517 Court Street

Architecture:

Style: Italianate ?

Description: This is a symmetrical, two-story wood frame building with cement coated foundation and aluminum siding. This house may originally have been built in the Italianate style. The floor plan is square, with a low pitch pyramidal roof and two large brick chimneys. Windows are tall and narrow. Remaining decorative elements include two one-story half-hexagonal bays on the south and west, both off center. The off-center porch has square Doric columns, modern iron railing, and a flat roof.

Significant Period:

Construction Date: circa 1860’s

Architect/Builder: Wm. N. Bennett

Context: The 1867 Birds Eye View of Port Huron indicated a front gabled building was on this lot. The Port Huron Times, dated Jan. 27, 1876, states Wm. N. Bennett “had charge of the work on the residence…cost, $3,000.” The 1892 Sanborn Insurance Map shows the current outline. The 1894 Birds Eye View of Port Huron showed a home with a hipped roofline, as it is today. The Elias Sweetser family resided there from at least 1871 to the mid 1890’s. He was a dry goods and tailor merchant. The children were Franklin, with McCollom & Sweetser, and Jennie, a high school teacher. James L. Coe, an attorney, boarded with them from 1888 to 1893. A. S. Martin, general manager of Martin Brothers which dealt in general merchandise at 218 Huron Avenue, lived there in 1900. David J. and Evelyn M Stephenson lived there from 1901 to 1912. He was a dealer in electrical supplies, an electrical contractor, and manager of the Postal Telegraph Cable Co. George and Ethel Shields lived in the home from 1913 to 1940. He was a grocer at 1202 Military.