\nLocation:\u00a0310 Mason Ave., East Hancock
\nBuilt: c.1910.<\/p>\n
![\"Hugo](\"http:\/\/ss.sites.mtu.edu\/cca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/STH70989-e1478057763290-256x300.jpg\")
(photo by Steven A. Walton, 2013)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
In 1911 Jacob Gartner, owner of Gartner’s Department Store in Hancock, purchased the house\u00a0at the corner of Mason\u00a0Ave and White St. in the Quincy Addition as a wedding present for his daughter Lucile (Lucie). \u00a0The lot had originally been purchased from the\u00a0Quincy Mining Co. for $1500 by\u00a0Charles Matthews and wife on 18 Dec. 1909, but Gartner bought it from them on 4\u00a0March 1910\u00a0for $6400, suggesting the house had already been built. He willed the property to his daughter Lucile and her new husband, Hugo M. Field, on 31 Aug. 1911 (Jacob died in Dec. of that year). He likely had a hand in having the house\u00a0built in 1910-11 while Hugo and Lucie were living in Moorehead, MN (presumably with his family), having\u00a0been\u00a0married on 18 Jan. 1910.\u00a0Both Hugo and Lucy had been born in Germany, the partners emigrating in 1885 to Hancock and the Fields a decade later\u00a0to Moorehead, MN.\u00a0Hugo was a\u00a0merchant\u00a0who bought out Jacob Gartner’s clothing department in 1909 and he shortly\u00a0partnered with Sam M.\u00a0Stern, to whom he was related on his mother’s side, to form\u00a0the Stern & Field\u00a0clothing\u00a0store\u00a0chain, with stores across the upper midwest from\u00a0Michigan\u00a0to North Dakota (see a store in Ill.<\/a> and some memories)<\/a>. \u00a0Field was during his time in Hancock a member of the school board, director for at least one of the banks in town, and member of the Hancock Lodge of Elks.1<\/sup> \u00a0After World War I, Hugo undertook a trip to Europe\u00a0to aid the $14M American Relief Committee efforts to provide in the emergency relief for Russia suffering through the\u00a0Russian Civil War (Reds vs. Whites following Lenin’s death) and reconstruction and relief efforts in\u00a0Eastern Europe.2<\/sup><\/p>\n Lucile (Lucy) was one of three Gartner children and a very similar\u00a0house was built one block below at 304 Harris Ave. in\u00a01913 for her brother, Isidore. A letter3<\/sup> to Isidore from the builder of that house, Archie Verville, \u00a0survives:<\/p>\n Sir, \u00ad\u2013 From this it is assumed that Verville had been the builder and likely\u00a0architect of the Field house as well. The two houses (as well as another at 309 Mason) are indeed all of the bungaloid style and share many of the same general layout (all are a modified Foursquare with one quadrant a L- or C-shaped stairwell with single-rise servant stairs immediately behind) and detail features, though at various levels of refinement and orientation. For example, 309 Mason was built as\u00a0a perfect mirror image of 310 Mason, but the stair balustrade spindles and front entry tiles are less refined.\u00a0The neighborhood was built for the merchant gentry of Hancock and their new-found prosperity int hearty twentieth century: Lucile and Hugo’s\u00a0neighbors to the west, for example, were Henry L. Baer and his wife Hattie. By 1916, Baer was vice-pres Northern Michigan Building & Loan Assn. and vice-president of Superior National Bank of Hancock. He also served as the second mayor of Hancock.<\/p>\n In 1928 the house was sold to Addison Finch, a bookkeeping clerk formerly residing at 309 Water St., Hancock, and his wife Florence for $1.00, suggesting the Finches were somehow related to the Fields. \u00a0Hugo and Lucy and their children moved to Akron, OH\u00a0in 1926 and Hugo had the later ‘distinction’ of dying in a freak\u00a0explosion at the Cleveland Clinic in 1929 <\/a>while there for cancer treatment. \u00a0Lucy then moved to Waterloo, IA, to live with her son and his family. \u00a0The house remained in the Finch Family until the 1970s.<\/p>\n
\nI propose to build residence in East Hancock for you, similar in every respect to Mr. Hugo Field\u2019s house with the following changes. Basement to be the same with the same kind of heating plant. First floor rooms to be same except the alcove off from the dining room to be omitted and parlor and dining rooms made longer. Fire place to be omitted and build in buffet in dining room. Parlor, dining room, hall vestibule, and main stairs to be finished in oak with maple floors. Second floor to be divided for three bedrooms and bathroom with clothes closet for each bedroom. This floor to be partitioned to suit owner. Attic to have one room finished for servant. House to be veneered first story with same kind of brick as H. Field\u2019s house or other brick to cost same price per thousand. Porch to be built full width of house. House to be furnished with storm windows andhalf window screens and door screens. All plumbing, heating, plastering and finish to have same general appearance as H. Field\u2019s house.<\/p>\n![\"Hugo](\"http:\/\/ss.sites.mtu.edu\/cca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Dads-boyhood-home-Mason-St-206x300.jpg\")