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

332 East Washington Street
Methodist Episcopal Parsonage 1858
This former Methodist Episcopal parsonage is architecturally significant as one
of a small number of well preserved Greek Revival homes remaining in downtown Ann Arbor. Its unusual exterior detailing is indicative of its late date and
suggestive of the general transformation in architectural taste from classical to
picturesque that was taking place in the 1850s.
A two-story, front-gable clapboard structure with a one-and-a half story rear
wing, distinctive details include the entry with sidelights and transom, the triangular window in the gable, and the full entablature decorated with dentils.
The building's late date within the Greek Revival idiom is most evident in the
scalloped trim on the front eaves.
The house also possesses local historical importance in having been constructed to house the Reverend Seth Reed, one of the leading lights of Methodism in
Michigan in the 19th century. Reverend Reed was admitted to the Michigan
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1844 and served as pastor of
various churches in southeast Michigan. In 1857 he was appointed to serve the
Ann Arbor congregation, established in 1827. During his short but successful
pastorate (1857-59), the church, a large frame building on the southeast corer
of Ann Street and Fifth Avenue, was enlarged and modernized and the Washington Street parsonage conSstructed. The house seems to
have served its original purpose until about 1881.
The next owner was English
immigrant William Allaby, a
shoe merchant, who purchased the property in 1882
and lived there until his death
in 1910. Albert M. Graves
acquired the property in 1924
and the following year established Grave's Garage at the
rear of the site. Graves died in 1927 but Mrs. Graves continued to live there
until her death in 1962, dividing the house into apartments in 1957.
Mr. Peter Heydon restored the building in 1980, and rehabilitated its interior
for office and residential use. A year later, the Historical Society of Michigan
honored Mr. Heydon for his efforts (see 160).
NR, IHP