Benjamin C. Harrison House

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

This American vernacular upright-and-wing frame dwelling was built in 1870 as the family residence of local shoemaker Benjamin C. Harrison, who lived in the house until 1873. Harrison was one of the sons of Joseph Harrison, for whom Harrison Street in Rochester is named, and an uncle of William F. "Bill" Harrison, the longtime custodian of the public school in Rochester, for whom the Harrison Building of the Rochester Community Schools Administration Complex is named. Many of the local businessmen built homes on East Street, and this house is a typical dwelling of the merchant class in Rochester during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

Images

Benjamin C. Harrison House, west elevation, 2013

Benjamin C. Harrison House, north and west elevations, 2013

Benjamin C. Harrison House, west and south elevations, 2013

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

This house was built in 1870 as the family home of Rochester shoemaker Benjamin C. Harrison and his wife, Almira Fancher Harrison. Harrison bought two adjoining lots on East Street, (lots 131 and 132 of the Richardson & Adams Addition) in 1867 for a total cost of $225. In the 1869 tax assessment rolls for the township of Avon, the taxable value of the two lots combined is still listed at only $250, indicating that the property had not yet been improved. In the census of 1870, Harrison and his family are shown living at this location and the value of his real estate is given as $1000. The house is visible on the 1872 Beers plat of the village of Rochester, with Benjamin C. Harrison listed as the property owner. In 1873, Harrison sold the two lots to Lemuel W. Shoup for $1900. Given these facts, the construction date of the house appears to be some time in 1870.

Benjamin C. Harrison was born in New Jersey in 1839, and was a shoemaker by trade. He married Almira Fancher in Oakland County on February 12, 1865.

Lemuel W. Shoup was born in Warren County, New Jersey in 1829, the son of Conrad Shoup and Ruth Taylor Shoup. He came to Michigan with his family in 1834 and they settled on a farm in Oakland Township. Lemuel Shoup married Laura Ann Dewey, the daughter of Auburn Dewey and Elizabeth Woodworth Dewey. In 1873, the couple moved from the family farm to the village of Rochester, purchasing Lot 131, containing a house, and Lot 132, a vacant lot adjoining, of the Richardson & Adams Addition from Benjamin C. Harrison.

In 1881, Shoups' daughter, Lydia, married Marcus Eugene Carlton; three years later, in 1884, Lemuel Shoup sold Lot 132 of the Richardson & Adams Addition, which was vacant land immediately to the north of his residence, to his daughter and son-in-law, who built a large house on the property. A few years later, according to a news item published in the Rochester letter to the Utica Sentinel on July 25, 1892, Shoup expanded his house; the newspaper reported: "Mr. Shoup is building an addition to his house."

Shoup continued to live in his house at 420 East St. until his death on July 31, 1902. His will, dated January 8, 1901, left his house and lot on East Street in Rochester to another of his daughters, Lillian Shoup Horn (wife of James Winthrop Horn). The Horns' daughter, Laura Marguerite Horn Ballor, inherited the property and sold it in 1919 to James A. Wortman.Wortman owned the property only briefly before selling it to Fred Hart Main and his wife, Olive, in 1922.

The Fred Main family owned 420 East Street from 1922 until 1970. Fred Main was a carpenter and his daughter, Helen V. Main Allen, was a local government official, serving as the treasurer of Avon Township from 1948 until 1970. (Helen V. Allen Park in Rochester Hills is named in her honor). In 1970 the Main/Allen heirs sold the property and it was purchased soon thereafter by musicians Vincent and Karen Sadovsky, who conducted the Rochester Folk Workshop, a private music instruction studio, in the historic building from 1973 until 2018.

Sources

Atlas of Oakland County, Michigan. New York: F.W. Beers, 1872, p.101.

Charles F. Cook to Benjamin Harrison, Lots 131 and 132, Richardson & Adams Addition to the Village of Rochester, January 8, 1867, Oakland County Record of Deeds, Liber 98, p.108.

"United States Census, 1870," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org /pal:/MM9.1.1/MHCC-JXK : accessed 22 Apr 2013), Benjamin Harrison, Michigan, United States; citing p. 24, family 199, NARA microfilm publication M593, FHL microfilm 552193.

Benjamin Harrison to Lemuel Shoup, Lots 131 and 132, Richardson & Adams Addition to the Village of Rochester, February 22, 1873, Oakland County Record of Deeds, Liber 124, p.116.

"Mr. Shoup is building an addition...," Rochester letter in the Utica Sentinel, July 25, 1892.

Last Will and Testament of Lemuel Shoup, instrument dated January 8, 1901, Oakland County Record of Deeds, Liber 213, p. 36.

Marguerite Horn Ballor to James A. Wortman, Lot 131, Richardson & Adams Addition to the Village of Rochester, June 15, 1919, Oakland County Record of Deeds, Liber 317, p.609.

James A. Wortman to Fred H. Main, Lot 131, Richardson & Adams Addition to the Village of Rochester, March 30, 1922, Oakland County Record of Deeds, Liber 369, p.368.

"The Late Lemuel Shoup," Rochester Era, August 8, 1902, p.8.

"Fred H. Main [obituary], Rochester Clarion, November 12, 1964, p.3.

"United States Census, 1930," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org /pal:/MM9.1.1/XQ1V-HKV : accessed 22 Apr 2013), Fred H Main, 1930.

"United States, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942," index and images,

FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/J4SQ-N33 : accessed 22 Apr 2013), Fred Hart Main, 1942.

"United States Census, 1940," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org

/pal:/MM9.1.1/K4GB-3CQ : accessed 22 Apr 2013), Fred H Maiz [sic: Fred H. Main], Rochester, Avon Township, Oakland, Michigan, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 63-4, sheet 3A, family 58, NARA digital publication T627, roll 1798.

Oakland County. Office of the Treasurer. Records of Oakland County: tax assessment rolls, 1868, 1869, 1870, held at Kresge Library, Oakland University, Rochester Hills, Michigan.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

Deborah Larsen