Stony Creek Village Historic District

In 1825, John Taylor Sr., of New York State, settled on a 400 acre tract of land on Stony Creek. Taylor had five sons and each of them, with the exception of the youngest, was given a forty acre tract of land for his own use. The creek had a fall of water sufficient for powering a grist mill, and the next year a dam was constructed. The mill went into operation, and until the twentieth century it provided the major reason for the town's existence. Other small businesses also commenced operation. Taylor worked at his trade of chairmaking, and a blacksmith set up operation under his patronage. A store and distillery were begun to furnish the settlement's consumable goods. Official recognition of Stony Creek came in 1835 with the establishment of the post office. In the 1830s a frame hotel was erected, and shortly after the Civil War a woolen mill was established. This marked the high-water mark of the town. Rochester, less than two miles away, easily began to overshadow its dwarf neighbor. Construction of new buildings ceased, and even some existing structures were removed. Six year old Joshua Van Hoosen came to Stony Creek with his family in 1834. In 1851 he purchased a part-interest in the family farm and went to California to make his fortune in the gold fields. He returned in two years, apparently bringing some of the gold back with him, completed the purchase of the farm, and married Sarah Taylor, daughter of the original settler of the village. Success in farming came as easily to Van Hoosen as it did in gold prospecting. By 1880 he owned nearly 300 acres of land on the south of the town and was one of the major landholders in the vicinity. The family lived in the 1840s frame house built by the first generation of settlers. Sarah Van Hoosen Jones, granddaughter of Joshua Van Hoosen, was born in 1891; her grandfather died three years later and in time the farm came into the young girl's possession. Although begged by other family members to find a different occupation, she determined to go into farming and in 1921 received her Ph.D. in animal genetics. Miss Jones has lived in Stony Creek ever since, winning fame with her prize herds of dairy cattle.

This small, rural, historic district is comprised of seventeen houses, together with a number of farm-type outbuildings. Many of the residences could be described as vernacular Greek Revival, although the original style, in cases, has been somewhat obliterated by alterations. Probably all of these houses pre-date the Civil War. Notable among the farm buildings are the large dairy barns and silos that were used for the herd of registered Polstein-Freisian cattle owned by Miss Sarah Van Hoosen Jones, owner of most of the land in the village. The village, although it never grew beyond crossroads size, is laid out in a typical pattern often found in county seat towns. The center of the plat is a block with buildings on all sides, surrounded by four streets on which buildings were also constructed. Roads to other settlements lead off from each of the corners of the town square. Roads are still traveled, overarched by the thick branches of hardwood trees which line them. Stony Creek is surrounded on two sides by a 350 acre tract of rolling, open, pasture land. This farm, owned by the Van Hoosen family since 1830, was recently deeded to Michigan State University. All but five of the properties in the village are owned by Miss Jones, and will pass to the university upon her death. Southeastern Oakland County is probably the fastest growing area in the state. Overwhelmingly rural as late as 1950, in the rest few years nearly every large tract of land has been subdivided, and construction of modern homes is burgeoning. Within this decade, if Stony Creek is preserved, it will be the only tract of land in its vicinity that retains its nineteenth century characteristics.