CLARKE-DALEBOUT
527 East Jefferson Street

1905 Craftsman
Home Tour 1999

This house is located on block 47, lot 10  in the city of Grand Ledge.  The property is in the original village of Grand Ledge, which was platted in 1853.  The empty land was bought and sold a number of times during the early years of the village. This was on the outskirts of town--the 1881 map of Grand Ledge shows no houses along this block of East Jefferson.

In 1902 a local businessman named William R. Clarke bought lots 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 on this block.  In May 1905, he sold lot 10 to his brother, Charles P. Clarke.  In December of 1905, he sold additional lots to Charles:  lots 2,6,8 &9  (note:  the warranty deed was not recorded until March 1910).  Charles Clarke acquired lot 1, directly behind his residential lot and facing onto River St., from Roy E. and Winnie E. Patterson  in 1911.  Charles Clarke probably built his home at 527 E. Jefferson in 1905, when he acquired lot 10. The US Census taken in June 1910 shows that the family was living in the house at that time.  According to the Census information, Charles was forty-four years old at the time; Ella was thirty-seven; and their daughter Dorothy was six.  They owned the home, and there was no mortgage.  It seems unlikely that Charles Clarke would have bought so much property in 1905 and not built a home for his family soon afterwards on one of the lots.  The abstract shows no mortgage on the property during that period of time. 

Several years later, in 1911, Charles sold the lot next to his, lot 9, to his sister Mary and her husband Dwight  Huggett, who built the house which stands at 521 E. Jefferson.

The Clarkes were a very prominent family in Grand Ledge. The parents were Thomas and Jane (Radcliffe) Clarke.  Thomas was born on the Isle of Man, England in1826, and emigrated to Canada with his parents when he was ten years old.  Jane Radcliffe was born in Ontario in 1834. The Clarkes had five children:  William, Charles, Edith, George, and  Mary.   All of the children except George lived in Michigan.  William R. Clarke came to Grand Ledge in 1886.  Other members of his family followed. Charles came to Grand Ledge in 1893.  In 1894 their parents, Thomas and Jane, moved to Grand Ledge from St. Thomas, Ontario, and William Clarke rented a house on Harrison St. from Ed Kent for them.  Charles moved into the house with his parents.  Mary married Dwight Huggett who had a store and florist business in Grand Ledge.  Edith married Rev. John Vickers, a minister at the Methodist Church in town.

Charles Pettys Clarke was born in Springfield, Elgin County, Ontario on June 28, 1865.  He completed his high school education in Watford, Ontario and at age 18 he became a clerk in a grocery store.  A short time later he found a job in the circulation department of a daily newspaper in St. Thomas.  In 1888, he married Mary Martin in St. Thomas.  She died shortly after they came to Grand Ledge, on August 10, 1894 at the age of twenty-five. Her obituary in The Grand Ledge Independent said she “…was of an exceptionally amiable disposition and beloved by all who had the pleasure of her acquaintance.”   They had no children.  Charles was married again in February  1898 to Ella M. Saxton, in Oberlin Ohio.  The couple adopted a daughter, Dorothy, who was born in 1903. 

When Charles came to Grand Ledge in 1893 he began a career in insurance.  He bought the business from Lew Wallace. According to The Grand Ledge Independent, in two and a half years he more than doubled the amount of business.  At that time, he was an agent for nine fire insurance companies, one plate glass insurance company,  and one accident insurance company.  “All the institutions he represents are as responsible as money and law can make.  Losses are always paid promptly, and for the entire amount of the damage.” (GLI Nov. 22, 1895).

In 1900, Charles turned again to his interest in journalism.  He and his brother William purchased The Grand Ledge Independent.  They published their first paper in July 1900.  Charles gave up his duties as Justice of the Peace, their first column announced, and would be the editor of the paper.  William had a variety of business interests in town besides having a thriving law practice, and he would act as publisher and “will devote such time to the business and editorial departments as may be required of him…”  They said:  “Our ambition is to keep The Independent just as newsy, bright and clean as it has been in the past, and with this object in view will use our best endeavors to give Grand Ledge and vicinity a newspaper that will be unobjectionable in every sense of the term, public spirited, and creditable alike to the publisher and the community it represents.” 

