The William R. Kirby Sr. House (also known as the Kirby–Keefer House) is a private house located at 377 State Road in Hillsdale, Michigan. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1979[2] and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.[1] It is one of the few early cobblestone houses extant in Michigan.[2]
History
William Kirby Sr. was born near Leeds, England in 1805.[3] He married Hannah Sykes, and the couple emigrated to the United States in 1827.[4] After living in New York and Ohio, in 1835 they moved to Hillsdale County to homestead,[3] one of the first families to settle in the area.[2] In the 1840s, William and Hannah constructed this house.[2] It took three years to gather the cobbles used in construction.[5] Hannah Kirby died in 1876 and William in 1888, by which time their homestead had grown to 240 acres.[4] The house was eventually passed on to William Kirby Jr.[3]
The Kirby House is a two-story Greek Revival with a gable roof and single story additions on the side and rear.[2] The house is constructed of fieldstone faced with parallel rows of cobblestones, with cut sandstone quoins, lintels, and sills.
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