Sawmill Museum: Clinton's Lumber Sites Preview

1

Sawmill Museum

The tour starts at The Sawmill Museum. Here you can expeirence the lumber saga and learn more about the history behind this tour. Originally the Lincoln Highway came over the old North bridge. The bridge, with a loop, would exit onto Main Avenue. The area around the museum is most famous as the home of McEleney motors.

2

Disbrow

The office building of the Disbrow company is now McKinley Street Taverne. Disbrow made interior products for homes. The most famous Disbrow was Grace Disbrow who was a teacher.

3

Silas Gardiner House

The house was a kit house from Palliser's, a Connecticut based architect.

4

Gardiner, Batchelder, & Welles & Lyons Lumber Company

This general space was home to the G,B, & W mills as well as Lyons Lumber Company. In reality it goes for blocks north, but 83 31st Avenue North is a a site listed in the register of potential historic sites for Clinton.

5

Joyce's Park

Eagle Point Park used to be Joyce's Park. In the 19th century, it was a site of many public events, but once the Joyces sold out of their streetcar business, the new street car operators transformed the park. Prior to the lock & dam, the river was full of islands. Crews during the Depression cleared the islands in preparation for the lock & dams.

7

Joyce Lumber

The hair salon was the lumberyard office. Behind Bargain Bonanza and the hair salon was the Joyce sawmill and lumberyards. Hence the name Joyce's slough and Joyce's Island.

8

Big Tree/Brewery

Where Jewel sits today was the Brewing Company. Somewhere in this vicinity was the Big Tree that separated the town of Lyons & Clinton. More importantly than the exact location, the Big Tree was very real. Even in the 1870s, you see people referencing the Big Tree, and really work was done by Clinton up to the Tree and Lyons would work up to the tree. In directories, home on this street were listed as so many houses from The Big Tree.

9

Clinton Lumber Company

When the Clinton Lumber Company closed, the fourteen acres (or so I've read) was donated to the Parks Department, and thus, all of this area was an industrial zone. It's quite amazing the transformation of this little jewel on the Mississippi.

10

Young & Lamb Mills Plus Curtis Companies

No need to travel too much so you don't get ran over! Still an industrial hub, from south of the rail bridge all the way to ADM were the Young, Lamb, and Curtis factories. Curtis was not a sawmill but rather a woodworking company like Disbrow.

11

Young & Lamb Homes

Now the Library, Discovery Center, and the YWCA, this complex housed the leading lumber families (Young & Lambs). In fact the YWCA home is Lafayette Lambs house. Where the Discover Center is was where the Young home was.

12

Lamb Block

The legacy of the lumber barons is felt through Clinton National Bank, Eagle Point Park, various nonprofits, and even retail like the Lamb block.

13

Curtis Mansion

Check their sign for tour times and dates. It's one thing to see it from the outside, it's another to see it inside.

14

Castle Terrace

Spend time weaving in and out to see these wonderful homes. Built for Curtis employees, the houses represented the various Curtis home lines.

15

Jane Lamb

Named after Chancy Lamb's wife, the Jane Lamb hospital complex.

16

Curtis Mansion 2

Two brothers built their mansions next to each other. One was destroyed by arson.

17

Iten

Today Sarah Harding Home, this was the site of the Iten display. The Iten biscuit was a large manufacturer in Clinton, and Joyce lumber helped them expand.

18

Mount St Clare

Clinton has a great college and education history. While not directly connected to the lumber industry, we wanted to point this out.

19

Dwight Lamb House

This house was moved in 1902. Sadly, it burned down years later. But more or less the church and the area behind the church is the area that Dwight Lamb lived and there are other privately owned homes that are historically significant back there. But it's just as easy to stay on Bluff.

20

Buell Terrace

Welcome back to "where" it all began. In the mid 1830s, Buell crossed the river and established a ferry business to get from what is now Fulton to Lyons. He built his first house a little north and west of this rock, but when you look at, just take all what you saw in. It all started here, probably a pathway for many years by tribes, it was the narrow part of the river. It was a great location for a ferry business and maybe even a rail bridge. Well the bridge company built it a few milies south (more or less where it is today) and thus began Clinton in 1855. Forty years later, the two towns joined.