Michigan
Cobblestone Buildings of Washtenaw County, Michigan
By Grace Shackman
Cobblestone Farm on Packard Road is one of at last seven cobblestone houses in Washtenaw County. Highly distinctive but incredibly laborious to build, they're examples of a folk art that flourished between the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 and the Civil War.
Cobblestone houses first appeared in western New York State immediately after the canal was completed. Their creation was due to a fortunate combination of circumstances: a labor force of skilled masons looking for work after the canal's completion, an abundance of glacial stones, and a population eager to build new homes with profits from the canal.
Most of the known examples (700 in all) are in New York, but as New Yorkers moved west, they took the craft with them and built scattered cobblestone houses in southern Ontario, southern Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin--wherever they found the style's namesake building materials, glacial stones, formed during the Ice Age, small enough to hold in one hand.
The city-owned property known as Cobblestone Farm, built in 1844 for naval surgeon Benajah Ticknor, is today the site of many community activities.
Even the most informative book on cobblestone architecture, Cobblestone Landmarks of New York State, by the late Olaf William Shelgren, Jr., Cary Lattin, and Robert W. Frasch, is unable to trace an inventor of the style. The authors assume that most masons did only three or four cobblestone houses and that "they learned the cobblestone technique from each other or by examining finished buildings."
Cobblestone houses' exterior walls were constructed with the stones arranged in neat rows, usually either vertically or horizontally but sometimes in fancier designs, and held together with cement that formed ridges between the layers. The simple lines of the prevalent architectural styles of the period, such as Federal, Classic Revival, and Greek Revival, lent themselves perfectly to this type of construction.
The masons experimented, and the homes became more involved and elaborate as the years went by. But even the simplest style was very labor-intensive, requiring hand placement of each stone. In the earliest homes, the stones were embedded right in the cement, forming an integral part of the outside wall. Later, the stones were more of a veneer, with just an occasional longer stone poked all the way into the cement. Toward the end of the era, the houses became very fancy, with tinier stones used merely for a veneer and arranged in elaborate patterns.
The cobblestone houses in Washtenaw County fit in with what is known about the homes in general: all were built in the 1830's and 1840's; all are in places where western New Yorkers settled; and all are of simple design, either Classic Revival or Greek Revival. Where the building time is documented, it runs from two to seven years, showing how laborious the work was. While two of the homes may have been done by the same mason, the other five seem to have been done by different individuals. All are located either on the Huron River or near streams, where stones were easier to find.
Cobblestone houses, built from stones small enough to hold in one hand, are very labor intensive because the construction process entails putting in the stones one by one.
Cobblestone Farm
Cobblestone Farm at 2781 Packard Road, was built in 1844. It is owned by the City of Arbor and is a museum Both the original owner and the builder were from New York State. Heman Ticknor, who bought the farm for his brother, Dr. Benajah Ticknor, had been a farmer in Pittstown, Troy, N.Y. The builder, Steven Mills, learned to be a mason in Phelps, N.Y.
Orrin White House
Ann Arbor's other cobblestone house, at 2940 Fuller Road, across from Huron High School, was built in 1836 for Orrin White, the first settler in Ann Arbor Township. White migrated here from Palmyra, in Wayne County, New York, the county with the largest number of recorded cobblestone houses in that state. Present owners said they believe that their house was also built by Steven Mills because it is very similar to the Ticknor-Campbell house: both are Greek Revival and have identical herringbone patterns of angled stones and similar interior layouts.
Lester Jewett House
Lima Township's cobblestone house, at 10725 Jerusalem Road, is similar to the Ann Arbor cobblestone houses in size and design. Original owner Lester Jewett, who hailed from Seneca, New York, was, like Benajah Ticknor, a medical doctor. According to stories that have been passed down, the house took seven years to build. Dr. Jewett had two brothers who also settled on Jerusalem Road. They, too, built stone houses, but used larger fieldstones. Family legend is that the stone houses brought them luck.
Goodale House
This Greek Revival-style cobblestone is at 3555 West Delhi Road, Ann Arbor, just west of Delhi settlement. The house was built by Norman Goodale, an important mill owner during Delhi's days of prominence, for his mother, Harriet Church Goodale. He settled here in 1838, so the house was probably built about that time.After the Goodale ownership, it had several owners, including Henry Ford, who used it as a retreat, especially enjoying it when the peach trees were in bloom. Photo by John Hilton.
Rufus Knight Home
The Rufus Knight home at 4494 Scio Church Road also has a similar look except for smaller upstairs windows. Knight, a miller who arrived in this area in 1826 from Wheatville, New York, was a pathfinder who, according to the 1891 Washtenaw County Portrait and Biographical Album, "ground the first grist which ever went between the stones in this county." He set another record - the first marriage to be entered in the county archives, when he married Sallie Scott in 1827. The 1891 book's description of Knight ends, "The old cobble stone house is still in use and as good as ever although it was erected as long ago as 1849."
The Orrin White house across the street from Huron High School is believed to be built by Steven Mills, the same mason who constructed Cobblestone Farm. Photo by John Hilton.
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Another Greek Revival house at 3562 W. Huron River Drive in Scio Township was the home of farmer Morris Richmond, who hailed from New York and built his house in 1847, taking more than two years to do it. The house was obviously built by someone who knew about architecture, since it features classic Greek Revival attributes: gable entrance, symmetrical windows, and even a raised area under the beams forming a frieze.
