The platting of Clarksville's grid took place in 1853. It was advantageously sited on the Shellrock River which provided the usual much-needed water power. By the mid-1870s the community was traversed by two railroads. There are several nineteenth-century commercial buildings and houses still standing in town. Of these, one of the most interesting is the two-story house with a French mansard roof (c. 1875), at 514 South Main Street. As is often the case with houses exhibiting this type of roof, the detailing of this house is in fact late Italianate. Both the entrance porch across the front and the one at the side still exhibit the small-scaled cast-iron roof railing.
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