MAY 31 ISSUE ANSWERS: M. P. Owen owned this store. It is the same building currently occupied by Dennys Golden Shears at 107 South Main Street, Romeo. This is a tin type photo showing one of Romeo’s early brick structures. The arched second story windows give it the Italianate style. Main Street is dirt and a wooden sidewalk is present. The house/store to the left was called the Newberry Rookery. The Newberrys owned it after Nathaniel and Laura Taylor built it. Laura was the person that named Romeo. The Taylors operated one of the first stores in Romeo located across the street. By 1870, Romeo’s businesses have grown into an important village in the state. According to the 1863 Michigan State Gazetteer, “the village had three churches, Baptist, Congregational and Methodist/Episcopal, a Masonic Lodge, the weekly Argus newspaper, an iron foundry, machine shop, steam flour mill, two steam planning mills, three hotels over twenty stores and several good schools.” In addition to that list there were 50 different businesses such as lawyers, physicians, dentists, harness maker, tailors, carriage makers, painters, photographer, blacksmiths, cooper and stone mason. Purchased supplies and materials shipped from out of town or state arrived in Mount Clemens by boat or the Grand Trunk Rail Road and were moved by wagon north on a plank road to the businesses in Romeo in 1863. The 1885 Fire Underwriters listed about 90 businesses. Research provided by the late Fred Buike, RHS staff researcher