Kellogg-Warden House

The Kellogg-Warden House is an almost unique Michigan example of the sidehall-plan, half-I-house form brought to the Midwest by pioneers from New England and northern New York state in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. This house form is found, in small numbers, in central and northern New England and northern New York. Examples have been identified in locations as diverse as the Cambridgeport section of Cambridge, Massachusetts; Pawlet, Vermont; and Fort Covington, New York.

The house's early history cannot be precisely documented. The 1853 Hart map of Ann Arbor is the earliest that shows a house on the lot on which this one stood prior to the recent move to North Main Street. The map shows a rectangular footprint, slightly deeper than wide, with a suggestion of a rear ell. The 1854, 1856, and 1869 maps show a similar footprint.

Physical evidence uncovered during the house's recent move and restoration suggests that the building was constructed in four stages: the front room of the ell first, followed by the rear section of the ell, then by the house's main front section, and finally by the ell's shed. This is suggested by the framing, uncovered in the course of the move and restoration, and by the presence in only the ell of crude wooden lath made by soaking and stretching one-inch thick boards.

The Washtenaw County deed records, the only source of documentation concerning the house's early history, show that the lot on which the house was originally built was one of five contiguous lots purchased in March, 1837, by Dan W. Kellogg for $1075. Dan Warren Kellogg (1812-85), a son of Charles Kellogg of Kelloggsville, Cayuga County, New York, evidently settled in Ann Arbor in the 1830s and was living there in July, 1842, when son Charles Dor Kellogg was born.

In April, 1838, Dan W. Kellogg sold the same property to Ethan A. Warden for $1300. Warden (1803-1861) was Dan Kellogg's brother-in-law through his marriage to Dan's sister Abigail Ann Kellogg and also his partner in an Ann Arbor mercantile business from 1834 to 1841 when he moved back to Auburn, New York.

A little more than one year later, in July, 1839, Ethan Warden sold two of the five lots, including the one on which the house stands, for $1800 to Charles Kellogg, his father-in-law. One time postmaster, county judge, state legislator, and U. S. Congressman, Charles Kellogg (1773-1842) moved to Ann Arbor, where four of his children already resided, from Kelloggsville about the time of his purchase and resided there for his remaining years. Charles Kellogg's heirs sold the house out of the family in 1853.

Because of the lack of tax records for this early period, the prices paid for the property are the only clues to the dates of improvements. Two lots, including one that was part of the five-lot tract Dan Kellogg bought in 1837, sold for only $50 in November, 1834, and one of those two lots sold for $300 less than one year later. This dramatic rise in value in so short a time could indicate that improvements were built on the property in the 1834-35 period, but it may just as well reflect the rapid appreciation in property values commonly seen in Michigan towns during these boom times. The 1837 and 1838 transactions also do not provide any clear evidence of improvements having been made, although it is entirely possible that at least the two sections of the rear ell had been built by then. On the other hand, Charles Kellogg's purchase in 1839 for $1800 of two of the five lots for which son-in-law Ethan Warden had paid in all only $1300 just one year earlier does seem to suggest that the house's main front section was built during that time period, given the very pronounced national economic downturn and deflation in real estate values which was taking place then.

City directories for this early period in Ann Arbor history are not available. Thus, the house's early occupants cannot be conclusively determined. Based on the evidence concerning the date of construction, it seems likely that Charles Kellogg and his wife, Mary Ann Otis Kellogg, lived there. Perhaps Ethan A. Warden had the house's front section built in time for his father-in-law's arrival. Charles Kellogg died in 1842 and his widow died two years later. By the time the elder Kelloggs moved to Ann Arbor, four of their children were already living there. In addition to Abigail Ann Kellogg Warden and Dan Warren Kellogg, they were Dwight and Dor Kellogg. Dwight Kellogg (1797-1861), a miller and the owner of the Washtenaw Mills, lived in Ann Arbor from 1832 to 1848. Older brother Dor Kellogg (born 1799), who settled in town in 1836 after visiting the area for the first time ten years earlier, was at various times a miller, farmer, and bookkeeper and served as city collector and treasurer. Which, if any, of these Kellogg family members may have lived in the Kellogg-Warden House is not clear.

All were early Ann Arbor businessmen involved in the development of Lower Town, an early competitor to Upper Town (centered on Main Street) as Ann Arbor's business center. Lower Town, an area on the north side of the Huron River centered along Broadway, was the dream of early businessman Anson Brown. Brown began development of the area about 1830 with the construction of a dam across the Huron River, mill race, and grist mill. He and Edward L. Fuller platted the Lower Town area in which the Kellogg-Warden House stands in 1832, giving several streets -- Broadway, Maiden Lane, and Wall -- names reflecting his New York roots. Brown built a large commercial building on Broadway in 1832 and, appointed postmaster in 1832, moved the city's post office to Lower Town. A large hotel, the Washtenaw House, was built about the same time. Development of Lower Town continued in the 1830s, but the death of Anson Brown in 1834 put an end to the dream of the area becoming Ann Arbor's commercial center. Though Ann Arbor incorporated as a city in 1851, Lower Town was not included until 1861 when it became the fifth ward.

