Linen & Lace 190 S. Hancock 1887

This new shop Linen & Lace at 190 S. Hancock first opened as a Tailor’s Shop when German-born immigrant William Klingbell hired carpenters Labonta and Mero, to build the wood-framed store. A metal roof reportedly covered the shop. From about 1887 to 1905, Klingbell offered tailoring and drapery services there. Very recent research in the old East Shore newspaper that became the Pentwater News, shows that Klingbell already had a tailor shop in another location in Pentwater by 1871. Klingbell was an active member of the Pentwater Driving Park Association and raced a horse named White Cloud.  According to the book Pentwater Home Tours, a three-foot tree stump was in the building’s crawl space.  

From 1926 to about 1956, it was Mark and Patsy McMahon's Barber Shop, and in 1956, Tom and Barb Gregwer opened the Drift-In Restaurant. Fourteen years later, they expanded the restaurant and converted the upper level into bedrooms. In 1984, Don Fres operated the Land & Lakes Sports Shop; in 1990, it was the Painted Pony and Tea Room. In 2004, it was J. Morgan Jewelers, and then later became known as the Dog Store for several years. In 2022, Todd and Brad Reed Photographers opened a shop to sell their famous books and art. In 2023, the owners of Linabelle next door transformed it into the attractively renovated apparel store Linen & Lace.

In front of the building, at the corner of 2nd and Hancock, stands a four feet tall boulder with a bronze plaque inscribed G.A.R. 61-65 W.R.C. Credit for the placement of this memorial goes to early Pentwater resident and Civil War Veteran Frank O. Gardner, president of the John F. Reynolds Grand Army of the Republic Post formed in 1887 and disbanded in 1927. Members named the post to honor Major John F. Reynolds, a sharpshooter killed at Gettysburg. The only qualification to join a local G.A.R. organization was an honorable discharge from the Army or Navy with service during the Civil War. The national G.A. R. was formed in 1866, almost a year after General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox.

The Pentwater G.A.R. post led by Gardner formed an association with the area Women's Relief Corps (W.R.C.) consisting of wives of Civil War soldiers, and together they owned 40 acres of land in Elbridge Township known as Camp Houk and used for an annual encampment. Around 1925, the still surviving veterans sold that land to fund Oceana County memorials to remind residents and visitors alike of the role that Oceana Civil War veterans played in the war to save the Union. The association placed the Pentwater memorial in a prominent place at the corner of 2nd and Hancock, near the Linen & Lace Building for many to appreciate and to peak viewers' curiosity to learn more.

Sources: “74 Years since the birth of the GAR,” Grand Rapids Press 4/6/1940. “Boulder at Pentwater among 16 Planned,” Detroit Free Press, 12/27/1925.  Pentwater Historical Home Tours Published by the Pentwater Historical Society, 2017.  Building details shared by Richard Warner, Pentwater Historical Society.