In 1765 British officer Patrick Sinclair established a military and trading post at the confluence of the Pine with the St. Clair River to control the transportation of supplies from Detroit to Michilimackinac. It was closed twenty years later. The village was laid out in 1818 but replatted in 1828 by Thomas Palmer, who came to establish a lumber camp and sawmill to process pine timber cut in surrounding forests. The railroad and river navigation assured St. Clair's growth. In 1881 the huge, towered Oakland House opened, and its mineral springs and bathhouse were considered comparable to those at Baden Baden. Today the resort tradition of this river region is carried on by the well-known Tudor Revival St. Clair Inn (1925–1926, Walter H. Wyeth) at 500 N. Riverside Avenue. Lovely large houses line N. Riverside Avenue.
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