Methodist Episcopal Church Parsonage

The former Methodist Episcopal Church Parsonage is significant in architectural terms as one of only a small number of well preserved Greek Revival houses remaining in Ann Arbor and as a structure whose unusual, relatively rich and fussy exterior detailing is suggestive of the general transformation in architectural taste from classical to picturesque that was taking place in Ann Arbor, as elsewhere, in the 1850s. The house also possesses local historical importance for having been constructed to house the Rev. Seth Reed, one of the leading lights of Michigan Methodism in the nineteenth century. The Rev. Seth Reed (1823-1924) was admitted to the Michigan Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1844 and remained active in church life until his death. Serving for the first few years as a circuit preacher and later as pastor of various churches in southeastern Michigan (and in various other positions of trust within the denomination), he was known as a strong organizer who, when given a task to accomplish, obtained solid results. In the 1850s Reed served two-year pastorates in Pontiac, Ypsilanti, Monroe, Ann Arbor, and Port Huron. In all but one of these churches Reed’s brief pastorate was marked by revivals, growth, and by improvements to the church property. The Rev. Reed was appointed in 1857 to the Ann Arbor church which, founded in 1827, was among the oldest congregations in the state. During his successful pastorate (1857-59), the church building, erected in 1837-39, was enlarged and modernized and the Washington Street parsonage constructed. The latter structure seems to have served its original use until about 1880. Other later owners included English immigrant William Allaby, a shoe merchant, who purchased the property in 1882 and lived here until his death in 1910, and Albert M. Graves. Graves, who bought the property in 1924, established Graves’ Garage, an auto repair shop and used-car dealership, the following year and constructed for it the cement-block building located behind the house. Graves died in 1927 but Mrs. Graves continued to live in the house until her death in 1962. Divided into apartments in 1957, the interior was rehabilitated for office and residential use in 1980. The 1925 Graves’ Garage structure has also been rehabilitated for office use.

The former Methodist Episcopal Church Parsonage stands on the south side of East Washington Street in a mixed commercial/residential section of downtown Ann Arbor. It is located next door to the east of the Jacob Hoffstetter House, owned by the same owner and also being nominated to the National Register. The house, which faces north, is a two-story, end-gable, clapboarded, Greek Revival structure with a one-and-one-half-story rear wing. Its exterior detailing includes a recessed, sidelight-and-transom-light front entrance with a plain, wide, cornice-topped surround; Tuscan pilasters at the corners; a triangular gable fanlight; and a full entablature decorated with dentil and guttae bands. The structure’s late date within the Greek Revival idiom is indicated by scalloped-edge eavesboard trim and by a highly stylized classical porch that fronts the east side entrance. The house has suffered some alterations over the years. In the exterior the front door and the original window sash (except for those in the gable of the rear wing) were long ago replaced with the present single-light ones (probably the sash were of the six-light type). The interior of this side-hall-plan structure was much altered in 1957 when the house was converted into apartments. However, it has been somewhat restored in the course of a rehabilitation project carried out during 1980. This property also contains at its southeast corner a three-bay, one-story, concrete-block garage structure. Constructed in 1925 for use as an automobile-repair facility and pleasantly converted to office use in 1980, it contributes, in our opinion, to the historic character of the property.