724, 728 Main St History - Laserfiche WebLink

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This use of the property shown on the 1900 Sanborn map is also consistent with owner Charles A. Clark's business activities of the time. It is believed that he was continuing to use the south building as his home, since the map shows that it was still a dwelling, and that he was using the north building as a store. In 1903, Thomas Thompson purchased Lot 10 (Charles A. Clark having died in 1902), and his wife, Ann, soon joined him as an owner. During their ownership, Thomas Thompson and Ann Thompson made the building on the north side of Lot 10 (728 Main) into a billiard hall. It was they who in 1919 sold the parcel to Lawrence J. Mossoni. Thomas Thompson was born in England in 1856, while Ann was born in England in 1843. The 1900 census records show Thomas Thompson to have been the proprietor of a "Temperance Hall Pool Room", and the 1904 directory refers to Thompson's business as a "Temperance Hall." This relates to the fact that Main Street businesses were not allowed to serve alcohol at that time, and in fact, it was not the only "temperance hall" on Main Street. Records indicate that by 1911, they had added at least one bowling alley; there would eventually be twin bowling alleys that extended all the way to the alley to the east of the building. Records indicate that the operation side was taken over by Walter Dugan later in the 1910s. The 1916 directory shows Walter Dugan to have been operating a billiard hall at what is today 728 Main, while the Thompsons continued to reside at what is now 724 Main, and perhaps help oversee the property, which they owned, from their residency there. The following photo, while it doesn't offer a good view of the buildings in question located farther up the street on the right, does give a good impression of what this block of Main Street looked like in circa 1905-1910: 5