Their enterprise was a success, and they continued to publish Grand Ledge’s weekly newspaper for about twenty-one years.  Charles Clarke’s health began to fail, and the Clarke brothers sold the business.  Charles retired, and when he felt he was recovered, he returned to his career as a journalist.  He founded The Grand Ledge Times, and for a time Grand Ledge had two weekly newspapers.  His recovery was brief, however, and in 1925 he sold The Times to F.A. Bryce.  Mr. Bryce also acquired the Independent at the same time, and merged the two newspapers into one. 

The house that Charles Clarke built for his family remained their home for many years. Dorothy Clarke grew up in that home and married and had two children, Mary and Robert.  Her second child, Robert, was born in the house in 1925. Shortly after that, the Clarkes  moved to 818 De Groff Street.  They continued to own the East Jefferson Street home, and used it as a rental property.  Charles Clarke died of cancer in 1927.  Ella Clarke, his wife, died in 1953. 

In April1937, Ella Clarke sold the property on East Jefferson to Governor Frank and Queena Fitzgerald, who had  lived next door at 521 East Jefferson from 1924 until 1936, when they moved to 219 West Jefferson.  The Fitzgeralds also used the Clarke home as a rental property.

The tenants over the years included a number of Grand Ledge’s prominent citizens and businessmen.   

In the mid-1920’s F.R. Hyde  rented the house.   

The 1937 city directory lists John B. Matthews and his wife Vena at this address.  John Matthews came from Portland to Grand Ledge in October 1935 to take over as manager of the Grand Ledge Lumber Company.  That company is now called Big L Corporation.  Matthews served as Vice President and General Manager of the Grand Ledge Lumber Company until he retired in 1956.  Their two children were young adults, and stayed in the house only briefly with their parents. 

In 1941 the city directory lists the house as “vacant”.

Albert Slee and his wife Marie were the tenants in the mid 1940’s.  Albert was a press operator at Atlas Drop Forge in Lansing at that time. 

Gerald Cade and his wife Grace rented the house in the early 1950’s.  They owned a grocery store at 222 S. Bridge, where Image Projections is today. 

Several years later Dr. John W. Stone and his wife Virginia lived in the house; he worked for the Michigan Health Department at that time.

The home remained a rental property until Queena Fitzgerald sold it in 1959 to Eugene and Gloria Dalebout who were renting a house on DeGroff Street since moving to Grand Ledge from Detroit.  This had been a “modern” home when it was built in the early years of the new century, in the post-Victorian era.  It was built at a time when new homes were being outfitted with electricity, indoor water and plumbing, closets,  and central heating systems.  But many years had passed and the Dalebouts needed to make some changes to update the home and adapt it to the needs of their family.  There was no bathroom on the second floor, and the Dalebouts made room for one by taking some space from one of the bedrooms and opening up the area under the eaves.  They repaired the ceilings with drywall and the walls with paneling.  The woodwork was already painted when they bought the house and they left it that way.  The house had no fireplace, and Gene and Gloria added a Franklin stove from Maine to the living room and an old prescription counter from an Eaton Rapids pharmacy to the dining area.  They updated the kitchen.  One major change they did was to build the enclosed back porch on the back of the house to take advantage of the view of the river, and they added the pool to the backyard. 

Susan Deming Baird bought the house from Dalebouts in 1985, and she lived there with her brother John Deming until she married Craig Fedewa.  Susan and Craig  have also used the space under the eaves to enlarge the closets.  They have redecorated their home to suit their own taste, and to meet the needs of their own family.

This was a simple comfortable family home built in the post-Victorian era.  Gone are the gingerbread trim, bay windows and formal parlors.  The foundation is made of large stone blocks from the Grand Ledge area.  The only ornate touch is the open stairway with the wooden columns in the living room.  There are also three doric columns on the front porch.
It is interesting to note that the house next door, at 521 E. Jefferson, is virtually identical to this house.  The major difference is the stairway at #521 is enclosed and opens into the dining room; in the Fedewa house at #527, there is an open staircase on the side of the living room, making for an eye-catching focal point in the room.  The two people who built these two houses were sister and brother—Mary Clarke Huggett and Charles Clarke.  The Huggett house was built later, in 1911, and we know that the builder there was Elmer E. Edwards.  It certainly seems possible that Charles Clarke had Edwards build this nearly identical house for him several years earlier.  Edwards was a noted local builder and contractor, and the things he built were known for their quality.  He built Trinity Episcopal Church, the 1910 concrete bridge which was recently demolished, and two stone block homes on West Jefferson, among others.