825 Court Street
Architecture:
Style: QueenAnne/Shingle
Description: It is a asymmetrical,
two-story wood frame structure, with wood clapboard siding on the first story,
wood shingle above, and a cut stone foundation.
The roof is cross-gabled, with the side gables dominant. Both sides have ribbon windows and the west
is cantilevered. On the front is a minor hipped gable and two gable dormers. There are three two-story bays, the east
curved, the west and south semi-hexagonal.
Decorative elements include large brackets in the eaves and a full
frontal porch with turned posts and spindles.
There are several unique windows, including art glass, leaded, beveled,
and two porthole windows surrounded by decorative shingles above the off-center
main entry.
Significant
Period:
Construction Date: 1896
Architect/Builder: Unknown
Context: E.
Cash paid the taxes in 1877 until 1883 on the original structure, when John E./Flora Miller became the owner. Joseph L. and Percy S. Stevenson lived there
in the early 1890’s. Joseph was
secretary at Anderson & Co., then Manager of the J.L.Stevenson
Carriage Company. In 1895 J. E. Miller
paid taxes on this lot with a value of $1000, then
there was a handwritten correction of Philo Truesdell. That house was replaced in 1896 by the
present home as the tax records show the lot lines shifted and the value
increased from $750 to $2600. Philo and
wife Helen M. moved the family, Nina, Walter, and Mary, from 831Court next
door. Philo, a native of Indiana, grew
up in Canada and New York. He came to
Howell, Michigan where he worked with the hardware and agricultural implement
business for eight years. In 1877 he
came to Port Huron. Philo was the
proprietor of Port Huron Marble and Granite Works, at 401, 403, 405 Butler
Street, dealer in marble, granite, slate walks, fireplace mantels, tiles, and
grates, and cut building stone; though out southeastern Michigan. He specialized in tombstones and park
monuments and employed as many as 20 men.
He was V-Pres. of the R.C. Mudge Paper
Clothing Company, stockholder in Port Huron Engine and Thresher, a Mason, a
supreme officer of the Modern Woodmen of the World, Lieut. Comm. of the Maccabees, member Congregational Church, Chamber of
Commerce, and the Port Huron Club. Philo
died Sept. 28, 1900; Helen M. died May 10, 1906. The Ladies Aid Society of Grace Episcopal
Church bought the home