- Business - Janesville Sesquicentennial
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- Lappin was city's first merchant
- Bartering among the Indians probably was the first commerce
in the area on the Sinnissippi that
- would become Janesville.
- The man who gave the city its name, Henry F. JANES,
was the first white man to do many things
- here, and selling items from a "small stock of groceries
and dry goods" was among them.
- But, according to the "History of Rock County and Transactions
of the Rock County Agricultural
- Society and Mechanical Institute":
- "The first regular merchant with signing, shelves and
counter, and the paraphernalia of a man in
- trade, was Thomas LAPPIN."
- In 1838 or '39, depending on which history you read, LAPPIN,
with a partner named WARD
- from Milwaukee, opened the first store in Janesville on South
Main Street in a 14-foot square frame building on the site of
what would become the BOSTWICK building.
- That venture apparently went out of business as evidenced
by this passage:
- "After passing through those trials and reverses which
sometimes fall to the lot of the youthful and
- inexperienced, he (LAPPIN) boldly launched forth into
the purchase of real estate, and secured a title to the lot upon
which his block now stands, agreeing to pay for it the sum of
one hundred dollars," the WILLARD history reads.
"Another formidable enterprise for those times was the erection
of the framed building which until recently occupied that corner.
By personal labor and industry, he so far completed a portion
of his building as to call it a store, and then we find him returning
from Chicago with a stock of dry goods, groceries and hardware,
all paid for, and costing him one hundred and twenty-five dollars."
- LAPPIN walked to Chicago, by the way. If his name
sounds familiar it should because the block
- referred to is the site of the LAPPIN-HAYES
Building, which has been renovated numerous times.
- In 1855, LAPPIN replaced the frame building with a
four-story brick building that served as a
- retail and office center. It cost him $36,000.
- Forty-four years later, "Janesville was furnished with
its first modern office building" by the
- HAYES brothers, Dennis and Michael, when they bought
the LAPPIN block.
- The HAYES brothers tore out the entire interior, rebuilt
it into offices and furnished it with elevator
- service, heat and janitor service.
- The HAYES brothers were successful railroad contractors
- they built much of the line between
- Janesville and Evansville - and had large contracts on the
Chicago drainage canal. "They showed their faith in Janesville
by investing their money at home, they having bought the Armory
block on West Milwaukee Street from the MYERS estate in
1893, and then later followed it by the investment of about $100,000
in the office building," according to "Rock County
Wisconsin, A New History of Its Cities, Villages, Towns, Citizens
and Varied Interests."
- The HAYES brothers' success prompted the remodeling
in 1900 of the JACKMAN block
- across Milwaukee Street. Timothy JACKMAN constructed
the four-story building about 1860. Renovation added another
story to provide better quarters for VALENTINE's School
of Telegraphy, which had been in the building for many years.
- "The fitting up of these two magnificent office buildings
had caused most of the professional men to
- change their offices," the history reads, "so that
the two blocks contained a large share of doctors and lawyers
of the city."
- Other commercial highlights from early city history:
- 1836: John INMAN & Co. started a stage line. Coaches
made regular trips to Racine.
- 1837: Charles STEVENS rented JANES' tavern
and started a hotel. First mail arrived that year, carried by
John PAYNE from Mineral Point to Racine. JANES
was first postmaster. A cigar box at the end of the bar held
the mail. Also in 1837, Harvey STOREY starts blacksmithing
in a "little shelter."
- 1838: STEVENS builds a new hotel, the Janesville Stagehouse.
- 1843: Elbridge G. FIFIELD puts up the city's first
lumberyard near the west end of the Court Street Bridge.
- 1844: Daniel A. RICHARDSON opened the second store
in Janesville, the Commercial Block. The city's first brick business
building was three stories high and stood where the Olde Towne
Mall is now. Also in 1844, Volney ATWOOD opened the Rock
County House at the corner of Main and Court. The hotel later
was named American House and burned in 1868.
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- Also in 1844, D. F. KIMBALL opened the first store
on the west side of the river.
- 1846: Tri-weekly stages, owned by FRINK & WALKER,
started running between Janesville and Milwaukee.
