Judge Robert S. Wilson House

Robert S. Wilson came to Ann Arbor from Allegheny County, New York, in 1835. In Michigan he gained a wide reputation as an able attorney who 'knew how to influence a jury.' He served as Judge of Probate in Washtenaw County for a year and was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives. In 1855, Wilson moved to Chicago where he served for many years as a Police Justice.

While in Ann Arbor, Wilson commissioned a still unknown builder to erect for him a dignified residence of the temple style. There was a dwelling on the lot now occupied by the Wilson house as early as 1835. Kimball dates the existing house 'after 1836,' while Newcomb says 1843. The present owners say verbal tradition dates the house at 1840.

Tax records show there was a brick house on the lot owned by Wilson in 1839: circa 1839 is probably the most accurate date of construction discoverable at this point. Almost no alteration of the house or its interior furnishings has been made since 1893 when the present owners, the Wahr-Sallade family, acquired the house. Original fireplaces in all the main rooms, gas lighting fixtures, and a hearth and Dutch oven in the basement are still intact. Almost every architectural survey ever made which has dealt with Michigan architecture with any seriousness has taken special note of the Wilson house as an outstanding specimen of classical design.

Rexford Newcomb wrote: 'The Wilson House, a staunch stuccoed brick temple with a tetrastyle Ionic portico, is one of the finest Greek Revival houses in America. Of perfect proportions, it possesses the chastity and austerity of a Greek original.' Emil Lorch, writing for the Historic American Buildings Survey, called the house, 'one of the most perfect houses of its type.' Herbert Wenzell, also writing for HABS, said: 'This house is the best preserved of this period, in the vicinity.' Wayne Andrews said the Wilson House, 'may be the most splendid Greek Revival house in Ann Arbor.' Newcomb and the present owner of the house both point to the Temple of Nike Apteros at Athens as a possible inspiration for the Wilson house. The present owner, like all the former owners, is disinclined to make any alteration in the house, however slight, which might mar or compromise its historic and architectural significance.

The Wilson House is a two-story Greek Revival building of monumental proportions. The front facade of the house has a tetrastyle Ionic portico, columns with fluted shafts, Attic base, denticular cornices, and a distinguished entrance framed between pilasters. The medium gable roof carries four chimneys, two on each slope. Windows in the entire house have outside blinds.

The house is stucco on brick, with a stone foundation, and with wood cornices and columns painted gray. A two-story wing on the rear is evidently of more recent date than the main portion of the house. The rear wing has a side-entrance stair hall, bay windows, and the upper floor is at a slightly lower level than the upper floor of the main section. The main unit is two parlors deep with a side stair.

Parlor windows rise from floor level and are framed in slender panelled pilasters. All the major rooms of the house have fireplaces. Mantles in the parlors are of white marble with round-headed openings and iron frames.