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This Greek Revival-style farmhouse was built by Avon Township pioneer John Kinney soon after he purchased the property in June 1839. The 1840 federal census enumerated Kinney as living near others who were property owners in the same part of Avon Township, so the house is presumed to have been built immediately after the purchase of the property.Kinney and his wife had migrated to Michigan from their native home of Warren County, New Jersey in 1837.The 1877 History of Oakland County described John Kinney as follows: [begin quote]He was a native of the town of Oxford, Warren county, New Jersey, being born January 5, 1811, and was the youngest in a family of seven children, all of whom are now deceased. He received a good common-school education in his native town, and in 1833 was united in marriage to Miss Eliza S. McCracken, of his native State, and daughter of the late John McCracken, of Macon county, Michigan. Shortly after their marriage, the young couple bought a farm in their native town, whereon they remained until 1837, when they came to Michigan to hew out for themselves a home amid the charming lakes of Oakland. They made the journey with their own conveyance to Buffalo, thence by lake to Detroit, from which latter point they drove again to Avon township their own team. On his arrival, Mr. Kinney purchased one hundred and eighty-six acres on section 25, upon which farm he resided the remainder of his earthly career. This homestead (a view of which, together with portraits of its master and mistress, we present to our readers on another page of our work) well attests the industry of its proprietor, as no better or more highly cultivated one can be found in the county. The worthy pair of whom we write by frugality and industry accumulated a goodly store of worldly wealth, insomuch that later in life they were independent of hard labor and anxiety touching the future " rainy days." This competency was enjoyed not only by those who had gained it, but by all who were so fortunate as to be numbered among, their numerous and frequent guests. In politics Mr. Kinney was a Jacksonian Democrat, and was called upon by his fellow-townsmen to fill many positions of trust in their gift. He united in his youth with the Methodist Episcopal church, and his whole life adorned the profession of his boyhood. He fell asleep in the full expectancy of the realization of his hopes, January 9, 1877.Mrs. Kinney was born December 6, 1812, and received what was considered in those days a good education, and, although now in her sixty-sixth year, retains her mental vigor and bodily health in a marked degree of superiority. She is a genial and affable lady, and pleasing conversationalist. [end quote]The Kinneys resided on their farm until their respective deaths in 1877 and 1881. In their later years, their farm was operated by Enos Weaver, the husband of John Kinney's niece, the former Elizabeth K. Davis. Kinney's probate record described Elizabeth K. Davis Weaver as being among "the persons whom he had raised as his children." (He had apparently reared some of his sister's children after the early death of their father.) John Kinney's will directed that after the death of his wife, his property should go to Elizabeth K. Davis Weaver and Samuel Davis, Elizabeth's brother. Samuel Davis sold his interest in the property to Enos Weaver in 1881.It appears from plat maps that while farming the Kinney land, the Weavers may have lived in a second house that was built on the Kinney property. The Weavers continued to reside on the Kinney farm after the older couple's deaths.Enos Weaver was born October 26, 1834 in Pennsylvania and came with his parents to Michigan in 1857. He died April 19, 1904 in Avon Township.Following the deaths of Enos and Elizabeth Weaver, the property was owned by their son, Fred Weaver.

The John Kinney House was built ca. 1840 as a farm residence by Avon Township pioneer John Kinney. Kinney and his wife, Eliza, came to Avon Township in 1837 from Warren County, New Jersey, and Kinney purchased 160 acres in section 25 in June 1839. Typical of the era of its construction, the Kinney house is an upright-and-wing built in the Greek Revival style. It is notable as one of the few surviving examples of a pioneer-era home in the former township of Avon (now the city of Rochester Hills). After the deaths of the Kinneys, the property was owned by their niece and her husband, Enos and Elizabeth Weaver, and it remained in the extended family for over a century.

John Kinney House

The village of Rochester was the economic hub of the thriving agricultural community in the surrounding Avon Township (today's Rochester Hills). Several of Avon's pioneer farmhouses survive, including Greek Revival and early Victorian examples. On this tour you will see the homes of those who tamed a wilderness and built a community.  The oldest examples of these homes date from the 1840s, when the area had only a few hundred inhabitants and few improved roads.

