The building that houses his tailor shop has an interesting history of its own.
It’s original location was on the opposite side of Commercial street, and it was the town’s first purpose-built schoolhouse, commissioned by the newly organized school district in 1845.
Chesaning’s first, ad hoc schoolhouse was a small wooden shanty down near the river towards the lower end of Canal Street. Teacher and students were forced to flee one day due to flooding, and it was wisely decided that a new school would be built at the top of a nearby hill.
In 1848 this new schoolhouse was determined to be sitting on privately owned land, and so was moved across the street to a vacant lot.
For several years it served as both a schoolhouse and a meeting space for the village council, and also served as a gathering place for local religious services before a proper church could be built.
In 1853 the village voted to relocate the school and town hall to a new building on the west side of the river. The old schoolhouse was left where it was.
William Goetzen purchased the lot where it stood when he came to Chesaning, and used the former schoolhouse as a temporary residence before building a proper home.
He then repurposed it into a tailor shop.
Based on their size and shape, it appears that both of the structures that stood at the corner of Broad and Washington Streets were commercial buildings of some kind, but the 1877 map gives no indication of their purpose.
It’s hard to make out who the first commercial building (10) belongs to, but I believe it’s someone with the initials C. M.
This could be Christian Moessner (1834-1924), an immigrant from Wurtemberg, Germany who came to America in 1851, spending two years in Grand Rapids and several more in Owosso, before arriving in Chesaning sometime around 1870.
He mostly sold shoes and boots at his retail store, but also handled groceries.
The owner of the next commercial building (11) is even harder to identify, but appears to be Mr. M or Mrs. M.
This might be Aaron Mallory (1819-1894), who is listed as a carpenter and joiner from Chesaning. A map of the village from several years later specifically identifies this building as a carpentry shop, and I believe it may have served the same function in 1877.
Hopefully more information becomes available in the future that will help us correctly identify the function of these two commercial buildings.
On the subject commercial buildings, you will not, ironically, find any of them on Commercial Street. You will however, find a pair of churches, both among the earliest ever built in the village.