Linabella on Hancock

180 S. Hancock | The Linabella Building | 1904 to Present

In 1903, Sylvester and Julie Lattin moved to Pentwater with their 14-year-old son George and founded the Gamble-Lattin Company with Joseph E. Gamble. Gamble's wife, Annie Jensen Gamble, a former teacher, was a member of Pentwater High School's first graduating class in 1880. They engraved the store's construction date, 1904, on the rock-face concrete block building known today as 180 S. Hancock Street. Sylvester died that year. Annie's father, Niels Jensen, bought the Gamble-Lattln Company, which was already in receivership by 1905. Jensen hired his son-in-law, J.E., to dispose of the merchandise. Months later, John Jay Converse, a Ferry Township farmer, bought the store, and by 1910, it was a hay and feed store.

By the late 1920s, Fred C. Myers established a meat and grocery market at 180 S. Hancock. Fred C., a World War I infantry veteran, grew up on his well-known father, Fred J. Myer's Summit Township farm. In 1927, he married Olive Christianson, a former bank cashier and stenographer whose fisherman father, August Christianson, drowned in 1906 when Olive was just 10. In 1930, they lived above the market, and in 1931, Olive won an award for her flowering hibiscus at the 1931 Pentwater Garden Show. Fred and Olive traveled to Chicago to the exciting "Century of Progress Exposition in 1933 and perhaps brought back new ideas for their store. By 1950, they kept a summer home in the Lake Michigan Cedar Banks association south of Pentwater but worked in Three Rivers, Michigan in the winter and then moved to Medford, Oregon for their remaining years.

In 1971, Joseph Michael Witt, a West Shore Community College instructor and five-year director of the successful Pentwater Arts Festival, opened the Jenny Wren Art Gallery in the former meat market. Witt lived with his wife, Jean Hewitt Witt, a Ludington kindergarten teacher, in the historic Gardner home on Lowell, then operating as the Jenny Wren Tea Room. The Witt's Jenny Wren Gallery, described as spacious and inviting, included the Witt's large collection of antiques. There they hosted well-known artists, including on opening day, the fused glass work of Muskegon artist Barbara St. Dennis, later shown at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. By 1972, the Gallery advertised summer art classes, and in 1973, hosted a reception for visiting Tokyo guests, Mr. & Mrs. Sara Watanabe. The Witts presented them with a Native American basket, said to be woven by a woman descendant of Odawa leader, Chief Cobmoosa.

This building housed many businesses, including a hair salon in the back. In 2017, owner Gayle Lamielle sold 180 S. Hancock to Sara and Michael Earnest Jr. They restored the main floor in 2020 back to one main retail/commercial space and, by 2022, also purchased the building next door. Today, Sara and Michael operate Pentwater's Linabella and Linen & Lace boutiques, offering a beautifully curated variety of gifts and clothing.