The Kellogg and Warden families contributed substantially to the early growth of Lower Town through their grist mills, a hardware store run by Charles Kellogg, and a grocery and dry-goods store run by Ethan Warden and Dan Kellogg. The house they built reflects not only their New York heritage, but also the current popularity of the Greek Revival style. New settlers and local builders sought to recreate in the new territory homes like those they had left behind. As an excellent and intact example of the type and style of housing these settlers built, the Kellogg-Warden House provides a tangible link with that period.

By 1850, all of the Kelloggs but Dor seem to have returned to New York. In 1853 the property was sold to Samuel Ruthruff, who remained here until the early 1890s when a German immigrant gardener, Charles Greiner, and his wife Kate bought it. He and his large family lived here until they sold the house to Laura Bauer Marz (a relative of Mrs. Greiner) and her husband John, a bus driver. Mrs. Marz lived here until her death in 1988.

Integrity and Preservation Efforts

The Kellogg-Warden House has seen little alteration due primarily to having had so few owners during its long life. It was sold in 1988 to the University of Michigan, which planned to use the land for parking for the Turner Geriatric Clinic across the street. Realizing its historical significance, university officials offered the building first to the city and then to the Washtenaw County Historical Society along with a gift of $5,000 which represented the estimated savings on demolition costs.

The city of Ann Arbor owned an abandoned gas station at Beakes and Main purchased orginally as part of a road project. After demolition and lengthy clean up, the city declared the land an official park and leased it to the society for $1 a year.

In June 1990 the house was moved from its original location at 1015 Wall Street approximately one-half mile to its new home at 500 North Main Street, at the corner of Beakes Street. The new location on a major thoroughfare offers greater visibility for the building in its new role as a public museum reflecting the history of life in Washtenaw County. The neighborhood around it, however, is still almost exclusively residential, with modest frame houses, several nearly as old as the Kellogg-Warden House. The original site at 1015 Wall Street, though once part of a residential neighborhood, has suffered greatly in recent years from the encroachment of the ever expanding University of Michigan Medical Center. The only way to preserve the Kellogg-Warden House was to move it to a new location as similar as possible to the original one.

The building has been placed on a new concrete block foundation that provides a large basement. The original handmade bricks and field stones from the old foundation were used to face the concrete foundation, however, thus restoring its historical appearance. As at the original site, the foundation is rather high. A small plain wood stoop with railing has been constructed to allow access to the front door. Two doors at the back of the house (east side) have been reconstructed and a ramp installed to provide handicap access to the future museum.

The entire exterior of the house has been recently painted in a cream color, and copper gutters and drain spouts have been added. The roof was repaired and covered with wood shingles. The triangular corner lot is being landscaped with lawn and plantings on the west and south sides of the house, with a blacktop parking lot on the north and east sides. The structure is in excellent condition and its outward appearance retains the historic integrity of its design, materials and workmanship.

The Kellogg-Warden House is a clapboarded, side-gable, sidehall-plan, half-I-house with a one-and-one-half-story, gable-roof, rear ell. Built in four stages, the house has a rectangular footprint. It is of braced timber frame construction with brick nogging filling the spaces between the studs. The house exhibits vernacular Greek Revival styling. Its two-story core block and rear ell originally had brick and stone foundations respectively. The house was moved from its original location on Wall Street, about one-half mile to the east-northeast, to avoid demolition.

The facade (west elevation) has a three-bay fenestration pattern. The front door, located at the south end of the facade, exhibits Classical detailing in its surround, which has four fluted pilasters with capitals accented by a band of dentils. Between each set of pilasters is a sidelight with a molded, recessed wood panel at the bottom. The pilasters with their dentil-trimmed "capitals" support a flat-top Classical entablature composed of plain architrave and frieze bands, a simple molded cornice, and dentil bands.

The house has simple classical box cornices, with cornice returns in the gable ends. The entire building is clad with wood clapboard siding and corner boards with a single bead at the joining edge. The windows on the entire house are predominantly double-hung sashes with two-over-two lights, with the exception of a six-over-six window in the attic of the two-story section at the south end, and a louvered fan vent below the roof ridge at the north end.

The house's half-I-house front section has a sidehall plan with the stair hall and staircase at the south end and a single room in each story in the northerly part. The rear ell contains two large rooms, each with its own exterior door on the south. A shed-roofed section added to the ell's north side causes the house to have a rectangular rather than L-shaped footprint. The house's overall ground dimensions are approximately twenty-six feet in width by forty-six feet in depth.

The original newel post and bannister still grace the front hallway. The original parlor woodwork in the front section features fluted pilasters, corner blocks with "bulls eye" pateras, and panelled aprons below the windows. Several original two-panel doors remain as well. In the ell, the interior plaster was applied to "accordion" lath which was made by soaking and stretching one-inch thick wide boards.

The house is presently being rehabilitated to provide a permanent home for the collections and exhibits of the Washtenaw County Historical Society.