- 1848: STEVENS builds STEVENS House, "something
grander than had ever been erected in Janesville... with more
than an acre of plaster," at the corner of Milwaukee and
Franklin streets. It burned in 1853.
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- Also in 1848, James SUTHERLAND opened the first bookstore.
In 1908, it was listed as the
- oldest surviving bookstore in the state.
- 1849: A post office was established here, and daily mail
was carried between Janesville and Milwaukee. At that time, nine
stagecoach mail routes crossed the city "so that the arrival
and departure of the stages furnished daily excitement and added
to the lively appearance of the town."
- 1851: Some of the city's largest buildings - to date - were
erected, including the OGDEN House, a five-story structure
on the north side of Milwaukee Street between Main and Bluff
streets. It was put to commercial use for a couple of years but
was converted to a hotel after STEVENS House burned.
- 1856: WILLARD history lists business sales for past
year, including: dry goods, $370,000; hardware, stoves and tinware,
$145,000; clothing, $105,000; groceries and provisions, $390,000;
farm implements and machinery, $81,500; blacksmithing, $10,000;
hats, caps and furs, $18,000; saloon receipts, $41,000; music
store sales, $23,200; furniture and upholstery, $42,000; fruit,
$27,000; gunsmith sales, $600; cigars and tobacco, $18,200.
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- The history also lists the businesses, including seven hotels,
a gunshop, 13 blacksmith shops, eight
- showmakers [shoemakers?], seven saddle and harness shops,
one cooper shop, three paint shops, three barber shops, four
bakeries, six millinery shops, 10 lumberyards, three meat markets,
seven livery stables, four watchmakers, a stage office, 11 clothing
stores, four hardware stores, 17 dry goods stores, three drug
stores, one leather store, one fur store, one "Temple of
Fancy," two had and cap stores, three fruit stores, four
upholstery and furniture warehouses, 23 grocery and provision
stores, one book store, one book and variety store, two music
stores, two liquor stores, four shoe stores, three jewelry and
variety stores, two auction stores, one seed and farm implement
store, eight saloons, eight tailor shops and three depots to
sell reapers.
- The history also lists occupations. Among the gunsmiths,
millwrights, corn broom makers and
- blacksmiths is listed "1 chief justice of the supreme
court, Hon. E. V. WHITON."
- 1857: A. Hyatt SMITH opened Hyatt House, the "most
pretentious hotel building ever erected in Janesville,"
on the site of the old STEVENS House. It burned in 1867.
- 1861: Peter MYERS opened the MYERS Hotel on
the site of the old Janesville Stage House, the southeast corner
of Main and Milwaukee. MYERS had been a city resident
since 1845 and "had accumulated quite a fortune in the manufacture
of lard and in packing pork and other meats."
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- Of him, it was written in the BROWN history of 1908:
"In many ways he was considered very
- eccentric, but he devoted his means and services for many
years to the development of Janesville, building stores on Main
Street south of the MYERS House. In 1870, he built the
opera house at a cost of over $30,000 and in 1851 built the Armory
building on the site of the old Hyatt House."
- 1865: Some businesses were found in history not when they
started, but when they ended such as the ROLTHINGER brewery
at the foot of South Main Street which was destroyed by fire
in November 1865.
- 1879: David JEFFRIS started to build the Grand Hotel
at the corner of West Milwaukee and High Street. He opened it
Jan. 1, 1880. JEFFRIS ran a lumberyard and was reported
to have constructed more than 400 buildings in the city.
- 1884: South River Street began to be used for mercantile
business when Capt. Pliny NORCROSS built a three-story
block on the street. He also built the Phoebus block on West
Milwaukee Street that year.
- 1885: NORCROSS, F. C. COOK and others erected
a large roller skating rink on South River Street. "Polo
was played on skates, and Janesville had a team famous over the
northwest, games being played in many other cities where they
were victorious."
- 1905: A group of businessmen form the Janesville Advancement
Association to attract new industry to the city.
- 1907: Businessmen form the Janesville Park and Pleasure Drive
Association to solicit subscriptions from their peers to establish
and improve parks, drives and pleasure grounds.
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-
- [Photograph; caption reads: The Grand Hotel was located at
the present site of the Monterey Hotel. Built in the 1890s, it
burned in 1929.]
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