John and Eliza Barr Patterson House

John Patterson was born in 1804 in Connecticut.[3] John and his wife Pamelia moved to Canton Township in Michigan and purchased property in 1826.[1] Eight years later, in 1834, Pamelia Patterson died in childbirth; John remained a widower for 10 years.[1] In 1844, John Patterson married Eliza Barr; the couple purchased another plot of land and built this house.[1] The couple had multiple children before John died in 1856.[3] John willed his land to Eliza, who married George W. Peters soon after John's death.[3] Eliza Barr Patterson Peters died in 1885, and her land passed, as instructed in John's will, to the couple's son Charles Patterson.[3] The farm remained in the family until 1999.[4]

The John and Eliza Barr Patterson House is a ​1 ¹⁄₂-story, five-bay wood-frame Greek Revival farmhouse with clapboard siding sitting atop a stone foundation.[4] The front facade is symmetrical with a center entrance topped with a transom and flanked by twelve-over-twelve windows.[4] It is topped by a wide frieze, a box cornice with returns, and a shingle roof.[4]

The interior of the house is in substantially original condition. The first floor houses a living room, dining room, a kitchen, and a single bedroom; the second floor contains four additional bedrooms and a bathroom installed circa 1940.[4] Door hardware in the house is original, and one of the bedrooms still contains a c. 1844 stenciled border at the top of the wall.[4] Hand-hewn beams can still be seen in the basement of the house.[1]

A 20th-century barn is also on the property, along with a shed and the foundation of a barn.[4] Evidence of other farm outbuildings can still be seen around the house, as well as rose, daylily, and peony plantings that date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[1] A former chicken coop has been converted into living quarters.[1]

• Canton Township MPS
• Canton Charter Township, Michigan