Commandant's Quarters, Detroit Arsenal

Plans for the construction of an arsenal near Detroit materialized in 1832; that year a committee of officers chose the site at Dearborn. The possibilities of attack from British North America or of an Indian uprising favored a site which could serve in either emergency. Colonel George Bomford of the Ordnance Department preferred this location because it was on the main road between Detroit and Chicago and was situated on a high ridge on the banks of the Rouge River which was navigable to that point. The arsenal was to be primarily for the deposit and repair of arms, but if conditions warranted weapons could be manufactured there as well.

The Black Hawk War (1832) and the Patriot War along the Canadian border (1836-1838) seemed to justify this choice. The cornerstone for the Detroit Arsenal at Dearborn was laid July 30, 1833. Local men were employed in the construction of the arsenal; Titus Dort made the bricks, and John Nowlin leveled the ground inside the compound. Jeremi Moors (of Detroit) was the mason.

Construction of the arsenal was completed in 1837. Throughout the life of the arsenal the Commandant's Quarters is reputed to have been a center for social and cultural events of Dearborn and Detroit society. In 1875 the installation was abandoned due to a Congressional preference for consolidating several small arsenals into a single large arsenal. Thereafter the Commandant's Quarters had various functions, serving as a library, town hall, and newspaper office.

In 1949 the Dearborn Historical Commission acquired the building and began a restoration program. The commission now operates the building as a house-museum.

The Commandant's Quarters is one of the eleven original buildings of the Detroit Arsenal at Dearborn. The buildings were constructed in a square 350 feet on each side. A twelve-foot high brick wall connected these buildings. Bricks for the wall and Commandant's Quarters were made locally.

The Commandant's Quarters is a federal style two-and-a-half story brick building on a high basement. It is about forty feet square. The building has a dormer window, a slate roof with four chimneys, and a wrought iron balustrade. It has stone lintels and sills and a stone water table.

The house's hand-hewn frame is constructed of timbers ten inches by eleven inches. It has original split lath. The building has sawn studing two inches by six inches which is mortised into the beams. Originally, there were eight fireplaces; all of which have recently been restored.

On the first floor the ceilings are decorated with elaborate plaster cornice work containing gilded fleur-de-lis, and first floor windows have interior folding shutters. The flooring in the building is white pine of random width an inch-and-a-quarter thick.