willing to sell it and so Mr. Burnie was in the right place at the right time.

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As I drove along Church Street to catalog some of the homes my friend had pointed out to me (last summer), I took a picture of this house at 316 Church Street.  Years ago, it was the home of Frank and Frances Curtis.  Frank and Frances Curtis were the parents of Ken Curtis, and for years he had Frank's IGA grocery store where you will now find Curtis Grocery.

As a fun little trivia note -- in honor of Frank and Frances -- the restrooms in the grocery store are labeled as such "Frank" for the men's room and "Fran" for the ladies.