11 Buffalo St.

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East side of street

This simple vernacular farmhouse style building was apparently built, circa 1872, for Charles Allen.

Independence Township tax records seem to indicate a building on this site by 1855, owner Jonas/Joseph Edmonson, assessed value $320. Mr. Edmonson was Town Clerk in 1853. He also owned the lot on which the Garter building, 31 S. Main, now stands. Records listed a shop/store on that site, 33'on Main and 5 rods back. (A rod is 16.5 feet.) He also owned a piece of property (the north 1/2 of Lots 4 & 3) on Block 2 of Cobb's Southwest Addition to the Village Plat. By 1856 Edmonson was taxed for only these last two pieces. In 1870 he owned the lot of 10 Buffalo Street. The assessed value of the 11 Buffalo Street piece fell to $150 until 1869 when Charles Allen, Justice of the Peace in 1857 and Independence Township Supervisor,1858-1865, purchased it. By 1872 the assessed value rose to $400 indicating either the building of a new house (perhaps the original was demolished) or the major restoration/reconstruction of an existing house. The 1872 Map of the Village has a footprint of the house much as it stood until a major addition to the east (rear) section was constructed in the 1880s. The house was owned by the Clarkston Methodist Church in the 1950s & 60s. It was sold, along with the parsonage (the house to the south) and the church building, to the Salvation Army in 1967/68. All three buildings fell into serious disrepair after 1975 when the Salvation Army decided to no longer hold services in the church building. The three properties were purchased by a young couple who began reclamation. They sold the properties separately and reclamation of the buildings continued. New owners in the late 1980s remodeled the front porch and interior and added a large single story addition to the east (rear)of this house. The small peak (gable) with shaped shingles seen above the single-story wing roof was a part of that work. In 1996 the house again received major changes. Most of the original siding was replaced; a porch on the southeast corner of the house was enclosed; and windows on the south wall (some of which had been moved in the previous remodeling) were again moved. The garage at the rear was built circa 1930. It was demolished in 2000. Architecturally, the style of the house (that is, the original two story section with single story wing to the north) has no indications of Greek or Gothic Revival Style and seems to have been built as a simple vernacular farmhouse style.

Official Property Description:

The south 1/2 of Lot 3 & the north 49' of Lot 6 Block 2 of Nelson W. Clark's Original Plat of the Village in the Southeast 1/4 of Section 20 in Independence Township.
Lot 16 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).
1846 Wm. V. Briggs, the south 1/2 of Lot 3 Block 2, assessed value $5.
1847 J. Davison, the south 1/2 of Lot 3 Block 2, assessed value $40 and the north 1/2 of Lot 6, assessed value $5.
1848 Sarah Ann Dorr, the south 1/2 of Lot 3 and the north 1/2 of Lot 6, assessed value $65.
1849 Washington L. Clark, 1/2 Lots 3 & 6 Block 2, "occupied together", assessed value $65.
1849 E. Jones, Lot 7 & the south 1/2 of Lot 6 Block 2, assessed value $72.
1850 Eli More, the south 1/2 of Lot 3 the north 1/2 of the west 1/2 of Lot 6 Block 2, "occupied together".
1855 Jonas/Joseph Edmonson, the south 1/2 of Lot 3 & the north 1/2 of Lot 6 Block 2, assessed value $320.
1856 Mary Lapham, as above, assessed value $300.
1857 as above.
1859 Milton H. Clark, as above, assessed value $200.
1860 Nelson Deuell/Dwinell, south 1/2 of Lot 3 & the north 1/2 of Lot 6, assessed value $200.
1861 as above, assessed value $250.
1867 Stephen Fuller, as above, assessed value $150.
1869 Charles Allen, as above, assessed value $150.
1872 Map of the Village shows a building footprint , assessed value $400.
1884 Mrs. S. Day, the south 1/2 of Lot 6 Block 2, assessed value $50 (this entry seems to be inaccurate.)
1889 Charles Allen, assessed value $500, (Christina Allen, Mrs. Charles Allen, became the second wife of Joseph Reese).
1910 Hattie E. Casement, the south 1/2 of Lot 3 & the north 1/2 of Lot 6 Block 2.
1918 Hattie Walter (Mrs. Frank Walter, formerly Hattie Casement), assessed value $1000.
1920 as above, assessed value $1500.
1935 Hattie Walter, the south 1/2 of Lot 3 & the north 49.5' of Lot 6 Block 2, assessed value $1200.
1948 Charles L. Oswald and wife, Lot 16.
1952 as above.
Methodist Church.
Salvation Army.