Henry Beckley provided the land on which the town was laid out in 1820. The town was laid out with one main north-south street, named appropriately Main Street, and one east-west street named Grass Street. The town to the north of Grass Street was divided into fifteen lots on each side of Main Street each set of fifteen lots divided into three sets of five lots separated by small alleys. To the south of Grass Street there were eleven lots on the east side and ten lots on the west side of Main Street. The lot on the southwest corner of the intersection of Main and Grass Streets was twice as large as the rest. To the east of the lots fronting on Main Street were a number of lots fronting on Grass Street.
Henry Beckley's house was the first in the town. Although one would assume that Beckley would have laid out the town so that his house would have been in the center, it was not. Instead the Beckley house occupied two lots to the south of Grass Street, with a lot between.
Peter A. Amick constructed a building on the west side of Main Street in which he operated a hotel. At first, the Amick house was a simple log structure with openings but lacking the door and windows to cover the opening. Blankets and quilts were hung over the open spaces until windows and a door could be obtained. The tavern was established in order to bring the family some income. Amick also supplemented his income by coopering. As time went on, and he could afford it, Mr. Amick added to the original log structure. Standing one lot away from the northwest corner of the intersection of Main and Grass Streets, the building is still standing at the present time. Peter Amick was the town's first postmaster. The post office of 'Saint Clair' was established on 05 May 1832. It was initially located in the Amick Hotel. The post office retained the Saint Clair name until 17 June 1850. At that time it became the Saint Clairsville post office, and continued as such until recent years, despite being moved physically to the nearby town of Osterburg. Peter Amick died in 1877 at the age of eighty-five. Adjacent to the Amick Hotel on the north side was another hotel owned by J. Cessna. On the east side of Main Street, directly opposite to the Amick Hotel, Peter's son George B. Amick opened a mercantile in 1848. The post office was operated from that store for many years. George operated the hotel prior to his death in 1906.
