You are here

Michigan » The Lower Peninsula » Suburban Satellite Region » Washtenaw County » William Burnett House

William Burnett House

-A A +A
Before 1856. 3555 W. Delhi Rd., 2.5 miles east of Dexter
  • (Photo by G. Grubb)
  • (Photo by G. Grubb)
  • (Photo by G. Grubb)

The William Burnett House is a small cobblestone house commonly known as a “hen-and-chicks” type, derived from its reference to a larger central two-story unit flanked by two smaller one-story wings. The central “hen” is gabled, while the “chicks” present half-gable roofs. It is also known as a basilica type, because of its similarity to Early Christian basilica churches. William Burnett migrated to Michigan in the early 1800s from upstate New York, where cobblestone houses were popular. The Burnett house is unique to Michigan in its cobblestone basilica form. There are several details that associate the house with Classical Revival, including the wide entablature and cornice returns and the strict symmetrical simplicity of form. Fieldstone quoins replace the corner pilasters of other Classical Revival houses. The front entrance has a pediment and surrounding pilasters, and the window hoods repeat the pediment motif. Acquired by Abram Davis in the 1870s and by Henry Ford in 1940, the house today is privately owned.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Kathryn Bishop Eckert
×

Data

What's Nearby

Gordon Hall (Judge Samuel William Dexter House)
Gandy Dancer (Ann Arbor Depot of the Michigan Central Railroad)
Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum (Ann Arbor Central Fire Station)
Robert S. Wilson House
Kempf House Museum (Reuben and Pauline Widenmann Kempf House/Henry DeWitt Bennett House)

Citation

Kathryn Bishop Eckert, "William Burnett House", [Ann Arbor, Michigan], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MI-01-WA23.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Michigan

Buildings of Michigan, Kathryn Bishop Eckert. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 155-155.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,