Fabius A. Brooks House

Rochester merchant Fabius Brooks purchased lots 96 and 97 on the west side of Walnut Street for $200 in 1862, the purchase price indicating that the lots were vacant at that time. When the 1870 census was taken, Brooks and his wife were residing on Walnut Street; this evidence places the construction of the house between 1862 and 1870. During the time that Brooks lived in the house, he was appointed U.S. postmaster for the village of Rochester. Fabius Brooks died in 1870, and his widow continued to live in the house until at least 1887, after which the house appears to have been rented while Harriet Brooks traveled.

The Rochester Era reported in June 1886 that: "Mrs. Brooks has approved the appearing of things about her premises by tearing down the old fence between her lot and the Baptist parsonage, and building a new one."

Harriet Brooks died while visiting relatives in Nebraska in 1910. The property was subsequently owned by John H. and Mary Jane Dillman; the widowed Mary Jane Dillman died in the house in 1938. John and Mary Dillman were the parents of Arthur Dillman of the Dillman & Upton Lumber Company in Rochester.

Following Dillman's death, the house was partitioned into two apartments. In 1939, Dale and Nina Martin, insurance agents, purchased the house and lived in one of the apartments while renting the other to Mrs. Lottie Smith, the widow of Rochester hotel man James W. Smith of the St. James Hotel. The Rochester Era reported on August 11, 1939: "Mr. and Mrs. Dale Martin have moved from the Scott house on East street to the house which they purchased recently on Walnut boulevard. The house, formerly owned by the late Mrs. John Dillman, has been made into an apartment house."

In the 1970s, dwellings on Walnut Street began to transition from residences to boutique business spaces. In 2020, the Fabius Brooks House is the location of the Painted Pot clay studio, a hair salon, and a barber shop.

Amos Brown and Mary Brown his wife to Fabius A. Brooks, 23 April 1862, consideration $200, lots 96 and 97, Original Plat of the Village of Rochester, Oakland County Record of Deeds, liber 73, p.341.

"United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHCZ-9W8 : 19 March 2020), Fabius Brooks, 1870.

"United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch ttps://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MW3Q-SGF : 22 August 2017), Harriet Brooks, Rochester, Oakland, Michigan, United States; citing enumeration district ED 248, sheet 34D, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,254,598.

"Mrs. Brooks has approved the appearing of things about her premises...," Rochester Era, June 11, 1886, p.1.

"United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XQ1V-L4M : accessed 11 August 2020), Mary J Dillman, Rochester, Oakland, Michigan, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 4, sheet 17B, line 90, family 427, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 1016; FHL microfilm 2,340,751. 

"Mr. and Mrs. Dale Martin have moved...," Rochester Era, August 11, 1939, p.5.

"United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K4GB-9WM : 29 February 2020), Dale L Martin, Rochester, Avon Township, Oakland, Michigan, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 63-4, sheet 10A, line 27, family 231, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 1798.

Sanborn-Perris Map Company. Fire Insurance Map of Rochester, Oakland County, Michigan, May 1900, plate 2.