The Booth-Dunham Estate is a single-family home located at 6059 South Ninth Street Texas Charter Township near

Kalamazoo, Michigan Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 73,598. It is the principal city of the Kalamazoo–Portage metropolitan are ...

. It was 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 ...

in 1998.

History

In 1836, DeForest and Catharine Maria (Booth) Manice of

Hempstead, New York The Town of Hempstead is the largest of the three towns in Nassau County (alongside North Hempstead and Oyster Bay) on Long Island, in New York, United States. The town's combined population was 793,409 at the 2020 census. It occupies the s ...

, purchased over 1000 acres of land in this portion of Kalamazoo Count as an investment. In 1841, the Manices allowed Catharine's brother, William Booth, to settle on a portion of the land they had purchased. William and Abigail Booth moved to the land later that year from their home town of

Stratford, Connecticut Stratford is a New England town, town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is situated on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. The town is part of the Greater Bridgeport Planning Region, Connecticut, Greater Bri ...

, with their two sons. The Booths farmed the land for the next two decades, with William Booth serving in various public positions in the local government. During this time, he also constructed the first part of the farmhouse on the land. William Booth died in 1864, and in 1866 Thomas P. Dunham purchased the farm. Dunham was born in

Junius, New York Junius is a town in Seneca County, New York, United States. The population was 1,370 at the 2020 census. The Town of Junius is in the northwest corner of the county and is east of Geneva, New York. There is no post office in the Town of Junius. ...

, in 1822. He was a grocer in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

and a sugar broker in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

for several years before coming to Kalamazoo County in 1859 with his wife Emily (Braden) Dunham. Thomas was active in local affairs, serving as Highway Commissioner and as director of the nearby school. The Dunhams added onto the house in about 1875. Thomas died in 1895, after turning the farm over to his eldest son Charles. Charles died in 1909, and the farm was turned over to the second son Edgar. The family operated the farm until 1946, when the last of Thomas's children died. In 1952, the Sprau family bought the farm. In 1967, they sold the bulk of the acreage to

Kalamazoo Valley Community College Kalamazoo Valley Community College (KVCC) is a public community college in Kalamazoo, Michigan Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Kalamaz ...

for their new campus.

Description

The Booth-Dunham Estate includes a farm house, a large barn, a tool shed, a wood shed and a wellhouse sitting on a 22-acre parcel of land. The house is a -story, T-shaped side-gable

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

structure with a timber frame and a fieldstone foundation. A rear ell is attached behind the house. The house is clad with clapboard siding, and has a low-pitched roof and general symmetrical window placement typical of Greek Revival style. The front facade is almost perfectly symmetrical. The first floor has a centrally located front door flanked by pairs of none=over-six double hung windows with shutters. The second floor has three windows, with the central one slightly off center. A shed-roof porch supported by plain columns runs the width of the front of the house. The barn is an eight-bay, timber-framed, side-gable structure with vertical wooden siding measuring 30 feet wide by 120 feet long. It was likely built about the same time as the house (about 1840). The toolshed is a single-story, side gable structure measuring 60 feet long by 16 feet wide. It dates from about the 1920s. The woodshed is a front gable, single story wood-frame building measuring approximately 20 feet long and 16 feet wide. The wellhouse is a pyramid roofed, concrete block building, measuring ten feet by yen feet, covering a six foot deep stone lined well pit. It likely dates from the 1920s.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Kalamazoo County, Michigan Greek Revival architecture in Michigan Houses completed in 1840