Remembering the old Main Street

Demolition of the buildings that most recently served as Bill Tjaden’s insurance office at 106 S Main St, Clarksville, and Hoodjer’s photography studio at 104 S Main began Monday morning to make way for the new Dollar General store.
     By the end of the day, Tjaden’s building and the back portion of Hoodjer’s building were down. Work resumed slowly on Tuesday as contractors from Earth Services and Southern Building carefully planned how to tear down the building without damaging the popcorn stand. Shortly before lunch time, they pulled the excavator around to in front of the popcorn stand and started pushing the building south. In a matter of minutes, the Hoodjer building was down, and the popcorn stand was untouched. After moving the crane back, contractors were seen with push brooms cleaning the streets before returning to work.
     Tjaden’s insurance office at 106 S Main St. was built in 1874 and housed restaurants and cafes, clothing and variety stores throughout the years.
     The Hoodjer building at 104 S Main was built in 1894 by local historian Dave Clark’s great-grandfather George William Clark, after he removed a previous building, which was built in 1885.
    
Read more in the April 11 edition of the STAR.
 
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