Gordon Hall (Dexter, Michigan)
|
Gordon Hall
|
|
 |
|
 
|
|
| Location | 8341 Island Lake Rd., Dexter, Michigan |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 42°20′25″N 83°53′55″W / 42.34028°N 83.89861°WCoordinates: 42°20′25″N 83°53′55″W / 42.34028°N 83.89861°W |
| Area | 9 acres (3.6 ha) |
| Built | 1844 |
| Built by | Sylvester Newkirk |
| Architect | Calvin T. Fillmore |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival |
| NRHP Reference # | 72000664 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | November 9, 1972 |
| Designated MSHS | February 19, 1958 |
Gordon Hall, also known as the Judge Samuel W. Dexter House, is a private house located at 8341 Island Lake Road in Dexter, Michigan. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1958 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The house is unique in Michigan for its balance, large scale, and massive hexastyle portico. The structure is also significant as the dwelling of Judge Samuel W. Dexter, a pioneering Michigan resident and land baron who had a substantial impact on early development of Washtenaw County and other sections of the state. The house was later owned by Dexter's granddaughter Katherine Dexter McCormick, a pioneering research scientist, suffragist, and philanthropist. In its early days, Gordon Hall hosted at least two, and possibly three United States presidents, and it was almost certainly a stop along the Underground Railroad.
Samuel W. Dexter was born in Boston in 1792 to Samuel Dexter, a politician who served as a Congressman, Senator, and both Secretary of War and Secretary of the Treasury under President John Adams; and Catherine Gordon, daughter of William and Temperance Gordon of Boston. The younger Dexter attended Harvard University, where he graduated in 1812, and he received a law degree three years later. He moved to Athens, New York, in 1816 and married Amelia Augusta Prevost. The couple had two children: Samuel, born in 1817, and Augustine, born in 1820. However, both Amelia and Augustine died in 1822.
In 1824, Dexter moved to Detroit with $80,000, and proceeded to purchase 926 acres of land in Michigan. On that land, Dexter founded Byron, Michigan, the county seat of Shiawassee County, and Saginaw, Michigan, the county seat of Saginaw County. He also purchased land in Webster and Scio Townships in Washtenaw County, on which he later founded the village of Dexter. On his Washtenaw County holdings, Dexter built a sawmill on Mill Creek, and a log cabin nearby. Dexter returned to Massachusetts in 1825, and there married his second wife, Susan Dunham. Dexter returned to Michigan in 1826, living in the log cabin while a frame house was built nearby on the riverbank, located on what is now Huron Street in the present-day village of Dexter.
...
Wikipedia