Through the years, fires have completely destroyed the many businesses in Pleasant Hill. They were rebuilt and burned more than than once.

In 1906, fire destroyed the Swainson Building. We have no picture of the older building. However by the summer of 1906 a new brick structure consisting of three stories, side by side was completed and ready for tenants. They shared a roof and a wing.

The new building was made of brick which was formed at our very own brickyard on the property where Lois and Harris Franklin built their home on rte. 96 near the high school. This wa a sun brick which probably accounts for making it easy to carve your name on the west facing wall !! (Did you ever do that?). The deposit of clay on that hillside was found suitable for making brick so that business was there for years, providing the village with a good source of building material. The remains ofit are still there, although it is buried.

And so today, the Swainson Building still stands and is the oldest business structure in that block. The next oldest would have been the hotel and resturant which unfortunately burned three years ago. It had been built about 1914 and Ida Priestley was the owner / operator.

Article from the Harman House Museum Newsletter September 9, 2009