The George Newton House is a private house located at 20689 Marcellus Highway near
Marcellus, Michigan
Marcellus is a village in Cass County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,198 at the 2010 census. The village is located within Marcellus Township. It is part of the South Bend–Mishawaka, IN-MI, Metropolitan Statistical Area. ...
. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1974
and listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1982.
It is significant as the home of prominent civic leader George Newton, the son of
Cass County pioneer Col. James Newton.
History
James Newton was born in England in 1777, and emigrated as a boy to the United States.
His family settled near
; later Newton moved on to Pennsylvania, and then, in 1804, Ohio. He commanded a regiment of Ohio militia, earning the rank of Colonel, and served in the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
, commanding at times both Fort Black and
Fort Meigs
Fort Meigs was a United States fortification along the Maumee River in what is now Perrysburg, Ohio during the War of 1812. The British Army, supported by Tecumseh's Confederacy, failed to capture the fort during the siege of Fort Meigs. It is na ...
.
James Newton's son George Newton was born in 1810 in
Preble County, Ohio
Preble County is a county located in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,999, down 3.0% from the 2010 census population of 42,270. Its county seat is Eaton. The county was formed on February 15, 1808, from por ...
in 1810.
Both George and his father James moved to Cass County in 1830 and settled down to farm.
James Newton served as a member of the 1835
Michigan Constitutional Convention, and as a member of the Michigan House in 1837–38 and 1838–39.
James Newton died in 1844.
George Newton married Esther Green in 1837; the couple had two children.
He followed his father into public service, and was elected to multiple local offices. In addition, he served as a member of the Michigan House in 1858–59. In 1865, Newton commissioned architect Christian G. Haefner to design this house.
George Newton died in 1883.
In 1931, Fred Russ purchased the house and the surrounding 580 acre parcel of timberland. In 1942, he gifted the land to
Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...
.
The University Forestry School used it as the Fred Russ Experimental Forest. The house was restored by the Cass County Historical Commission. As of 2013, the house operated as a public museum, the Newton House Museum.
Description
The George Newton House is significant as an unusually well-preserved example of an
Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...
country villa.
It is a two-story house clad with
clapboard
Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of these terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping.
''Clapboard'' in modern Americ ...
and a
hip roof
A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...
topped with a
belvedere Belvedere (from Italian, meaning "beautiful sight") may refer to:
Places
Australia
*Belvedere, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region
Africa
*Belvedere (Casablanca), a neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco
*Belvedere, Harare, Zim ...
. A
veranda
A veranda or verandah is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front and sides of the structure.
Although the form ''veran ...
runs across the front of the house and a hip roof ell projecting to one side. Overhanging eaves and a classical
cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
run under the roof.
References
External links
Newton House Museum- Tourism information
{{DEFAULTSORT:Newton, George, House
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan
Italianate architecture in Michigan
Houses completed in 1865
Museums in Cass County, Michigan
Michigan State Historic Sites
Historic house museums in Michigan
Houses in Cass County, Michigan
National Register of Historic Places in Cass County, Michigan