The Durand Hatch Block

The Durand Hatch Block. . , Fronting both Middle and Main streets, this fine example of Commercial Victorian architecture was constructed in 1882 to replace a wood framed structure destroyed by fire. It features narrow second story windows, cast iron columns with iron moldings at the front entrance and decorated metal cornices near the roofline. The front façade on the Middle St. side used to have coal grate openings which were later covered up in the 20th century. The building construction was financed by local produce dealers Aaron Durand and W. F. Hatch. Frank Staffan, local undertaker, carpenter and mason, was the contractor. For decades it was known as the Durand-Hatch Block. , , When the building opened, the first tenants were the Chelsea Herald on the second floor and the Post Office on the floor. Later in the decade William Schenk opened his first department store as a sole proprietor on the first floor of the building fronting Middle St. until 1893. He was followed by the three sisters known as the Miller Sisters, millinery (hat) merchants who later bought the building in 1911 and occupied the Main St. side. Starting in the 1930s they subdivided its interior to share with other businesses including the unrelated merchants known as the Miller Brothers barber shop. Entry to the basement was once from both Main St. and Middle St. On the Main St. side, in the basement was C. L. Bryan's phonograph shop and for many years H. Lyons shoe shop. Red Eder, one of Chelsea's familiar barbers, opened a shop on the Main St. side in 1951. , , In 1914 Walter Kantlehner moved his jewelry and optician shop to this location on the Middle St. side, sharing space with local plumbers G. H. Foster and Son, and later H. E. Snyder. Kantlehner had exceptional mechanical abilities and was called on to work on the clock in the clocktower before it was electrified in the 1950s. During this time the building became known as the Kantlehner Building and a large street clock with his name on it stood at the corner for many years until the late 1960s. Chelsea's first Secretary of State and credit union was operated out of the Main St. side in the 1950s by Wallace Wood. After Kantlehner died in 1964, a ceramics store, then a music store occupied the location until representatives from State Farm Insurance bought the building in the early 1980s.