Likely built in the early 1840s by pioneer Avon farmer and contractor John Fairchild Hamlin (1799-1863), the residence was well-appointed for its day, as befitted the home of a man as successful as its owner. J.F. Hamlin was born in 1799 in the state of New York and migrated to Michigan during territorial days. He was appointed an ensign in the territorial militia of Michigan by Governor Lewis Cass in June 1824. He married Laura Andrus of neighboring Washington Township in 1831 and the couple settled in Avon Township. Hamlin amassed significant real estate holdings; by 1857, he owned more than half of section 22 and part of section 23, totaling 545 acres, as well as lots in the village of Rochester and acreage in other sections. According to his probate file, when John Fairchild Hamlin died in 1863, the land in his estate was valued at more than $30,000. Part of J.F. Hamlin's fortune came from farming, but some of it came from contracting work for transportation infrastructure in the new state of Michigan. Hamlin was one of the contractors for the section of the Clinton-Kalamazoo Canal running from Utica to Rochester, and after the project was bankrupted, he spent the next decade - along with others - petitioning the state legislature to pay him for his work. Hamlin was also a commissioner of the Rochester and Royal Oak Plank Road Company, chartered by the state of Michigan in 1847. John's widow, Laura Andrus Hamlin, died in 1883 and ownership of the Hamlin farm, known as Oldhome, passed to John and Laura's daughter, Belle. Belle was married to Marsden C. Burch, who had a long and noteworthy career in law and government service. Burch had begun his law career at the age of 21, as the first clerk and attorney for the newly-minted village of Rochester in 1869; two years later he was appointed probate judge of Osceola County. He also served as a federal district attorney in Grand Rapids before moving on to Washington, D.C. where he joined the Department of Justice as a special assistant to the Attorney General of the United States. Since the Burches resided for much of their married life in Washington, D.C., they used the old Hamlin homestead as a summer and vacation residence, visiting the Rochester area for a few weeks each year. Judge Burch continued the farm as a going concern by hiring a superintendent to operate it in his absence. On October 9, 1903, the Rochester Era reported: "Judge Burch has returned to Washington, D. C. and his duties in the department of justice. During the summer the Judge has built over the old Hamlin home, two miles south of Rochester, until it is now one of the finest country residences in Avon township. Always a stately mansion, it has been added to and overhauled until now it is a most desirable home. Robert Featherstone, a good farmer and citizen, occupies the house and works the farm." In 1916, the Burches sold part of the Hamlin farm holdings for subdivision, but retained the house and other buildings and a generous section of the property for themselves. In announcing the partial sale of the farm, the Era said: "It will be gratifying to the people of this region that Mrs. Burch holds onto the place where she was born [in 1846] and lived until her marriage, and that not one of the buildings is to be parted with, and Oldhome will remain as it is, and has been. It has been known far and wide as the Hamlin Place practically as long as Rochester itself, the mansion and many of the other buildings dating back to the early part of the last century." The Hamlin house ceased to be a private residence after World War II and in the late 1980s was developed as professional office suites. A large wing was added to the west side of the building at that time.

This house is significant for its association with pioneer farmer and contractor John Fairchild
Hamlin, who settled this land in sections 22 and 23 of Avon Township after his marriage in 1831. Hamlin, who migrated to Oakland County from New York, was one of the contractors on the Clinton-Kalamazoo Canal project and had a hand in the financing of a plank road into Rochester. The house is also significant for its association with Judge Marsden C. Burch, the husband of J.F. Hamlin's daughter, Belle Hamlin. Burch was a federal attorney who lived in Washington, D.C. while serving as special assistant to the Attorney General of the United States and used his wife's ancestral home as a summer and retirement residence.

John Fairchild Hamlin House

Albert Terry came to Oakland County, Michigan in April 1839 and purchased the northeast quarter of section 33 in Avon Township. He added 132 acres to his first purchase and in 1877 had a 192-acre farm that Durant's History of Oakland County described as one of the best in the township. Terry was a prosperous farmer and was active in civic life, serving as Supervisor of Avon Township from 1862 to 1876. Terry was born September 10, 1817 in New York state and died August 30, 1880 at his home in Avon Township, Oakland County, Michigan. Upon his death, the Rochester Era carried the following obituary:[begin quote]The intelligence of the death of Albert Terry of Avon which occurred, of dropsy of the heart, last Monday morning, was not unlooked for, as his condition had been critical for some time past, yet it was none the less sorrowful to a host of friends all thru the county and throughout the State.. . .Mr. Terry was born in Lima, Livingston Co., New York, September 10th, 1817. He would therefore have been 63 years old had he lived until next week Friday. He first came to Michigan in October, 1838, with limited means, and after spending three months in Macomb Co., returned to New York State and during the month of April following (1839) with his father's family came back to Michigan and purchased the farm upon which he lived at the time of his demise.In October of the same year he married Delia Lathrop, and began his connubial life in earnest in his new western home.After awhile he added quite a tract to his first purchase thus making it one of the largest farms in the township, as it is at the present time also, one of the finest and most valuable. His wife, after bearing him seven children, died during the year 1850. In 1860, Mr. Terry married his second wife, Lucinda Richardson, formerly of Pontiac. This wife and the seven children by the former wife, four sons and three daughters, still survive him.Mr. Terry was a staunch Democrat, taking quite a prominent part in political matters. As a proof of his popularity, it might be stated that he was elected Supervisor fourteen years in succession.In his social relations Mr. Terry was genial and courteous, always surrounding himself with hosts of friends who loved and respected him. In his domestic relations he was kind and affectionate, an indulgent father and husband whose aim in life was to make his home pleasant and attractive for his family—a home in very deed—from which he will be sorely missed.He will be buried today (Thursday) in Rochester Cemetery, the services being held at his late residence, and conducted by the Rev. C. W. Knickerbocker.[end quote] The Terry property was purchased by neighboring farmer Samuel Durrant in 1886, after Albert Terry's estate was settled. Ferdinand and Georgianna Kersting bought it in 1928 and Georgianna Kersting owned it until 1981.

