Andrews-Leggett House

In the context of Michigan's pre-Civil War architecture, the Andrews-Leggett House is a highly unusual hybrid of original Greek Revival and later Victorian design exemplifying high quality craftsmanship and containing notable architectural and decorative features, including stencilled wall decorations. The house contains the only thus far documented examples of 1830s-40s stencilled wall decorations in Michigan. In 1836 and 1837, Hiram Andrews bought land in Sections 3 and 10 in Commerce Township, along with the rights to build a dam, dig a millrace and divert the Huron River, having just sold the dam and machine shop which he had built in nearby Pontiac. He and Joseph G. Farr laid out the plat for the Village of Commerce in 1836. He purchased the site for this residence in 1837. The 1840 census lists 12 persons living on the property which suggests that a good sized house existed at that time. The taxes paid on this parcel of 50 acres indicates a valuable house. In 1853 Hiram and Mary Andrews sold the farm to Augustus C. Baldwin who had practiced law in Milford six miles to the west. As his practice grew it required living in the county seat, but when he was County Prosecutor he bought this large country house. Mr. Baldwin was admitted to the bar in 1842, elected to the State Legislature in 1843 and 1845, and served as Brigadier General of the Fifth Brigade of Michigan militia from 1846 to 1862. He was Prosecuting Attorney of Oakland County in 1853 and 1854, during which time he purchased the Andrews property. He lived there for only 15 months before returning to Pontiac. He was elected to Congress in 1862 and as Mayor of Pontiac in 1874, and Judge of the Circuit Court in 1875. He was a member of the Pontiac School Board for 18 years, and served as president of the Oakland County Agricultural Society and the Oakland County Pioneer Society. In 1855 Augustus and Isabella Baldwin sold the farm to Samuel M. Leggett, a gentleman farmer who had no necessity to make a living because of wealthy parents. Known for their hospitality in the beautiful country home, they lived there for 17 years visiting or entertaining most of the time. Samuel Leggett wrote poems which were published in Youth's Companion and other periodicals. The thirty verses of his poem The Legend of Meh-eh-sah-gor-ning immortalizing Apple Island in nearby Orchard Lake are recorded in the 1876 History of Oakland County. The Leggett family were accomplished musicians, especially as fiddlers. Samuel Leggett platted a portion of his farm as The Samuel M. Leggett Northern Addition. Martin S. Smith, a businessman from Detroit, purchased the farm in 1872. Smith built his fortune, starting as a clerk and later becoming owner of a jewelry store at the most prestigious intersection in Detroit. In 1874 he became treasurer of R. A. Alger and Company, a lumbering business. A few years later R. A. Alger and Company became Alger, Smith and Company with Martin S. Smith as treasurer. It became the largest pine lumbering business in the world. Martin S. Smith's extensive business interests included founding the American Exchange National Bank of Detroit. He served as vice-president of State Savings Bank of Detroit; vice-president of Detroit, Bay City and Alpena Railroad Co.; president of the Manistique Railway Co.; treasurer of the Manistique Lumbering Co.; a director of the Michigan Mutual Life Insurance Co.; president of the American Eagle Tobacco Co.; president and treasurer of the Detroit and St. Clair Plank Road Co.; director of the Huron Cemetery Association; and member of the Police Commission for the City of Detroit.

The Andrews-Leggett Field House stands on a 2.69-acre streetcorner lot at the north edge of the unincorporated village of Commerce. The house consists of three sections, centered around a two-story, side-gable, Greek Revival-style, main section, about forty by twenty-eight feet in ground dimensions. A simply detailed one-and-one-half-story ell extends to the rear (north) and is forty by twenty-four feet in ground dimensions. A later, vernacular Victorian addition, twenty by twenty-six feet in ground dimensions, is centered on the front of the main section. It projects forward and presents a gable and two-story, semi-octagonal bay to the street. The site contains many large, old trees. To the north and northeast of the house are the remains of a concrete foundation for a carriage house and a stone one for a barn. The main road running north from the village borders the west side of the property. The main part of the house was originally a five-bay, center-entrance, two-story, side-gable, Greek Revival house built with its front facing south. The gable at each end is treated as a pediment. Each has a window in its center screened by an unusual triangular louver whose upper edges parallel the slope of the roof on either side. Built in 1837, this part of the structure has an earth-floor basement and eighteen-inch thick, split fieldstone basement walls. The north rear wing appears to be very early in its construction and may also date from 1837. It contains the remains of a brick oven. The sill timbers and floor joists of this part of the house rest directly on the ground and are very rotted, causing the side walls to settle six or seven inches and thereby giving the eaves and ridge a very uneven line. A foundation will be constructed under the wing and the rotten timbers replaced as necessary. In 1855 the house was enlarged and remodeled. An addition, twenty feet deep (north to south) by twenty-six wide, with its gable end to the street, was constructed across the center of the house's south facade. A four-foot deep projection from the addition's front contains a semi-octagonal bay window downstairs topped by a small, covered porch with stairs. This part of the house has a simple raking cornice without returns rather than the pedimental treatment of the 1837 portion. Matching Greek Revival porches in the angles on each side between the 1855 addition and front of the 1837 main section appear to be remnants of a veranda that probably extended entirely across the front prior to the 1855 addition; in them square wood piers support the roofs with matching pilasters at the corners. The 1855 addition stands on a split stone foundation with only a crawl space underneath. From 1855 may also date a two-story, stepped, bay window unit that appears at the south end of the east flank of the 1837 main section. This addition provides much needed light for the east rooms and thus greatly enhances the interior. The entire house is of frame construction with clapboard covering and an asphalt shingle roof. Most of the house has been painted white in recent years with shutters and trim of forest green. Prior to this, the house was entirely unpainted for years and there is no remaining evidence of any color. Some older shutters were found which are painted a medium shade of green.