Historic buildings, Ann Arbor, Michigan / by Marjorie Reade and Susan Wineberg.

120 Packard Road
Circa 1848 William W. Wines House (Dean House)
William Wallace Wines and his brother Daniel E. Wines, natives of Connecticut, married two sisters and took them West, to the new frontier of the
Michigan Territory. Daniel arrived in Washtenaw County in 1837 followed by
William in 1841 and together they operated a lumber mill in Ypsilanti.
William moved to Ann Arbor in 1848 and built this charming vernacular cottage, reminiscent of houses common "back East." Daniel came to Ann Arbor
two years later and built himself a house next door at 126 Packard. He then
entered the sash, door and blind business, and became a contractor and builder
while his brother William co-founded a clothing business known as Wines and
Worden.
Biographies of Daniel stress his importance as an early local builder, ranging
from comments that he "has erected many of the best business houses and private residences in Ann Arbor" to Fiske Kimball's comment that "two fine old
residences out Washtenaw Avenue, built by Daniel Wines" were "much appreciated by their owners of the faculty" and were "masonry covered with warm
stucco."
This house, which may have been built by Daniel for his brother William, is a
simple clapboard structure with a center entry and its long side facing the
street - features common in New England. It is probably an I-house, a folk
form two stories high and one room deep, though it has quite a large addition
on the rear which may be original to the house. The scallop edging is an
unusual touch - perhaps new designs made possible by machinery just beginning to make its appearance, perhaps a later embellishment. Old-fashioned
construction details include brick nogging found in the walls, a primitive form
of insulation (see 116), and wooden pegs for the framing.
The house was purchased by another pioneer, Nelson Strong, in the early
1870s after William built himself a grand brick Italianate house on the corer
of Packard and Main Streets. (It was demolished in the 1960s and is now the
site of Baker Commons). Shortly thereafter, Strong sold it to his son-in-law
Sedgewick Dean. Dean ran a grocery store on Main Street, but the family's
name has been perpetuated by his daughter Elizabeth, who willed the City of
Ann Arbor over a million dollars in 1964 for the special care of the city's trees.
The Elizabeth Dean Fund perpetuates the memory of this fine lady who
astonished the town with her generous bequest.
Elizabeth Dean had left this house long before she died, but her earliest years
were spent here. A scene from her daily life is revealed in the diary of visiting
nurse Emily Hollister, who wrote in July of 1890: "I come to Mr. Sedwick (sic)
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