This brick variant of the Greek Revival style was built by Albert Terry, a pioneer resident of Avon Township (now Rochester Hills). The foundation is coursed cobblestone at the front, with random granite fieldstone in the rear. The house has a rectangular plan with a one-story rear ell, and features two front gables with a recessed porch between them. The porch has square columns and a bracketed architrave, frieze and cornice. The house is an excellent local example of Greek Revival domestic architecture and has ties to a prominent pioneer farmer and civic leader. The Albert Terry property is a designated historic district in the City of Rochester Hills.
 

Albert Terry House

Significant Persons: Woodward, Lysander (1817-1880) and Scott, John (1850-1928)  Statement of Significance:The Lysander Woodward house is significant for its association with the development of the agricultural economy in Avon Township and the village of Rochester, Oakland County, Michigan. It is also significant for its historical association with the life and work of Lysander Woodward (1817-1880), an important community leader in agriculture, transportation and politics and government. Woodward contributed to the growth and development of Rochester as a hub of agricultural commerce by promoting and demonstrating modern farming techniques, for which his farm won an award in 1867, and by his efforts to bring the first railroad line to Rochester, which resulted in follow-on developments in the community such as telegraph communication, a regular newspaper, and a grain elevator. He held elected office at the state, county and township level, and was the father of Robert Simpson Woodward (1849-1924), a nationally prominent scientist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Lysander Woodward house is also significant as an excellent local example of a Greek Revival farmhouse of Oakland County's late pioneer era, with revisions that are presumed to be the work of prominent Michigan architect John Scott (1850-1928). Oakland County pioneer Lysander Woodward bought this property in February 1844, in the spring following his marriage to Peninah Axford Simpson. Based on tax assessment records for the Township of Avon, he built the house during 1845, and by 1848 had doubled his parcel from 80 to 160 acres. At the peak of its production, the Woodward farm would eventually encompass nearly 400 acres. Woodward was active in the county agricultural society, and his farm won an award from that organization in 1867 as a model of modern farming techniques. It was also featured in a lithograph illustration in the 1877 History of Oakland County by Samuel W. Durant. After the deaths of Lysander Woodward and his wife, the property was owned and managed by two of his daughters and their husbands, John and Emma Woodward Scott and Arthur and Eva Woodward Parker. In 1898, the house underwent a renovation which added a full-length columned porch, among other improvements, believed to be the work of John Scott, who was a well-known Michigan architect whose practice was based in Detroit. John and Emma Woodward Scott lived at the house during the summer months and moved their permanently after John's retirement in 1926. After the death of the last Woodward sibling, Eva, in 1933, the house was sold to Roy and Elizabeth McCornac, who made their home there until their respective deaths in 1958 and 1960. In 1962, the building was partitioned into small apartments and has been used as an apartment house ever since.

The Lysander Woodward house is a two-story, upright-and-wing Greek Revival frame building that was constructed in the middle of the 19th century. The house stands on its original mortared fieldstone foundation, except for two small one-story porch additions at the rear which stand on brick foundations. There is evidence of a major revision of the building in 1898 which included a raised wing, the addition of a full-length columned porch, and new siding. Its historic use was as a domestic single dwelling. Its current use is as a multiple dwelling. The property is privately owned. It is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. 


Main Building Foundation: Stone and brick. 
Walls: Wood: Weatherboard
Roof: Asbestos
 
Period of Significance:  1845-1898
 
Area of Significance:
1. Architecture
2. Politics/government
3. Agriculture
Arch/Builder:  Woodward, Lysander
Date Built:  ca. 1845
 
