52 Church St.
South side of street
Franklin Beardsley apparently built this house in 1880 /81. The house still has the tall slender proportions of the Gothic Revival style.
Tax records seem to indicate that Daniel Scadding owned this property, a part of a larger piece which included land to the east and the south until 1881 when Frank Beardsley became the owner of this site, assessed value $300. The house was apparently built for/by Mr. Beardsley. A map of the Village in 1872 does not show a building footprint at that time, so construction of the house took place between 1872 & 1881. According to a 1921 Community News article Franklin Beardsley was the first mayor of Clarkston. He had a lumberyard on East Church Street which at the time stopped at the stream which still runs south from Park Lake. Byron Beardsley, Franklin's son, moved the lumber business to 89 N. Holcomb. Photo of the house, right, reportedly taken in 1926, from the west looking east. By 1927 Mr.& Mrs. Eber D. Parent became the owners of the house site as well as the property to the east including the future sites of the Methodist Church & the Clarkston Junior High School. Church Street was extended with a cobblestone bridge when the School was built. In the 1940s, the house was the residence of Mr. & Mrs. Charles Matthews. Mrs. Matthews, Polly, the daughter of the minister of the Clarkston Methodist Church, opened a music studio in her home in 1942. One of her pupils, Ivan Rouse, who later became the owner & director of the Clarkston Conservatory of Music, 49 S. Main St. Built as a late Victorian style, there is a steeply pitched gable over the original two story section of the house reminiscent of the Gothic Revival style. Note the sawtooth detail of the window hoods which is seen on other houses in Clarkston. In 1974, a major addition to the south side of the house and an attached garage were constructed.
Official Property Description:
- Vacated Franklin St. & Lots 1, 2, 3, 4, Block 6 of Nelson W. Clark's Original Plat of the Village in the Southeast 1/4 of Section 20 in Independence Township.
- Lot 24 of the Assessor's Plat.
Significant Property History:
- 1831 United States to Butler Holcomb.
- 1833 Butler Holcomb & wife, Mary To Roswell/Roosevelt Holcomb, the west 1/2 of the Southeast 1/4 of Section 20.
- 1833 Butler Holcomb & wife, Mary To Roswell/Roosevelt Holcomb, and wife, Elvine Holcomb, and Daniel B. Holcomb and wife, Alimira to Jeremiah Clark III, the south part of the west 1/2 of the Southeast 1/4 of Section 20.
- 1839 Jeremiah Clark III to Nelson Washington Clark, the undivided 1/2 of the west 1/2 of the Southeast 1/4 of Section 20 commencing.......
- 1842 Jeremiah Clark III & wife, Polly to Nelson W. Clark, the south part of the west 1/2 of the Southeast 1/4 of Section 20. Also other land.
- 1842 Jeremiah Clark III & Nelson W. Clark to Village of Clarkston (Original plat of the Village).
- 1844 Nelson W. Clark, Block 6 of the Original Plat of the Village, assessed value $15.
- 1847 Nelson W. Clark, the east 1/2 of the Southeast 1/4 of Section 20, assessed value $150.
- 1848 Nelson W. Clark, as above, assessed value $214, and the east part of the west 12 of the Southeast 1/4 Section 20, assessed value $50.
- 1872 Map of the Village has no building footprint, owners Bloomfield & Scadding. Tax records list Daniel Scadding.
- 1880 Frank Beardsley was taxed for one male dog only.
- 1881 Frank Beardsley, north by the St., west by A. Mills, south & east by D. Scadding, assessed value $300.
- 1883 F. D. Beardsley, assessed value $400,
- 1895 Frank Beardsley, assessed value $500.
- 1904 F. D. Beardsley, assessed value $500.
- 1927 Eber Darius Parent.
- 1952 Dorothy Huttenlocher, Lots 24 & 23.
Architecture Style:
