West of Westcott
Stop #36
723 Ackerman Ave / Melville Clarke House
- Built: ca. 1920
- Architect: Unknown
Music entrepreneur and inventor Melville Clarke lived here. Among many achievements, Clarke was a pioneer in harp design, manufacture and performance in America. His Clarke Irish Harp gained great popularity. Clarke also helped invent nylon strings – initially developed with engineers at DuPont for harps, but then developed for a multitude of stringed instruments so that today nylon strings are commonplace.