Moved only from up the block, 213 S. Rochester was previously sited at 120 S. Princess. Small, low-ceilinged rooms tell us of its age. The builder of the Princess street house apparently needed a larger residence OR the prestige of being on the same block as the stately brick house to its north was reason enough.

The house at 310 E. Pearl Street has the distinction of being two houses put together. The left side came from Georgetown and was moved here to join the right gable already in place. It had double lath and plaster in its original four rooms. The purchaser in 1888 paid $800 for the whole. “Twin Gables” was the last house on this street at that time.

A newspaper dated 1858 was stuffed behind the plastered wall in this house at 125 N. High Street. Rumor always had it that this house was moved from Georgetown when housing was scarce in the early days of Lanark’s beginnings. The paper’s date preceeds Lanark’s origins by three years while Georgetown was platted for a railroad market in the late or mid-1850’s.

But for a quirk of fate Lanark might have looked completely different than it does today. Then Mr. Nycum made all of Section 5, Rock Creek Township available to plat a town for the market/depot. Things rapidly were in motion. So rapidly that tents and shanties had to be thrown up for shelter and, too, several houses-buildings out from Georgetown where it was once thought the railroad would track through, were moved to the new site in Section 5. Yes, moved. If not right away, then later as the town took shape. Some of those are pictured here. They were taken from the Lanark Museum calendars, the late Museum, in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Some changes have occurred in some of them since then.

This winter PDQ Me did a series about “Yeager’s Corner,” now The Hollow Fencepost on East Carroll Street but which had been moved before, first from Brookville, thence to the west side of Broad, then across the street to the southeast corner of Broad and Locust. The Argyle corner with Carroll the last move. So you see Lanark was always in motion. It certainly has to be one of the oldest buildings in town, if not the most mobile.

One of Lanark’s longtime history lovers, the late Wales Gossard, lived here as well as his grandmother, Mrs. Reuben Clay who when she baked bread (frequently) Wales as a little boy would sit on he floor behind the kitchen door and eat a piece of the bread spread with jelly and drink in the aroma and moment in time. 634 N. Broad.

Houses such as these were built very early in Lanark’s first years, either by their owners-to-be or by “capitalists” wanting to rent them to the many laborers passing through and working in an area for a few years. Most of those here were the Irish. An account said they aspired to having green veranda shutters and (inexpensive) “lace” curtains at the windows. 215 W. Claremont and 110 E. Franklin. There are several more of this type of cottage in town. Some added onto or remodeled.

The first owner of this building (once the Lanark Museum) is believed to have been George P. Dorr, a boot and shoemaker who came from Germany to Brookville in 1854. As Lanark rose on the prairie, Dorr moved his business here. The building was thought to have come from Georgetown but maybe it, like Yeager’s Corner, came from Brookville which, too, had hoped for a rail line. The building served part time as a soloon for the brick hotel, “The Germania House,” next door. Several “remodelings” were evident in the interior and may have been a house at an early time.

 

An aerial view of older towns (not new subdivisions) would show the blocks looking much like a “crazy” quilt ... Colors, styles, designs squared up in a patchwork of patterns ... Dormered Cape Cod beside a one story ranch next to a Greek Revival; a three story Mansard with a bungalow wedged between it and an ornate Victorian. That’s the American-way. In the older towns you’ll also see simple residence with a somewhat quiet character, an aura all thier own and those are the “mobile homes” of yesteryear. They have a certain personality. Interiors have low ceilings, woodwork set into the plaster, stair steps opening directly onto the second level. Quaint. Can you list any other than we illustrate here? We have entered Lanark history a few times more than usual the last few months. That’s because it’s the town’s Sesquicentennial AND it’s my hometown. I was even born here!!! We’ll get to the rest of the Northwest in future. Meantime come take part in the YEAR LONG EVENTS AMONG THE FIRST OF WHICH IS MAY 14 at the Heritage Center; A QUILT SHOW from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. There will be a bed turning(!) and at 1:00 p.m. a presentation of Civil War letters will be given at the Methodist Church. Raffle tickets for a Sesquicentennial quilt and lunch at the future municipal building across the street served by the American Legion/VFW. Welcome all. Watch for events all year long!

NEXT WEEK—More mobile homes.