page_title: Gordon Hall (Dexter, Michigan)
section_title: Gordon Hall history
hierarchical_section_title: Gordon Hall (Dexter, Michigan) / Gordon Hall history
caption_attribution_description: English: Gordon Hall Dexter MI basement plan
context_page_description: Gordon Hall, also known as the Judge Samuel W. Dexter House, is a private house located at 8341 Island Lake Road in Dexter, Michigan. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1958 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The house is unique in Michigan for its balance, large scale, and massive hexastyle portico. The structure is also significant as the dwelling of Judge Samuel W. Dexter, a pioneering Michigan resident and land baron who had a substantial impact on early development of Washtenaw County and other sections of the state. The house was later owned by Dexter's granddaughter Katherine Dexter McCormick, a pioneering research scientist, suffragist, and philanthropist. In its early days, Gordon Hall hosted at least two, and possibly three United States presidents, and it was almost certainly a stop along the Underground Railroad.
context_section_description: Dexter chose a site on a prominent hilltop to build his country estate. He hired architect Calvin T. Fillmore (brother of Millard Fillmore) to design his new country house.  Fillmore had moved to Washtenaw County in 1837, and had a successful career as an architect and builder.  Dexter himself also had some hand in the design.  Overseeing the building was Fillmore's assistant Sylvester Newkirk, who later went on to become a successful contractor, and also to marry Fillmore's niece Viola Johnson.  Construction on Gordon Hall began in 1841, and wasn't completed until 1843.  The substantial construction time was due in great part to the difficulty in obtaining lumber, much of which had to be hauled in from Flint or Detroit.  However, once construction was complete, the Dexters moved from their previous house on Huron Street into the new country house (the Huron Street house was demolished in 1937).
  The Dexters, as prominent citizens, entertained many important visitors, including US Presidents James K. Polk and James Buchanan.  Although it is not certain, it is likely that a third president, Millard Fillmore, also visited Gordon Hall – it is known that Fillmore visited his brother Calvin, and it is likely the pair would have toured the house that Calvin designed.
  Samuel Dexter was a staunch abolitionist, and it is nearly certain that Gordon Hall was a stop on the Underground Railroad.  There is some evidence that Millisent Dexter employed a string of Black servants, all of whom were recent arrivals to the village and none of whom stayed for any length of time.  In oral histories, Samuel Dexter and his sons were identified as conductors on the Underground Railroad.  More telling, it has been documented that Gordon Hall once contained a secret room in the basement, accessible through a trap door on the south porch and from concealed openings in crawlspaces under the other porches.  Although the trap door was removed during remodeling and the "secret" room had doors cut to it, the passages to the crawl space remain in the house.
  Samuel Dexter lived in Gordon Hall until he died on January 6, 1863.  Millisent Dexter and some of their children continued to live in the house.  Millisent made some alterations to the structure, most significantly removing one of the wings and adding a four-story tower in its place in the 1870s.  Samuel Dexter's business operations were passed to Wirt Dexter, his only son.  Wirt sold off much of the surrounding land, so that by 1875 the estate was down to about 70 acres.  On June 27, 1899, Millisent Dexter died.  Her will specified that Gordon Hall was to be sold, with the proceeds of the sale being split among her daughters.  In 1900, the house was sold to Thomas Birkett, a prominent local banker and miller.
  Birkett lived in the house for some time, but at some point moved out, leaving it vacant. By the time of his death in 1916, the structure was in very poor condition. After Birkett's death, the property was purchased by Dr. Charles G. Crumrine, a physician from Detroit whose health was failing and who wished to retire to the country. Crumrine moved into Gordon Hall in 1919, repairing the structure and adding a new roof. He ran the property for some time as a farm, but was soon overcome by illness and died in 1924. Crumrine willed the property to his son, Charles Jr. The younger Crumrine rented out portions of the house, but then allowed it to go vacant for many years, and again fall into disrepair. In 1934, the Historic American Buildings Survey project documented the building, taking photographs and making drawings of the exterior.
  In 1939, Katherine Dexter McCormick purchased the property.  McCormick was the daughter of Judge Samuel Dexter's son Wirt, and had been born in Gordon Hall in 1875.  She had graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1904 with a BS in Biology; the Institute's second woman graduate. She then married Stanley McCormick, the son of Cyrus McCormick.  Katherine McCormick conducted research in biochemistry and schizophrenia, was instrumental in achieving the
caption: Basement plan: note trap door callout on left
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