This house was built in stages between the 1860s and the 1930s. In 1889 Dr. John B. Laing and his wife, Harriet, purchased the house. Raised in Vermont, Laing (1846-1908) came to Otisville in 1871 as one of the village’s earliest physicians, and became one of Otisville’s most important citizens.

The first permanent structure erected on this site was probably the trading post built in 1819 by Jacob Smith, the founder of Flint. Fluent in English, French, German, and a half-dozen Indian languages, Smith represented the Chippewa nation at the Great Council held in 1819. At that council, the Indians ceded 6 million acres of land to the federal government. Five sections of that land, including this site, were reserved for Smith’s children.

Near this site stood the home of Henry Howland Crapo (1804-1869). Born in Massachusetts, Crapo in 1858 moved his family to Flint, where he had invested in timberland. Here, he developed a prosperous lumbering business, which became one of the largest and most successful in the state. In 1863-64 Crapo turned his attention to railroading. He was instrumental in the construction of the Flint and Holly Railroad and served as its president until 1868. Originally a Whig, Crapo became a Republican early in his political career. He became mayor of Flint in 1860 and a state senator in 1863. In 1864 he was chosen as Michigan’s thirteenth governor.

In 1835 Rufus and Sarah Harrison settled on this property, traveling by ox team from Detroit. It was said their farm was the first in Flushing Township to be cleared.

At the close of the nineteenth century, many rural Michigan school districts were in crisis as people left farms for the city and industrial jobs. A 1903 state law authorized consolidation of districts and provided for public transportation to ensure access to more distant schools. Local schools quickly responded and in 1904 nearby districts Porter and Cook had joined with Grand Blanc.

Glenwood Cemetery was established in 1857. It is one of only a few mid-nineteenth-century Michigan cemeteries to feature a rolling landscape with winding roadways. The original cemetery, the western section of the present grounds, displays a broad range of historic funerary art.

Genesee County was organized on March 8, 1836. The previous year the territorial legislature had stipulated that the county seat would be located on the west side of the Saginaw Turnpike “on lands recently deeded by John Todd and wife” to Wait Beach. Beach would in turn donate two acres of land to the county for “a courthouse and public square, one acre of ground for a burial ground, two churches and two school lots of common size.”

This one-story mill was built in the early 1880s as part of an unsuccessful effort to diversify the Flint Woolen Mills. In 1886 J. Dallas Dort and Billy Durant began leasing it to manufacture road carts. By the end of its first year of operation, their Flint Road Cart Company had produced four thousand vehicles. The company later expanded to produce four-wheeled carriages, wagons, and, for a short time, bicycles.

First United Methodist Church, one of the oldest congregations in Genesee County, began with services held in Lewis Buckingham’s home in 1836. The Reverend Luther D. Whitney, a Flint circuit rider, and nine other people organized the congregation in 1838. Their first church, built in 1850, was moved to Genesee Street in 1865-66.

From its founding in 1864 through its closing in 1933 during the Great Depression, the First National Bank played a significant role in its home city´s development. The bank made loans and extended lines of credit to several fledgling motor companies, including Chevrolet, Dort, Monroe, and Mason. Charles Nash, president of both Buick and General Motors, served on the board of directors, as did Arthur G. Bishop, the first vice president of General Motors.

In 1840 Flushing residents began holding religious services in James Seymour´s sawmill. In 1842 the First Methodist Episcopal Church was organized. As part of the Flint River Circuit, the Methodists were ministered to by circuit riders.

As Americans settled the wilderness areas of Michigan, religious services were often the first community concern. Beginning in 1831, traveling preachers visited this area, holding revival and prayer meetings, and starting new congregations. One of the earliest Protestant churches between Pontiac and the Mackinac area was the First Baptist Church of Grand Blanc founded on June 1, 1833.

In March 1837 the Reverend Washington Jackson formed a Methodist congregation in Dibbleville (present-day Fenton) at the home of Levi Warren. Warren donated land and the first church was built in 1853.

Constructed soon after the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad reached town in 1855, this hotel has been a favorite resting and dining spot for over a century. It was said in 1883 that the guests were “entertained in a style unsurpassed in many large cities.”

E.S. Swayze opened a drugstore on this site prior to 1870. When the store burned in 1874, Swayze built this one. Members of the Free Methodist Church used the second-floor meeting hall for services from 1887 to 1890.

Clark Dibble came here from New York State in 1834 and laid claim to forty acres of government land. Known as Dibbleville, this area was Fenton’s original business district. It encompasses the A. J. Phillips Library, two churches and two commercial blocks.

Jonathan Davison (1795-1865), a native of Livingston County, New York, purchased 160 acres of land here in 1831. His son, John W. Davison, a farmer and carpenter, completed the rear portion of the present structure in 1855. He enlarged it to its present size in 1870.

In 1841 the Genesee County Board of Commissioners deeded this property to what became the First Methodist Episcopal Church, the oldest organized religious group in the city.

In 1833 eleven people established the First Congregational Church of Grand Blanc. The congregation, which held its early services in homes and, later, schoolhouses, built their first house of worship in 1855.