On the northeast corner of East Main and Culver, there is now a McDonald’s. Yes, classy, I know; that’s not the thrust of this article, though. What’s really in question, as per most Gonechester articles, is what came before, and how it came to be, in the end, a McDonald’s.

At the outset of its history, this corner was the corner of Culver Road and Schanck Avenue. Schanck Avenue would become part of East Main Street after the latter was extended from Goodman Street to Culver Road.

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The Hudsons

As of the 1897 directory, this would become the home of Charles Brewster Hudson. Hudson was one of the founders of the company Dugan & Hudson, a manufacturer of Children’s shoes at No. 175 North Water Street.

The home was built on lands divided from larger, earlier land holdings of the Johnston family of farmers.

In 1903, Charles Brewster Hudson moved to Long Island and left the house on the corner of East Main and Culver to his brother-in-law William Edward Dugan, husband of his sister Sallie Roe.

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The Dugans

William Edward Dugan was president of the Dugan & Hudson children’s shoe company.

Dugan’s wife was Mary Alzina Brownell:

I was contacted by Ian McBride, who is the great-grandson of the Dugans’s only daughter, Helen Pauline Dugan Foukes. He provided a couple of additional photos of the Dugan house:

William E. Dugan’s son, William E. Dugan, Jr., went overseas during the first World War, during which he fought in many of the most intense battles of the conflict and managed many acts of heroism which found their way into the newspapers of the ol’ home city. He was reported dead numerous times, though he kept popping back up, and reached the rank of 1st Lieutenant.

In the photo above, Dugan’s plane bears the insignia of the Lafayette Escadrille, a French Air Force unit which was absorbed into the 103rd Aero Squadron in 1917.

In 1917, another one of William E. Dugan’s sons, Frank, blew off his hand with an explosive he manufactured, supposedly having learned the formula from the school he attended–the Kalbfus School, which was across Culver Road from the family home, in the present day the Flower City Apartments at No. 899 Culver.

Frank B. Dugan would go on to become a traffic manager for the Eastman Kodak Company.

Though Dugan survived wounding and prison camps during the Great War, it was his occupation in peacetime which caused his untimely death. Working for the United Fruit Company, Dugan went on expeditions throughout Central and South America. During one such trip in 1921, Dugan’s wife Ramona and infant son, William Edward Dugan III died one after the other. And it was also during one of these trips through banana country that Dugan contracted an illness which caused him to die of sepsis.

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Dr. Harold I. Andrews

The Dugan family put up the house at the corner for sale in 1920; Dr. Harold “Harry” I. Andrews would move into it. Dr. Andrews was chief of staff at the Park Avenue Hospital at the corner of Park Avenue and Brunswick street, present-day site of Yeshiva of Rochester Talmudical Institute.

Dr. Andrews married Grace M. Stenzel in September of 1929, and the two of them lived together at No. 840 Culver Road.

Sadly, Dr. Andrews would die a little over three short years later, in November of 1932. The widowed Grace Stenzel Andrews lived on in the house afterwards, often going on motoring trips with her sister Minnie.

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Stephen J. Spellman

Grace Stenzel Andrews would go on to marry Stephen Joseph Spellman Jr., a bank manager at the Lincoln Alliance Bank and Trust, No. 460 North Goodman Street.

The Spellmans lived in the house until 1938.

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Felix Szulgit

The next family to dwell in No. 840 Culver was Felix Szulgit, his wife Estelle Wujcik, and children Eugenia, Richard and John.

Felix Szulgit was born in Poland, and his daughter Eugenie was highly involved in Polish cultural events.

Eugenia would go on to marry José Raul Puente Sr., founder of the now-defunct Puente Plastics Corp. at No. 245 Hollenbeck Street. By the time of this wedding, the Szulgit family had moved to a newly-built house in Brighton, at No. 100 Sylvan Road.

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The Greyhouse

At some point after the Szulgits vacated the home in 1947 or 48, the former Dugan house at No. 840 Culver would become The Greyhouse, an all-too-aptly named nursing home.

During its time as a nursing home, No. 840 Culver saw the quiet end of many of Rochester’s eldest citizens, such as Miss Cassie Smith, who died there at age 101.

Alongside the newly-christened nursing home, another development was occurring on the corner:

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Carvel Dari-Freeze

The former Dugan lands were subdivided, with development happening on the resulting new lots along East Main Street. The very corner of East Main and Culver remained an empty triangular lot, however, until 1953, when a brand-new Carvel Dari-Freeze stand was built there.

For a brief period around 1971, the kiosk would become a “Dutchland Custard”, whatever that is.

Dutchland Custard was apparently a holding of Cralor Realty Corp., the president of which was Gary A. Wolfanger.

Cralor Realty Corp. also owned the McDonald’s which would replace the old Carvel kiosk.

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McDonald’s

Ubiquitous and well-known, McDonald’s Corporation requires no introduction. If you’ve only just heard of this business, the rest of this blog must be as esoteric as the Dead Sea Scrolls to you!

Unfortunately, the new restaurant not only took out the simple ice-cream booth on the corner, but also wiped out the two houses to the north, Nos. 852 and 858 Culver Road.

One of the lush trees represented above caused some consernation when McDonald’s was getting approval for a drive-through.

Quite obviously the above article erred; this is, of course, the northeast corner of East Main and Culver, not the northwest.

In late 2011, the restaurant underwent a major overhaul, resulting in its modern-day appearance and an expanded drive-through service area. Intended to be completed by November of 2011, minor delays pushed back the opening to 2012, when it opened with its current appearance:

And there you have it. Whether you are or are not “lovin’ it” time continues apace towards the inevitable conclusion of all things. The home of many families, the dying place of many people, destroyed and replaced with a fast-food burger joint. After all, those moments are over, and who remembers them?

I do. And now, you do too. Because as long as someone cares to tell the story, nothing’s really gone. Just… hidden under a McDonald’s.

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