2011.44.09

Frank Lamb was born in 1940 in the Community Hospital that is now the Kirby House B&B. Leonard and Emily Lamb had an apartment on Butler Street above the building where the Sand bar is now located. They soon bought the house on Water Street where Frank grew up. The house is now part of Marro’s restaurant. The original house had an open porch with a large maple tree growing up through the porch floor. In the middle 40’s, Emily worked for her brother-in-law, William Sorensen, who had a sandwich shop on Mason St. It was a one story red brick building in back of Marro’s building. William Sorensen and John Ball were the cooks; Emily was the waitress, Emily’s sister, Anne Sorensen, was the dishwasher and Clarice Ball made the pies. Later in the 40’s Emily decided to open her own restaurant, “The Hollyhock House”. The Balls opened a restaurant on Butler Street and William Sorensen went into the home construction business. The building on Mason Street was sold to Fred and LaVonne Davis. They added a second story and had a restaurant called “Chicken As You Like It”. Emily had her porch remodeled and enclosed to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. She decided breakfasts were too hard at that time and ended up serving dinners. She was the best cook in town and there were lines waiting to get in to eat. She was only open during the summer season: Memorial Day to Labor Day. Her older sister came down from Traverse City to bake the pies, cakes and homemade rolls. Various friends were dishwashers and the waitresses were college girls who had rooms in the house. Local girls who worked in town during the summer also rented rooms in the house. One famous renter was Joe Gerkin the organist from “The Dock” in the Big Pavilion. Leonard Lamb died in 1953 when his son, Frank, was 13. Emily eventually added an addition to the porch which allowed her to be open year around serving breakfast and lunch. She was open when the Big Pavilion across the street burned in May, 1960. It was the noon hour and the restaurant was full. No one wanted to leave. They had a ringside seat to watch the excitement. Eventually everyone left. The firemen did a wonderful job of keeping the hose on the house to keep it from burning. The front plate glass window cracked and the plastic covers on the sugar shakers melted from the heat of the fire. After the fire was out, Emily opened up and served sandwiches and coffee to the firemen. Frank was in college in East Lansing and someone called him to tell him to come home. Friends of his who were in town came over to carry valuables out of the house and into the back yard. Excerpted from interview with Cynthia Sorensen, 2008 http://sdhistoricalsociety.net/oralhistory/interviews/CynthiaSorensen-ontheFrankLambHistory.htm

Business: Restaurants

Voss, Mary

12/26/2011

05/07/2024