Fremont History Spotlight: Ball House, built in 1874

Stagecoach at the Ball House, about 1880

In this very early photograph, a horse-drawn stagecoach and its driver stand in front of the Ball House on the northwest corner of Front Street and Birchard Avenue around 1880. Built in 1874 by Oscar Ball, a relative of Martha Ball Washington, it became the Jackson Hotel about 1900. The northern half of the building still stands and now is the Strand. The building at the far right at Garrison Street also still stands, and in front of it on the southwest corner is an old millinery shop where the Tschumy Block would be built in 1889. Note that this is before the time of trolley tracks and overhead wires. (Submitted by Larry Michaels and Krista Michaels)