203 North Ann Arbor Street
Date of Construction: ca. 1892
Photo by Lori Swick
February 2013
Architectural Description: This is a two-and-one-half story Queen Anne style house, although it has characteristic features of both late Queen Anne and early Tudor Revival styles, with a touch of Craftsman detailing as well. The Queen Anne characteristics include the cross-gable form in the roof, bay windows, oriel window (on the north elevation) and the variety of exterior wall treatments. The Tudor features include the use of half timbering and stucco (half timbering can be seen on the façade on the wall dormer and upper bay area). The exterior cladding is a combination of stucco on the lower story and wood shingles on the second story. There is a two-story bay on both the weats-facing façade and another on the south elevation. The hipped roof front porch has boxed wood supports, resting on a solid brick balustrade. The use of outlining around exterior windows is characteristic of the Craftsman style. A well-matched carriage house addition has been added to the rear of the house. Additionally, there is a livery barn in the back of the lot that was likely built around the same time as the house.
History: The exact date of construction for this house remains a bit of a mystery. According to images on the 1872 Bird’s Eye View of Saline and the 1888 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, there was a previous house located on this lot. On the 1888 Sanborn Map, the main core of the house is in the same basic form and orientation that it is today. Notation on the Sanborn indicates a photo gallery was located on the second story. The 1874 Washtenaw County Combination Atlas Map shows the owner of the property as Miss Gillett (see more on the Gillett family below). The 1895 Standard Atlas of Washtenaw County, Michigan, shows the name G. Burkhardt on this property. The current house at 203 North Ann Arbor Street was either re-built from the ground up or extensively remodeled in ca. 1892 by the president of Saline Savings Bank, George Burkhardt, for his new bride, Margaret.
A newspaper article in the Ann Arbor Argus, dated May 27, 1892 reads: "On Thursday evening of last week, George Burkhart and Miss Margaret Harmon were married at Saline. The ceremony took place in the new home which the groom had just had put in shape for his bride."
The Gillett Family 1858-1890
Portrait of Lucretia Gillett Courtesy of Saline Area Historical Society
Born in 1920 in New York State, photographer Lucretia Gillett arrived in Saline in 1858 with her parents, Gershom and Mary, her two younger sisters, Delia and Ann and her brother, George, who was also a photographer.
The Gilletts lived at 203 North Adrian Street (now North Ann Arbor Street) in a house that looked much different than the one seen today. In the early 1860s, siblings Lucretia and George worked together and maintained a photography studio in the front room of the house. They specialized in daguerreotype photography, a process that had been introduced in France in 1837 by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (for further information click on the link below).
http://memory.loc.gov/ammen/daghtml/dagdag.html
George eventually moved to Ann Arbor and Lucretia continued to run the photography business out of the family home, even after the death of her parents. Mary Gillette died in 1865 and Gersham died ten years later.
Lucretia maintained her successful photography studio in Saline until she moved to California in 1890, at the age of seventy. Over the course of thirty years (1860-1890), she had owned and operated Saline’s only successful photography studio, kept up with photographic technology and trained other budding photographers. F. J. Haynes, a famous late-nineteenth century photographer known for his hand-tinted photographs of Yellowstone Park, was born in Saline and studied under Gillette for a while, before moving to Fargo, North Dakota.
Sources: "Historic District Study Committee Report of North Ann Arbor Street Local Historic District." 2004.
Kosky & Glynn Associates. "Historical and Architectural Survey." Saline, Michigan. 1994. http://aaobserver.aadl.org/aaobserver/36252
Shackman, Grace. " Saline’s Photographer." Ann Arbor Community Observer, 2006. http://aaobserver.aadl.org/aaobserver/36252
Ogle, George A. Standard Atlas of Washtenaw County, Michigan. Chicago: George A. Ogle and Co., 1895. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/micounty/.
Suggested Reading: McAlester, Virginia & Lee. A Field Guide to American Houses. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1984.
Prepared by Lori Swick
April 17, 2013
