Misty morning First Street

Photo taken this morning on my walk, 6:02 AM. Lots of rabbits running around the road at that time of morning. Other times I've enountered raccoons and deer on that stretch of First between Beck and Mommsen.

McCleary Hotel

July 4, 2011

Built in 1912, this is one of the architectural treasures in town. Henry McCleary had this structure erected in order to entertain the hoity visitors, it was never meant for the working guy.

This neighborhood of Beck and Summit was the power center in McCleary. Henry McCleary lived in a house (now gone) directly across the street from the Hotel. His brother William McCleary lived to the immediate north of the Hotel. Youngest brother Leonard McCleary lived immediately to the south. The trees in front of Leonard's house, which still stand today, were shipped from the McCleary family's home near Cambridge, Ohio (the original McCleary farm is now under an artificial lake in Ohio). Sam Lanning, another family connection from Ohio, lived nearby. 

One of the McCleary sons lived on the hill on Beck Street and had heat from the door plant directly piped to his house.

The McCleary family had a formal dinner here once a week. Ada McCleary, Henry's wife, was a big wheel in the DAR and Henry began construction of a mansion in Olympia with a foyer to accommodate Ada's social standing. Unfortunately she died before the mansion was completed. By all accounts, Ada was a remarkable person who advocated within her power as the First Lady in a company town for the workers and their families.

The McCleary Hotel also served as a training ground for the boxer Jimmy "Kid" Swanson. Frank Fox was his trainer. Swanson might be the first African-American to make his mark in McCleary's history.

The composer Timothy Brock stayed at this hotel about 3 decades ago and wrote a musical piece about his experience entitled "McCleary Hotel."

The Hotel was also the site of the first dwelling in McCleary, where the Andrew Beck family lived. The site of the second dwelling was where Jake Anderson lived, at the top of the "T" at 5th and Oak. Both original structures are gone and their replacements were both built in 1912.

Saint Valentine's Day on First Street

 

Feb. 14, 2015.

This wetland was once home to the last old growth tree left standing in McCleary. When it was finally cut down in the 1930s, the tree was dubbed "Shakespeare" since the rings indicated it dated back to ca. 1600.

The northern portion of First St., from Mommsen to Beck, once served as most of the eastern border of Henry McCleary's lumber mill.

So far as I know, the first three Euro-settlers in what is now McCleary were all foreign born. The Becks, who lived where the McCleary Hotel now stands, were Danish. The Mommsens, who lived at the end of the road that bears their name, were German. Jake Anderson, was a surly Norwegian bachelor who lived at the top of the T at present 5th and Oak.