Museum tours available every week
The Rochester Hills Museum at Van Hoosen Farm is hosting an exhibit of historic maps until December, 2016. These maps range from sketches made by our earliest pioneers to a large 9 foot x 12 foot map painted by Gerry Post of a 1907 Rochester scene in downtown. The Museum also has information on various street and subdivision names as well as several Sanborn Fire Insurance maps of our community that show every building and every lot in the community.
Historic Map Exhibit Now Open
The Rochester Hills Museum is open for drop-in tours every Friday and Saturday from 1- 4 p.m. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Museum encompasses 16 acres of historic buildings, gardens, houses, barns, children’s garden, historic landscape, and a schoolhouse. The area was settled in 1823 by the Lemuel Taylor family. After Lemuel’s daughter, Sarah, married Joshua Van Hoosen the farm named changed. Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen, a renowned surgeon, grew up here and practiced medicine from the family home. Dr. Sarah Van Hoosen Jones bred world class Holstein cattle on the farm and traveled internationally. The 1840 Van Hoosen Farmhouse is filled with treasures from their travels.
The 1850 Red House was a tenant farmhouse and is furnished very simply representing the early settlements days in the Michigan frontier.
The Dairy Barn has permanent exhibits displaying settlement, agriculture, and suburbanization of our regional area. An orientation video, Community Hall of Fame and various touch screen computers provide guests with an interactive experience.
Within walking distance is the Stoney Creek Cemetery – where Soldiers, Scholars, and Pioneers from our community are buried – guests can pick up a cemetery guide at the Dairy Barn front desk.
During summer months, fishing is available in Stoney Creek – guests can check out a fishing pole and bait at the Dairy Barn front desk.
Admission is free for Museum members and $5 adults, $3 students and seniors. Rochester Community School students get free admission by showing their library card.
For the past 193 years, the Museum has been located at 1005 Van Hoosen Road, off Tienken Road between Rochester and Dequindre Roads.
For more information visit www.rochesterhills.org/museum or call 248-656-4663
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