[Howe’s Hunter]

Early on in my rebuilding of his collection, I tried to find out if the structure that Howe called home (and I later found out to be his families business address also) was still standing. Looking up the address on any map site proved futile, as did my email correspondence with the mayor’s office of Gainesville, who merely confirmed what I had already found out. Main Street in Gainesville runs North/South, not East/West.

Last week, new board member David Polakoff contacted me, after seeing the signature at the bottom of one of my posts. Having lived in Gainesville for the past nine years, and only recently moving, he was intrigued by the collection of a guy from a community where, as he put it, “If there are any tobacco cards in Gainesville, they're in private collections of inactive collectors.”

David’s passion for “old things” goes far beyond baseball cards, as within 24 hours, he had researched several sites, found numerous maps and done the work to find that 500 W. Main St. in Gainesville actually did run North/South, but on a map dated from 1909, there is a short portion of street named West Main Street North and West Main Street South. Further investigation by David uncovered a 1905 business directory that listed WJ & Agnes McCormick (Howe’s parents), along with his uncle Alex (co-owner of the family grocery market) as living at 500 W. Main St. South.

David wrote me “The street it's off of was actually at the time called McCormick Street. If I'm understanding the family history correctly, Howe's grandfather, Rev. W.J. McCormick, a Presbyterian minister, was a pretty big deal in the early days of Gainesville, so I assume the street was named after him.”

Sadly, the location on the corner of what is today SE 3rd Street is now the parking lot for a courthouse built seven or eight years ago. Any memories or mementos the market might have held are gone for good.

But the mystery of the street that didn’t exist has been solved, and with great thanks to David, who went above and beyond in clearing up.