Dr. Sarah Van Hoosen Jones, a master farmer and the first woman in the nation to earn a doctorate in animal genetics, operated the Van Hoosen dairy farm in the village of Stony Creek. She was the fifth generation of the Taylor-Van Hoosen-Jones family to run the farm, which won numerous awards under Dr. Jones' stewardship. In 1938, she opened this farm store to sell eggs, milk, and other products of the Van Hoosen farm, as well as kitchen products from her neighbors in Stony Creek. She named the store "At the Sign of the Black &amp; White Cow" in reference to Van Hoosen farm's prized Holstein herd.The building was constructed using locally harvested stone and salvaged materials. It was meant to be used as a combination farm office, retail store, and tenant residence. The Rochester Era reported on the store's grand opening in June 1938, saying: "Upwards of 500 people registered at the opening of Miss Sarah Van Hoosen Jones' new venture, 'Sign of the Black and White Cow,' at Stoney Creek last Saturday and Sunday." The retail store operated for fourteen years, until Sarah Van Hoosen Jones' retirement from farming in 1952. The building is now a private residence.At the Sign of the Black &amp; White Cow, the Van Hoosen farmhouse and associated buildings, and several other buildings in the Stony Creek village were listed as a district on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

At the Sign of the Black & White Cow, 2020

At the Sign of the Black & White Cow, west elevation, 2020

At the Sign of the Black & White Cow, newspaper ad, Rochester Era, July 15, 1938

Stony Creek Village Historic District National Register of Historic Places Nomination, 1972

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This building, now repurposed as a private residence, was originally constructed in 1938 to serve as the farm store for the Van Hoosen Farm, a well-known dairy operation run by master farmer Dr. Sarah Van Hoosen Jones. The building served as a farm store until 1952, when Jones retired from farming. The store's name references the farm's Black-and-white Holstein cattle. The building is part of the Stony Creek Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

At the Sign of the Black & White Cow

Nestled in the growing City of Rochester Hills, Stoney Creek Village is a remarkable collection of historic builidings. From subsistence farmers to world renowned doctors, inventors, soldiers, businessmen, water powered mills, and more, this small village has many stories to tell. 

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

The one-thousand square foot home originally stood on the lot opposite the Van Hoosen Farmhouse in Stoney Creek Village. There appears to have been three additions to the original structure, making room for additional bedrooms and an indoor bathroom.The Red House was one of several homes purchased by Dr. Sarah Van Hoosen Jones in Stoney Creek Village. While managing the Van Hoosen Farm, Dr. Jones rented these Village homes to her employees and their families.Inspiration for the home’s color came in 1955 when Sarah was traveling with Alice Serrell, her close friend and former Van Hoosen Farm bookkeeper. While in Vermont, they saw a similar house painted a shade of bright red and on their return, they decided to paint their little brown house a similar color. Around the same time, Dr. Jones had the house moved from its original location across the street and over the stone wall.The City of Rochester Hills received the Red House as a gift from Michigan State University in December 1996. Since then, the building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, has had a complete restoration. The Red House is one of eight historic buildings making up the 16-acre Rochester Hills Museum at Van Hoosen Farm site. Guided tours of the Red House take place during the Museum’s public hours.

The Red House, now part of the Rochester Hills Museum at Van Hoosen Farm, was built circa 1850. Dr. Sarah Van Hoosen Jones purchased the home in the 1920s for use as a tenant farmhouse for employees of the Van Hoosen Farm. Decorated with furnishings of the late 1800s, the Red House is currently used as an educational space for school programs, public tours and special events.

The Red House

Civil War veteran Elias Roberson and his father in law, John Stead, purchased this property along Tienken Rd in 1869. Their purchase included a grist mill, which likely dated back to 1830, and water privileges to the adjoining mill pond. Under Elias’ management, the mill became known as the Stoney Creek Mill. The mill reportedly produced “forty thousand bushels of grain annually.” Stoney Creek Mill was in operation until 1919.Elias and his wife, Alice (Stead) raised their two daughters, Mary and Flora, in this Stoney Creek Village home. In addition to the home and mill, the property also housed several outbuildings, including a barn, tool shed, smokehouse, chicken coop and outhouse. After her husband’s death in 1882, Alice maintained ownership of the house and mill until her own death in 1930. By 1900, Alice &amp; Elias’ daughter Mary Price had also lost her husband, leading her to move back into her childhood home with her two sons, Leon and Harold. Mary lived at 947 E. Tienken until her death in 1944 and passed the property to her son Leon, who lived there for another twenty years.

This early American frame home was built in the late 1800s, possibly around 1870 by Elias Roberson. Roberson also operated the neighboring grist mill, known as Stoney Creek Mill. A true multigenerational home, 947 E. Tienken was home to members of the Roberson family and their descendants until the late 1960s.

