Andrew DeForest House, 1845

303 North Division Street

Andrew DeForest House, 1845

Andrew DeForest was only 17 years old when he arrived in Ann Arbor in 1836 from Montgomery County, New York. According to the 1881 History of Washtenaw County, DeForest worked as a contractor and builder for the next 15 years, "erecting many of the substantial buildings that now stand in the city." His financial successes undoubtedly allowed him to build his own house in 1845 on fashionable Division Street, opposite the Episcopal Church.

DeForest's house is said to have been a Greek Revival house with a colonnaded portico across the front much like other houses he built (see 7). Old bird's eye maps show some kind of porch structure on the Division Street side of the house as well as a "widow's walk" on the roof. According to Lela Duff, a local historian, DeForest later removed the pillared porch and changed the roof line to make the square house pattern. The house retains some Greek Revival features in its corner engaged columns, its white color, and its many-paned windows.

DeForest sold the house in 1888 to Henry Brown, a druggist, who lived here until his death in 1918. His wife Jane continued to live in the house until about 1933. During their tenure, according to Lela Duff, Louis H. Boynton, Professor of Architecture, oversaw the remodelling into the Colonial Revival house it is today. These colonial aspects were emphasized by the next owners when the house served as the Colonial Inn in 1936.

Following Mrs. Brown's death, Mrs. Sue Horner operated an antique business here in the 1940s and 1950s and lived in the house until the late 1970s.

After 1981 it became a student house dubbed the Colonial Inn. In 1979 the asbestos siding and wooden arbor over the front entry were removed to reveal the earlier structure. It was handsomely rehabilitated at this time and in 1988 the house once again became a single family residence.