Rowe House (Milford, Michigan)

Squire W. Rowe was born in 1815 in Camillus, New York. After marrying his wife Dolly, the Rowes moved to Michigan in 1835 and purchased 40 acres and began farming. Squire Rowe was influential in the local community, serving 21 terms as the Township Supervisor. Squire and Dolly Rowe had this house built for them in 1855. Squire comntinued being active in the community, raising a company for the 13th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the Civil War, and serving as a member of the state legislature in 1865. However, Squire's ill health prevented more active service, and he died in 1866.[2]

The Rowe House remained in family hands until 1908. In 1953, Squire and Dolly's great-granddaughter Margaret Rowe Mastick and her husband Earl re-purchased the property and restored the house.[2]

The Rowe House is an elegant cut fieldstone Greek Revival house, composed of a two-story, gable-fronted, rectangular central section, and two one-and-one-half story wings on either side. The fieldstone is irregularly sized, contrasting with the flat, smooth stone quoins, sills and lintels, which project slightly for added dcontrast. Each wing is fronted with a single story, two-bay width porch, supported by square Doric columns. The front of the central section contains four double hung six-over-six sash windows with louvered wooden shutters. The boxed cornice and returns are decorated with delicate scroll work. In the center of the building is a cobblestone chimney. Unusually for Michigan, a datestone reading "1855" is centrally placed, directly above the cut stone watertable. A carport was added to one wing early in the 20th century.[2]