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located at 28631 Avondale, East of MiddleBelt. |
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This is the house across the street, probably built by Martin Harrison. In Martin’s later years, probably after the death of his wife in 1903, Willis and Cora Harrison lived in this house with their six children. The house was sold after Willlis’ death in 1970. |
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In its heyday as a dairy farm, a large barn stood on the property, to the left and behind the three-car garage. The driveway was ‘U’-shaped, turning to the left at the face of the garage. Three or four weeping trees centered the ‘U’. A hand pump stood just to the right of the walk out from the kitchen door, at the right edge of the drive, with a very large half-barrel under the spout, filled with water for the cows. There was a planting of Spirea bushes to the right of the driveway; I remember that in my early days of learning to drive, I made a left turn into the driveway (not paved then) and just about took out a couple of those bushes. At the left rear of the garage, there was a small attached shed, and this is where Willis’ last cow, old Bessie, had a stall. Willis milked that old cow at six in the morning and at six at night, regular as clockwork. He would get out his small three-legged stool, jam his battered old brown fedora on his head, and with his head push Bessie back against the wall, where he would keep her in place with a long pole braced into the end of the stall. Then he would start filling the pail with that warm, pungent milk. If the cat happened along, Willis took dead aim and put a squirt right in the cat’s mouth from about four feet away. Cora had a large flower and vegetable garden out behind the summer kitchen. And to the right of that was the henhouse. During World War II, Cora sold both eggs and chickens (possibly for some “pocket money”). Where the triple windows are there was a wide window seat. In front of that was a low radiator, the full width of the windows. In the winter, when the family gathered around, one sat on the radiator with great caution, usually protected by the day’s newspaper. |
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This house is known as the “Salt-box House.”
A map in the Wayne County Atlas of 1876 shows property of Marenus Harrison II at the northwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Inkster Road. He was the son of Marenus Sr.
Marenus’ son, Martin Harrison, probably lived in this house with his wife, Harriet Jacques Harrison, and three children. Later, his son Willis Harrison and his wife, Cora Spurr Harrison, lived in this house. |
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The history of Inkster tells that when Marcus Swift, an early settler, came to what was then “Nankin,” in 1825, there were only two dwellings in all of Nankin and one of them belonged to Marenus Harrison, Sr..
This is a copy of an ‘etching’ in the Wayne County Atlas of 1876, that shows some of the earliest homes in the area. |