The Roberson Price House 

This school building was built in approximately 1848 to serve the students of Fractional School District #1, Avon and Shelby Townships. It was built on land owned by Nathaniel Millerd, a pioneer settler of the village of Stoney Creek. Two prominent citizens of Stoney Creek, Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen and Dr. Sarah Van Hoosen Jones, both attended this school. An addition was made to the school in approximately 1890, and a second addition was made in 1952. The school was closed about 1934 and the students sent to Rochester. In July 1948, the school board voted to re-open Stoney Creek school for the children of the village because of overcrowding in the Rochester school buildings. In the 1950s, the Stoney Creek district consolidated with Rochester Community Schools and the Stoney Creek building was once again closed. In 1974, Dr. Max Mallon suggested that restoration of the school be undertaken as a bicentennial project of the Rochester Community Schools. The building was restored to its 1850 appearance over a period of several years under Mallon's leadership, and was rededicated in May 1982. The building was then used to host classes for a week-long living history curriculum centering on the building's primary time period. Students dressed in period costume and teachers conducted lessons as they would have been presented in the 1850s. The schoolhouse is now operated as part of the Rochester Hills Museum at Van Hoosen Farm in a cooperative effort with Rochester Community Schools.

Stoney Creek School is a circa 1848 wood frame schoolhouse that was built to serve Fractional School District #1 of Avon and Shelby Townships.  The building is closely associated with the adjacent village of Stoney Creek, and served the children of the village until the district was consolidated with Rochester Community Schools in 1952. Today, the school is part of the Rochester Hills Museum at Van Hoosen Farm. The school received a Michigan Historical Marker in 2005.

Stoney Creek School

Nathaniel and Sally Millerd sold 1.7 acres of this land in March 1839 to multiple Stony Creek residents with the understanding that it would be "forever used as a public burying ground." Millerd was a prominent settler and community leader in the village of Stony Creek; he had built a gristmill in 1824 and operated a general store and the Stony Creek Post Office out of his home. He also served as Oakland County's second probate judge. The lot owners in the cemetery organized an association to care for cemetery business in 1861. By the turn of the century, the appointed trustees were all deceased and the affairs of the cemetery were being neglected. In 1909, the cemetery's lot owners met to form a new association to administer the Stony Creek Cemetery. The Detroit Free Press said on March 18, 1909:[begin quote]Lot owners of Stoney Creek cemetery, east of Rochester, have set about to form an organization which will hereafter insure the care and maintenance of the cemetery. Interest in the affairs of the association lagged for years until it was finally discovered that all the trustees were dead and there was no organization to care for the property.. Action has now been taken looking to an organization and a first meeting held. Necessary steps will be taken to carry out this plan at a meeting March 20.[end quote]The lot owners ceded control of the cemetery to Stony Creek Masonic Lodge No. 5 in 1924. The Grand Lodge of Michigan deeded the cemetery to the Township of Avon in 1981. A monument erected in 1929 by the Masonic Grand Lodge of Michigan pays tribute to the Stoney Creek Lodge - the only one in Michigan to hold meetings throughout the anti-Masonic fervor that lasted from 1826 to 1844. The Rochester Era reported on June 1, 1928:[begin quote]During the afternoon session, Tuesday, May 22, Charles A. Donaldson of Grand Rapids, junior past grand master, chairman of the Stoney Creek Lodge Memorial Committee, recommended that a 'plain bronze tablet bolted to granite rock mark the site where those sturdy Masonic pioneers kept the light of Michigan Masonry burning in Stoney Creek Lodge while others were extinguished.' Mr. Donaldson also proposed that $250 be given annually by the Grand Lodge for perpetual care of the Masonic graves in Stoney Creek cemetery and that members of Zion Lodge No. 1, be honored with supervising this work. The proposals carried unanimously.[end quote]The Grand Lodge dedicated the Masonic monument in Stony Creek Cemetery on May 27, 1929. Although not formally organized until 1839, Stony Creek Cemetery was the site of burials from the earliest settlement of the village. The first known burial is believed to have been that of Michael Van Wagoner Sr., a Revolutionary War soldier who died in 1824 or 1825. Van Wagoner's exact grave location within the cemetery grounds is unknown, as any marker that might have been placed had long disappeared. Van Wagoner's family placed a new stone within the cemetery in 1978, and his resting place was rededicated by the Oaks Chapter, Michigan Society Sons of the Revolution, in 2007. The Stony Creek Cemetery received a Michigan Historical Marker at the same time. Ownership of the cemetery was officially deeded to Avon Township (now the City of Rochester Hills) in 1981, although newspaper accounts say that control over the cemetery had been ceded to the township back in 1956. The City of Rochester Hills maintains Stony Creek Cemetery but no longer uses the historic cemetery for burials. Rochester Hills operates the nearby Van Hoosen Jones-Stoney Creek Cemetery, located on land donated in 1956 by the late Dr. Sarah Van Hoosen Jones.

Stony Creek Cemetery is a small, roughly triangular-shaped, rural cemetery established in 1839 to serve the nearby village of Stony Creek. The cemetery is perched high on a hill overlooking the village, and is the burial place of many of its pioneer settlers. It includes the graves of the Cole, Taylor, Van Hoosen, and Millerd families, as well as the grave of Michael Van Wagoner (1750-1825) a Revolutionary War soldier. The cemetery is also the location of a Masonic monument commemorating the only Masonic lodge in Michigan to continue operation during the anti-Masonic movement of the early nineteenth century.  The Stoney Creek Masonic Lodge #5 operated Stony Creek Cemetery from 1924 until 1981, at which time it was deeded to the Township of Avon (now Rochester Hills).

Stoney Creek Village Tour

At the Sign of the Black & White Cow

Introduction

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Backstory and Context

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