The most rustic of the seven Washtenaw County cobblestone homes is probably the only owner-built house in the group. Located on the corner of Baker and Shields just south of Dexter, it was built by Obed Taylor, who, according to information researched by his great-great-grandson, Welton Chamberlain, had been a surveyor and a road builder in Northbridge, Massachusetts, before coming west. After his arrival in Dexter, he was hired by Vrelan Bates to dig out a mill race for the Bates Saw Mill on Mill Creek. Taylor worked for three years, digging with pick and shovel, for which he was rewarded with 40 acres of nearby land.
He used the stones that he dug out to construct his house, burning the larger pieces of limestone for cement and using the smaller stones for the walls. Records indicate that he must have finished his home by 1844 because in that year he was hired by Judge Samuel Dexter to build a fence just like the one around his own home.
People curious about cobblestone houses and willing to travel farther afield can see all the cobblestone houses they could ever desire by going to western New York State and driving along Route 104, built on an old sandbar that parallels the Erie Canal. In Childs, New York, the Cobblestone Society maintains a museum complex that includes a cobblestone church; a cobblestone home and a one-room schoolhouse.
A little closer to home, in Paris, Ontario, near Brantford, are Canada's finest examples of cobblestone homes, all built by Levi Boughton, a mason from Normandale, New York.
Right here in Washtenaw County, we are lucky to have the seven we have: all slightly different, all well kept up, and all beautiful. The best time to view cobblestone houses is when the sun shines on them, giving the stones a beautiful three-dimensional look.
Cobblestone Buildings in Washtenaw County
Obed Alvord House, 10331 Crossman Road, Manchester Township, 1840s
William Burnett House, 3555 W. Delhi Road, Scio Township, 1840s
Lester Jewett House, 10725 Jerusalem Road, Lima Township, 1847
Rufus Knight House, 4944 Scio Church Road, Scio Township, 1849
Orrison Leland House, 7374 Sutton Road, Nortfield Township, 1840s
Robert McCormick House, 5400 Curtis Road, Salem Township, 1851
Loren Miles House, 219 N. Huron, Ypsilanti, 1845
Myron Pierce House, 4659 Prospect Road, Sharon Township, 1840s
Morris Richmond House, 3562 W. Huron River Drive, Scio Township, 1840s
Obed Taylor House, 2385 Baker Road, Scio Township
Benajah Ticknor House, 2781 Packard Road, Ann Arbor, 1844
Orrin White House, 2940 Fuller Road, Ann Arbor, 1836
Loren Miles House, 219 N. Huron, Ypsilanti, 1845
Smoke house at rear of 940 Maiden Lane, Ann Arbor
Smoke house at rear of 940 Maiden Lane, Ann Arbor
Other Counties
Compiled by Grace Shackman and Patricia Majher
Barry
Blaisdell House, 298 Eaton Road, Castleton Township
Calhoun
Barney House, 303 S. Hillsdale St., Homer
Lake House, 29680 Albion Road, Albion Township
White House, 20744 M-66, Pennfield Township
Hillsdale
Kirby House, 3771 State Road, Adams Township
Vandenburd House, 180 N. Wolcott St., Hillsdale
Wilbutr House, 4481 State Road, Adams Township
Ionia
Sessions School, Riverside Drive at Jordan Lake Road, Berlin Township
Jackson
Coolbaugh House, Michigan Avenue at Church Street
Parma Hamlin House, 200 Main St.
Concord Hurd House, 7632 N. Meridian Road, Henrietta Township
Walcott House, 6707 Cross Road, Spring Arbor Township
Lenawee
Eddy House, 11700 N. Adrian Road, Franklin Township
Macon District No. 1 School, 8225 Clinton-Macon Road, Macon
Wheeler House, 7075 M-50. Cambridge Township
Livingston
Rumsey House, 5070 E. Highland Road, Osceola Township
Sawyer House, 8951 M-36, Green Oak Township
Monroe
Osgood House, 744 Samaria Road, Bedford Township
Oakland
Beach House, 7980 Hickory Ridge Trail, Rose Township
Dudley House, 880 Snell Road, Oakland Township
Garner House, 5355 White Lake Road,, White Lake Township
Holmes House, 324 S. Main St., Milford
Sprague Building, 300 S. Main St., Rochester
Taylor House, 487 E. Gunn Road, Oakland Township
Terry House, 315 University Drive, Auburn Hills
Other Cobblestone Buildings in Michigan
Cobblestone smokehouse, 940 Maiden Lane, Ann Arbor
Cobblestone smokehouse, 940 Maiden Lane, Ann Arbor
Abandoned cobblestone school house (1849) southwest of Olivet, Mich., 1960s.
The Barney house at 303 South Hillsdale Street, Homer, was built in 1837.
Sessions School, Riverside Drive at Jordan Lake Road, Berlin Township
Historical plaque for school house
Macon District No. 1 School, 8225 Clinton-Macon Road,
Macon, built 1840.
The Greek Revival Nathaniel S. Wheeler cobblestone house at 7075 W. Monroe St., Cambridge Township in Lenawaee County was built about 1845. Nathaniel S. Wheeler was born in Amenia, N.Y. in 1808 and moved to Michigan in 1833 with his parents as one of the first settlers. He married Nancy A. Russ in 1855. He sold the farm in 1869 and resettled elsewhere in the county. It has since had many owners. It was restored in the 1970s and placed on the National Register in 1975. It was once part of a 500-acre farm.
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