Ephraim and Emma Woodworth Truesdell House

The Truesdell House is one of the outstanding Late Victorian architectural landmarks of Canton Township, Michigan. Few houses in the township demonstrate the craftsmanship and quality of materials used in the Truesdell house. Perhaps no other house, in the township, of this quality, retains its integrity of setting as well as the Truesdell house. In addition the Truesdell family, one of Canton's founding families, established a dynasty with a long history in the township.

The family farmed the property beyond the mid-twentieth century. A great-grandson of the first farmer ran a state of the art dairy farm that drew visitors from Europe and Japan.

The Truesdell House, built in 1888 by Charles W. Curtiss of Plymouth, Michigan, is a two-story, hip-and-cross-gable-roof building with red brick walls. The east-facing house displays a cross-shaped form, with a narrow-fronted and deep gable-front section intersected about midway back by a side-gable section, with roof slightly lower than the house's main roof, that projects one window bay beyond the side walls on either side. Set back slightly from the gable-front section faryade and one window-bay's distance back (south) from the north end of the side-gable section is the hip-roof part, which contains the street-facing double-door main entrance.

Two porches with low, shingled pent roofs and Eastlake detailing - turned posts with pierced-work screens connecting their upper portions- frame the house's front-gable and hip-roof front section, one forming an L around the hip-roof section's facades that shelter the front entrance and the other flanking the front section's south side. The house's front and side gables display identical wooden gable ornaments. In each the lower edge is an arch- decorated with a pattern of incised-decoration semicircles - springing from a short, paired-bracket-supported horizontal extending inward from the roof eave on either side. The house's double-hung, one-over-one windows are set within segmental-arch brick caps with projecting stone impost blocks and keystones, the latter displaying incised carving.

A brick-walled square-plan bay window projects from the south wall of the side-gable section. The house stands on a stone foundation whose walls are topped by a rock-faced sandstone water table. To the rear a carriage house has been attached to the main building. It was constructed in the same period as the house and later attached, by means of a small entryway.

The carriage house's main entry is a high arched opening originally fitted with heavy oak double doors. The opening was later filled with brick to accommodate modem garage doors. In order to accommodate the length of an automobile some of the brick was removed from the opposite interior wall. The owner plans to restore the opening and add wooden doors similar to the original doors.

The interior floor plan has been little altered from the original. There are ten rooms, five down and five up. Interior features include original moldings and trim. The base moldings are ten inches deep.

A fireplace in the corner of the living room has an elaborate oak mantle and a glazed tile surround. All windows have original, interior, louvered shutters. A pass-through cabinet between the kitchen and the dining room has original glass doors on the dining room side and wooden doors on the kitchen side. The present owners have converted the servant's quarters on the second floor to a modern bath.

The kitchen was updated in the 1920's and again in the 1960's. The owner has returned the room to the look of the 1920's including a stove of that era. A second bath has been located in the entry hall that joins the carriage house to the main house. The building is well maintained and retains integrity in both materials and design.

The Ephraim and Emma Woodworth Truesdell House, along with a barn and three other outbuildings, is sited on a 21/4-acre parcel in Canton Township, Michigan. Three of the outbuildings are non-contributing. They include a modern garage, and two one-story sheds, one a galvanized metal shed and the other a wooden shed with a metal roof. All four buildings sit to the south and slightly to the rear (west) of the main house.