George and Mary Pine Smith House

The land this house sits on was first farmed by William Smith of England, who purchased 80 acres (320,000 m²) of land in 1830.[2] In 1835, Smith purchased another 80 acres (320,000 m²) to the east. At some point, William built a log cabin on the property.[3] William Smith and his wife Mary Collins Smith raised seven children on this farm, establishing a long line of Smiths farming in Canton Township.[2]

One of William and Mary Collins Smith's children was George Smith Sr.[4] His son George Jr. (William's grandson) married Mary Pine. In 1904, George Jr. and Mary Smith spent $2,058.76 to build the house that now sits on the property, replacing the log cabin.[2][3] Although the present acreage is small, outbuildings on the property give the feel of the old farmstead and the wooded edges isolate the house from the surrounding modern developments.[2]

The George and Mary Pine Smith House is a two-story gabled ell building with an additional ell at the rear.[2] The brick house sits on a two-foot-thick fieldstone foundation laid in courses across the facade.[2] Many of the bricks in the walls were handmade at the building site.[2] Two doors in the front facade are covered by a small porch with decorative millwork. The front facade includes a bay window, and two of the other front windows have a transom sash, one with stained glass in the transom area and the other with beveled glass.[2] Three more large transomed windows are in other elevations, and the remainder of the house's windows are narrow one over ones. The windows are topped with a segmental arch formed of corbelled bricks.[2]

• Canton Township MPS
• Canton Charter Township, Michigan

• Gerald C. Van Dusen (2006), Canton Township, Arcadia Publishing, ISBN 0-7385-4098-6 - front cover picture is of the Smith Farmhouse