Van Hoosen Farm in Rochester Hills Celebrating 200th Anniversary
(Terry Lakins, June 11, 2023)
Rochester Hills, MI—The Rochester Hills Museum at Van Hoosen Farm will be celebrating the 200th anniversary of its grounds, known as Stoney Creek Village. This bicentennial celebration will be commenced all throughout 2023 with various events.
The Rochester Hills Museum celebrates the Taylor-Van Hoosen families who settled and created the original pioneer village. The Taylor-Hoosen family later achieved significant innovation in agriculture and medicine throughout its many generations.
Museum Manager Patrick Mckay feels that the museum and the grounds have an important history worth seeing. Mckay, a 37-year veteran of the museum and a longtime Rochester Hills resident has been proudly telling the story of Stoney Creek Village and the Taylor-Van Hoosen families for years.
“We talk about the personalities, the events, the buildings, and it’s remarkable.” Mckay said. “At the end of the day it was 19 to 24 houses that made up Stoney Creek Village. It wasn’t a large settlement by any means. However, within those 19 to 24 residences the history that happened here over 200 years can blow you away.”
To say the Rochester Hills Museum was built from the foundation of the original village would be both metaphorically and structurally accurate. Using many of the original buildings, now converted into the attraction itself, gives the whole experience a very grounded feel. The dairy barn is your first stop as it acts as a centralized hub of the grounds itself, with its very hard to miss tall twin brick silos greeting you as you enter its doors. This also serves as more of a standard museum experience, with exhibits being presented more traditionally.
Though most of the exhibits are centralized to one large open room, the dairy barn makes the most of the space. The aesthetic leads comfortably into an old world and earthly feel with wood like floors, browns and beige dominate colors, and bright overhead lighting throughout. The information boards stand out with their older golden bronze framework, large pictures, and unique lettering resembling an old newspaper copy to grab attention to key information. Digital kiosks with catalogues of dozens of past pictures for visual preservation give the words photo album a whole new meaning. Even a section dedicated to different types of milk manages to be interesting by being physically interactive.
Mckay said while the Van Hoosen-Taylor story has a strong local slant, they try and find regional importance as well.
“We always say what happened to Rochester, a small local town 25 miles north of Detroit, and how we were affected by events on the world stage.” Mckay said. “We try to explain and understand what happened here, what decisions were made, why they were made, and see if we can learn from them.”
If patrons wish they can take part in the museum guided tour. Completely optional but highly recommended, this tour grants access for an interactive walkthrough of many buildings, some of them not normally accessible. The tour is self-paced, and it may not be possible to see everything in one go. The tour can cover the Bull Barn, the Milk House, the Calf Barn, the Equipment Barn, and the Children’s Garden. Weather permitting could also allow the Stoney Creek Cemetery and part of the surrounding 16 acres of land.
The two main attractions of the tour are the Van Hoosen Farmhouse and the Red House. The Red House is the smaller of the two, an 1850s Greek revival resident home with architecture that is older yet familiar, breathing a very nostalgic warm vibe. Parts of the Red House could very well bring back memories for those who were lucky enough to have lived in or near a historic home.
The Van Hoosen Farmhouse is the highlight and reason you experience the guided tour at least once. Often referred to as the crown jewel of Stoney Creek Village, the farmhouse is an 1840s Greek revival with 1920s additions. The farmhouse was built on and expanded over the years, so the architecture, design, and overall feel fluctuates between each room. Every room is a mishmash of different time periods and influences, sometimes even from different countries. From the structure to points of interest, even down to the color choice of the walls is packed with story and personality. Mckay said the preservation of the home was more about how it was left, additions and all, rather than trying to restore it to streamline a single era.
“That is the beauty of the house, it was lived in.” Mckay said. “We didn’t take it back to specific time period because it’s a time capsule of the five generations of family that lived in there.”
The Van Hoosen Farmhouse is easily a museum all onto itself. Mackay said that he challenges any community to see if they can compare to how much Stoney Creek Village has to offer, considering how few buildings they have, though this challenge is with the hope that any community can find their relevance and history within their space. Mckay feels that every community has a story, even if it seems insignificant at first glance.
“These are remarkable people who came from humble backgrounds, and they were self-taught.” Mckay said. “These incredible accomplishments challenge us to all say we can do things to help make a better world, and that’s the end of the line. That is what we want people to walk away with, that one person can make a difference in their community.”
Mckay believes that the Rochester Hills Museum should be a destination for anyone who loves history and learning. He also said it’s a great story of resilience and inspiration.
“Anyone who lives at least an hour away should come here. They should hear our story, see our buildings, and see what happened here.” Mckay Said. “We think it’s a story that resonates with everyone. Men and women, young and old, educated, and non-educated, no matter what stage of life you’re in there is a story here that resonates with you.”
The Rochester Hills Museum normal hours are 12pm to 3pm on Friday and Saturday. Five dollars gets you access to the main museum itself, with the option to take part in a guided tour at 1pm. Learn more at www.rochesterhills.org/musprograms
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