Architectural Classification: Mid-19th Century: Greek Revival 


Lysander Woodward House

The Van Hoosen farmhouse was built in 1840 to replace a log house that had been built by the Elisha Taylor family, Stoney Creek village's original settlers, in 1823. In the early 1920s, the house was moved back from the road and underwent a multi-year renovation process. The farm was the home of two of the area's most notable women citizens: Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen, a prominent physician and her niece, Dr. Sarah Van Hoosen Jones, a Master Farmer and the first U.S. woman to earn a doctorate in animal genetics.Dr. Jones was the last of the Taylor-Van Hoosen line to own and reside on the farm. She left the historic farm to Michigan State University upon her death in 1972. MSU, in turn, donated the farm in 1979 to the Charter Township of Avon (now the City of Rochester Hills), which dedicated it as a local history museum in May 1981. The farmhouse and a number of associated farm buildings form the museum complex, and the museum is part of the Stoney Creek Village historic district that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.In addition to the complex and permanent exhibits about the history of the region, the museum offers special exhibits throughout the year. Exhibits focus on the life of prominent institutions and residents such as Bertha Van Hoosen, who established the American Medical Women’s Association in 1915.

This living history museum complex is anchored by the Van Hoosen Farmhouse which dates back to 1840. The museum includes a small home occupied by tenant farmers from the 1850s, an authentic one-room schoolhouse built in 1848, and a permanent exhibit that tells the history of the Rochester community through the 19th century and beyond. There is even a model train and a miniature replica of downtown Rochester within the complex's Dairy Barn, which was built in 1927. The museum also includes a small research library full of historic photographs and documents related to the history of community leaders, residents, and institutions.

Rochester Hills Museum at Van Hoosen Farm

Milo Prentice Newberry was born October 11, 1825, in Oneida County, New York. He was of staunch New England stock, his forebears having settled in Connecticut in 1632. His parents, Romeo and Sarah (Beckwith) Newberry, migrated from Connecticut to Oneida County, New York, before his birth, and on to Oakland County, Michigan, when Milo was ten years old. They settled in Avon Township, which surrounded the tiny, yet-unincorporated village of Rochester. The Newberry family arrived in 1835, the same year in which Avon Township was organized. Milo Newberry attended school in Rochester and married a local woman, Mary Jane Hoyt, in 1849. The couple started housekeeping on property in Section 22 of Avon Township, where Newberry and his father had built a small sawmill on the Clinton River. In 1857, however, Milo Newberry sold his property in Section 22 and bought ten acres in Section 14, also on the Clinton River and closer to the village of Rochester, where he built another sawmill. As the operator of a sawmill and the owner of timbered land, Milo Newberry provided essential building material for the settlers of Rochester and Avon Township and thus contributed to the community's early growth and development. According to Newberry family records, Milo Newberry and a friend joined the Pike's Peak gold rush of 1859. Gold was discovered in the western Kansas Territory (later Colorado Territory), near the present-day site of Denver, Colorado, during the summer of 1858. This led to an influx of fortune seekers in the territory in early 1859. Newberry and his friend traveled to Saint Louis, Missouri, and then made four round trips from there to the gold fields before returning to Rochester a year later. Their gold mining efforts netted the pair a healthy return, and Milo Newberry used his share to open a cabinet making business in Rochester and to finance the construction of a house for his growing family. Family records indicate that Milo Newberry built his house during 1863 and moved his family into it in the spring of 1864. With the assistance of his older brother, Theodore, Newberry built the house using timber harvested from his property and processed through the sawmill he had established nearby. A skilled carpenter and cabinetmaker, Newberry also crafted all of the woodwork and finish cabinetry in the house. Milo Newberry had five children with Mary Jane Hoyt, who died in 1876, and two more children with his second wife, Eliza Baldwin, whom he married in 1877. The entire family was reared in the Newberry house built by Milo, and he lived there until his death in 1909 at the age of eighty-three. In 1913, Milo’s granddaughter, Mabell Howell Frank, and her husband, Lucius “Bert” Frank, purchased the property while providing a life estate to Milo's widow, Eliza, who continued to occupy the house until her own death in 1919. After the death of Eliza Newberry, Bert and Mabell Frank moved into the Milo Newberry house and made it their family home. They maintained the farm acreage until their deaths in 1969 and 1970. After the deaths of Bert and Mabell Frank, all but five acres immediately surrounding the house were sold. The Franks' granddaughter, Bette M. Frank Reddish, and her husband purchased the house and a three-acre remnant of the farm in 1974. The house is now the only remaining intact example of a Victorian farmhouse in the City of Rochester, and descendants of Milo Newberry own and occupy the house to this day.

The Milo Prentice Newberry House is a one-and-a-half story, Italianate style dwelling built in 1863.  Milo Newberry was a pioneer resident of Avon Township who worked as a cabinetmaker, sawmill operator, and farmer. His house has an unusual Y-plan footprint of his own design and was built with timber harvested from the surrounding land. The house is significant as a unique local example of a mid-19th century farmhouse with Italianate details. It is also the last remaining intact example of a Victorian-era farmhouse in the City of Rochester. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.

Pioneer-Era Farm Homes of Rochester and Rochester Hills, Michigan