The Benjamin Davis House was a historic house located at 528 South Washington Avenue

Lansing, Michigan Lansing () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Michigan. The most populous city in Ingham County, Michigan, Ingham County, parts of the city extend into Eaton County, Michigan, Eaton County and nort ...

, USA. It was formerly listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

, but was demolished and delisted in 1972. Benjamin F. Davis was born in 1844 in

Elba, New York Elba is a town in Genesee County, New York, United States. The population was 2,370 at the 2010 census. The town is at the northern border of the county and is north of the city of Batavia. The town contains the village of Elba, located near t ...

, the son of William and Mary Davis. His family moved to Michigan in 1851. He attended the

Michigan Agricultural College Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

for a time, and in 1862 began work for the

Quartermaster Corps Following is a list of quartermaster corps, military units, active and defunct, with logistics duties: * Egyptian Army Quartermaster Corps - see Structure of the Egyptian Army * Hellenic Army Quartermaster Corps (''Σώμα Φροντιστών ...

in Washington, D.C., a position he held until 1867. He returned to Lansing and engaged in different businesses. In 1875, Davis married Eva D. Sparrow; the couple eventually had two daughters. Davis founded the Lansing Company, a maker of wheelbarrows, in 1881 and the City National Bank in 1886. Both ventures prospered, making Davis a wealthy man. In 1889, Davis commissioned local architect Darius B. Moon to design a house for them. Moon's design was a fine Victorian

Carpenter Gothic Carpenter Gothic, also sometimes called Carpenter's Gothic or Rural Gothic, is a North American architectural style-designation for an application of Gothic Revival architecture, Gothic Revival architectural detailing and picturesque massin ...

, with multiple porches and balconies. A Chinese pagoda was placed on the roof, with a wide veranda and a

porte-cochère A porte-cochère (; ; ; ) is a doorway to a building or courtyard, "often very grand," through which vehicles can enter from the street or a covered porch-like structure at a main or secondary entrance to a building through which originally a ...

below. Davis's wife Eva died in 1890, but Davis lived in the house until his death in 1934. Davis's last surviving daughter, Mrs. Edith Eva Davis, lived in the house for a time. After her death, the house was vacant and rapidly deteriorated. In 1971, demolition began, but were temporarily halted as plans were being made to rehabilitate the house by the Greater Lansing Historical Society. However, the house soon burned and was demolished.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Benjamin, House National Register of Historic Places in Ingham County, Michigan Buildings and structures demolished in 1971 Demolished buildings and structures in Michigan Former National Register of Historic Places in Michigan