The Clawson Historical Museum

41 Fisher Court
Clawson, MI 48017

Melodie Nichols, Curator
historicalmuseum@cityofclawson.com
248.588.9169, afternoons
248.588.9169, fax

Upcoming Events

New Exhibit
“Roar of the Small Town: Clawson in the 1920’s”

This special exhibit focuses on life in Clawson during the 1920’s, including music, dancing and other entertainments. See what life was really like in a small town during the prosperous “Roaring Twenties.”

Sneak Peak—Clawson Memories, 1917-1927
In 1917, just ten years ago this Fall, we settled in Clawson. The roads then were nothing more than lanes or “cow-paths”; two wagon tracks and grass growing high in the middle. There were no sidewalks or even paths, and we had to walk down the so-called road, at every step the grasshoppers and crickets jumped in all directions.
   For one year our home was a cozy three room garage. Meanwhile, our house was being built. There were no electric lights, no telephones, no water, no sewer, and no large public schoolhouse. For lights we used kerosene lamps and we carried water, pail by pail, from our nearest neighbor, who lived about a half mile from our home.
   The people in Clawson were very scattered and homes were few and far between. There was occasionally a cornfield and hay growing on every side of us was then cut on many places where our main streets are now. We all loved haying time for it was a beautiful sight to see the hay mounds in the gold sun and many were the happy hours that we spent there.
   Our school was a little old log cabin at Council Corners. There were about ten desks and a large stove in the front of the room. We carried our lunches every day and had t sit two at a desk. The one school teacher, who tried his best to teach the noisy, carefree children, was a happy-go-lucky chap and happy are the memories of our first school days.
   In the town itself there were three stores. The post office was combined with a grocery in a shattered, dilapidated looking building on the corner where Hunter’s Drug store now stands. Robinson’s Grocery was in the same place and Thorton’s Hardware was located where the laundry is now. From these places we did our trading and for other necessities we had to visit Royal Oak and sometimes Detroit, the only transportation being the car service, then running every one and a half hours. Main Street was a “one horse” track and was impassible at this time of year. In those days we had no bank building or church and very few stores. What business places there were, were all every old and tumbled down buildings.
   In those years church was held in the little old log cabin school house and many were the nights that we started for there carrying a lantern to pilot us across the many water-filled ditches and the many mud puddles. Two years later the little red church was built in Clawson.
   It is plainly seen that Clawson, today, has developed and grown greatly and we hope, in the future years, to have the many luxuries that we do no have now. We hope for all paved streets, and avenues, for lower taxes, for mail delivery, and for a nice big public library; that the small garage-like homes are large houses, and that all lawns and streets are kept in better shape. In the next ten years we hope for the same progress as the last then, and then Clawson may be an ideal city.
Nevertheless, after all the growth and development of our village, the past remains vivid in our memory and blessed are the olden days which are sacred in our hearts.

—author unknown, 1927

Updated Wednesday, May 21, 2008