This was first the home of  James H. Clark whose life story includes adventures that make up the fabric of our country. Born in 1830 in Vermont, he left his home at age 17 when his father died. His goal was the West and the gold mines in California in particular. He worked his way at any job, destitute most of the time. He did spend one winter in mining the gold fields around Deer Creek, and also worked on a dam site at Yuba City, California. In his many travels crisscrossing this land, he used every manner of conveyance available including backpacking on foot and endured the privations and hardships also suffered by many of his fellowmen.

In 1851 he returned to his home in Illinois from what had been his second trip to California. After farming for four years he and his wife moved to St. Anthony and Long Lake, Minnesota, before settling in Excelsior in 1857. Here he built a small frame house, putting down some roots until Civil War duty called him again. In the spring of 1867 he was back in Excelsior with his family where he became known as carpenter, merchant and farmer. He served in many offices within Excelsior township and village and was a representative to the state legislature during the 1870s.

The original small frame two-story section of the Clark House built in 1858 is toward the east and was subsequently added onto, possibly twice, by Mr. Clark. As early as 1876 the J. H. Clark Boarding House was advertised and in 1883 could handle thirty boarders. The house stands today as then except for an improvement in the rear. A summer kitchen had been torn off and rebuilt into a bedroom/bath by the Aldritts, to complete a separate apartment. The open porches have been screened in and the trim on the porch roof replaced.

The Knowlton Family at 371 Water Street—1921

Mark L. Knowlton, Sr. and his son, John E. Knowlton and family purchased the Clark house from the remaining children of H.J. and Mrs. Clark. Liberty, Maine was the birthplace of Knowlton Sr. He was born in a house built by his father in 1836 on the Knowlton Road in that small town. [The house has been visited recently by his Minnesota descendants.] Knowlton Sr. served as a drummer boy in the Civil War, came to Minnesota early in the 1870s, and was a postmaster at Clear Lake, Minnesota; later he moved to Minneapolis where he worked for the Pillsbury Company. He could be seen in the early 1900s, riding his motor bike into town from Edgewood at Lake Minnetonka, where the family was living at that time. Anyone having a motorized vehicle in those days was noticed. He'd park the machine in Excelsior during the day, then catch the train or streetcar into Minneapolis; the process was reversed in the evening. In later years the family remembered the good bread that "Grandpa" brought home from the testing kitchens at the Pillsbury Company.

Mark L. Knowlton was the last GAR veteran living in Excelsior, and at the time of his death in 1929 the flag of the Halstead Post of the GAR was retired. J. E. Knowlton, "Jack", delivery business on and around the lake via a launch (which he named "Edgewood"), and/or horse and wagon for Kronicks branch laundry servicing the lake area. He later was a rural mail carrier on R.F.D. Route #3 out of Excelsior. He was proprietor of Knowlton's Cabin Camp on land adjacent to the south, at 411 Water Street, from 1932-1948. Mrs. J. E. Knowlton always had roomers in the big house, too. She was born Alice Howard, granddaughter of homesteader Silas Howard for which Howard's Point, Lake Minnetonka, is named.

The J. E. Aldritt Family at 371 Water Street—1948

The J. E. Aldritt family purchased the Clark House from Knowltons in 1948. They had been housekeeping during winters in upstairs rooms used by them for eighteen years before leaving the Aldritt homestead at Lake Minnewashta and finally becoming year-round Excelsiorites. (In 1988, 40 years of ownership plus the 18 years of wintering at Knowltons = 58 years.) The three Aldritt daughters were in business, two in Excelsior and one in Minneapolis. J. E. Aldritt had been a farmer, a fisherman and hunter, living off the land as so many families did. His trade was that of a butcher, going wherever he was needed, to the neighbors, Minnewashta, Chanhassen and the Excelsior area, and also worked in August Hay's Meat Market in Excelsior.