919 Court Street

Architecture:

Style: Folk House Style

Description: This is a symmetrical, one and a half story wood frame house with a block foundation and wood clapboard siding. The roofline is front gabled. Decorative elements include a wall dormer on the west, and two wall dormers and one dormer on the east with hip on gable roofs. Decorative molding adorns the top of the front second story window. The full front porch with boxed columns and wood railing is old but probably not original. Historical and visual evidence suggests the original porch on the east was enclosed and covered with clapboard.

Significant Period:

Construction Date: circa 1870

Architect/Builder: Unknown

Context: This is one of the oldest homes in the block and has been occupied by many families over the years. City Water Department records indicate service was turned on in May 1875. Cyrus Miles paid property taxes in 1873 and 1878, at which time it was valued above most other properties on the north side of that block. Cyrus was both lawyer and City Mayor before he died in the late 1870s. He resided elsewhere. The first documented resident was George Crackle in 1881, who paid property taxes in 1883. George was born September 5, 1852 in Wabash County, Illinois. At age ten he began learning the paint trade in Chatham when the family moved to Canada. Six years later he continued with his trade in Chicago. In 1872 he came to Port Huron, and began in business in 1875. George Crackel & Co. were dealers in painter and artist supplies. They were decorative painters and wall paper hangers, employing twenty to forty men as trade demanded. George maintained an office at 6, then 15, then 212 Huron Avenue. He married Henriette Pace in 1876; their children were Walter E., George Godfrey, and John G. He lived in the home until about 1888. Mary Cotton, widow of John, lived there in 1893. Albert Cotton, a sailor, boarded with her. The Daniel Ferguson family lived there in 1899. Henry Saety, a clerk for A. H. Fish, lived there from 1901 to 1904. Albert Kaumeier, a foreman in the Herald Publication Co. press room, lived there with his wife Frances in 1907.