Patrick O'Hearn House, 1888

210 North Thayer Street

Patrick O'Hearn House, 1888

Patrick O'Hearn built this elegant Queen Anne house in 1888 in the side yard of his home at 206 North Thayer. With interesecting gables, different materials (clapboard and shingles), windows of various shapes and sizes, and an elaborate porch with turned columns and carved trim, the house is a fine example of the Queen Anne style from the late 1880s.

O'Hearn must have believed there was a rental market among the faculty for such housing, for his first tenant was Dr. Jacob Reighard, a Professor of Zoology at the University of Michigan. Around 1905 Dr. Reighard became the Director of the Zoological Laboratory and Museum and built himself a much grander house in Burns Park. After a decade with Reighard as its tenant, the house was rented for many years to a series of occupants until it was sold to two widows in the 1940s. In 1969 the owners of 206 purchased it, thus re-uniting the two houses under single ownership.