Hiram Lyndes Lintz / Arthur R. Dillman House

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

This residence has a historical association two of Rochester, Michigan's well-known businessmen. It was built as a family home for Hiram L. Lintz, a partner in Rochester's nineteenth-century undertaking firm of Woodworth & Lintz and was later occupied by Arthur R. Dillman, a principal in the firm of Dillman and Upton, a century-old lumber dealer. Since 1940, the Lintz/Dillman residence has been configured as an apartment house. It is one of the few remaining residential buildings on Walnut Street.

Images

Hiram Lyndes Lintz / Arthur R. Dillman House, north and west elevations, 2012

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

This house was originally built as a private residence in 1901 by Rochester furniture dealer and undertaker Hiram Lyndes Lintz. H.L. Lintz was born of German immigrants in Defiance County, Ohio in 1847 and settled in Macomb County in 1868, where he farmed a large parcel in Shelby Township. He was married in 1874 to Leora V. Davis. Hiram L. Lintz came to Rochester in 1892, when he joined P.M. Woodworth in a furniture and undertaking business that was located in the building at 311 S. Main. When Woodworth died in 1896, Lintz continued the business in partnership with Woodworth's widow, until the two sold the business to T. C. Severance in 1899.

Lintz purchased Lot 74 of the Original Plat of the Village of Rochester, along with neighboring lots, in 1892, and in 1901 he built a substantial home on the property, as reported in the Rochester Era of April 26, 1901:

"Work is progressing on H.L. Lintz's new house corner of Walnut and Second streets." In July of that year, the paper further reported that the house was ready to be plastered.

The Lintz house was later sold to Arthur R. Dillman and his wife, Hilda B. Upton Dillman, and served as their family residence until approximately 1927. Arthur R. Dillman was born near Goodison in 1886, the son of John H. and Mary J. Middaugh Dillman. He married Hilda B. Upton in 1911. A.R. Dillman worked for Detroit Edison company from 1911 to 1916 and then became a member of his father-in-law's lumber and coal firm, Charles W. Upton & Co. After C.W. Upton retired from the business in 1923, the firm name was changed to Dillman and Upton.

The Dillmans sold the house on April 30, 1927 to Silas B. and Isabelle J. Wattles. Wattles subsequently sold it to Elizabeth Butts Casey Case, who converted it to a 4-family apartment building in the fall of 1940. The apartment house was named in memory of S. B. Wattles' second wife, Isabelle Louise Jennings Wattles, who had died suddenly in her home at 136 Walnut in 1937. The Rochester Era reported on September 20, 1940:

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The apartment house at Walnut and Second streets recently purchased by Elizabeth Case will be completed within several days soon ready for occupancy. The apartments will be known as "The Isabelle Apartments," in memory of Mrs. Isabelle Wattles, deceased, and whose home has been remodeled by Mrs. Case. There are four modern apartments and all are rented.

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Sources

Seymour G. Wilcox to H.L. Lintz, Lots 74,75,76, Original Plat of the Village of Rochester, April 6, 1892, Oakland County, Michigan Record of Deeds, liber 167, p.347.

"Work is progressing on H.L. Lintz's new house corner of Walnut and Second...," Rochester Era, April 26, 1901, p.1.

"H. L. Lintz's elegant new house corner of Walnut and Second streets is ready for the plasterers..," Rochester Era, July 28, 1901, p.1.

"Hiram L. Lintz," in Leeson, M.A. History of Macomb County, Michigan. Chicago: M.A. Leeson, 1882, p.794.

Arthur R. Dillman to Silas B. Wattles, Lot 74, Original Plat of the Village of Rochester, April 30, 1927, Oakland County, Michigan Record of Deeds, liber 572, p. 422.

"Arthur R. Dillman," in Avery, Lillian Drake. Account of Oakland County, Michigan. Dayton, Ohio: National Historical Association, 1924, pp.192-193.

"Apartments Ready Soon," Rochester Era, September 20, 1940, p.4.

"The new Isabell apartments...," Rochester Clarion, January 3, 1941.

"United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K6XV-C7Z : 24 August 2019), Arthur Robert Dillman, 1917-1918.

"United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZQ5-ZCV : accessed 15 August 2020), Arthur R Dillman, Avon, Oakland, Michigan, United States; citing ED 159, sheet 22A, line 36, family 535, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 789; FHL microfilm 1,820,789.

"United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XQ1K-3VD : accessed 15 August 2020), Silas B Wattles, Rochester, Oakland, Michigan, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 4, sheet 6A, line 37, family 125, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 1016; FHL microfilm 2,340,751.

"United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K4GB-C8L : 29 February 2020), Silas B Wattles, Rochester, Avon Township, Oakland, Michigan, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 63-4, sheet 61A, line 8, family 275, 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.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

Deborah Larsen