Botsford--Graser House National Register of Historic Places Listing

In the 1830s, pioneers flooded Michigan. Lemuel Botsford, a Quaker farmer from upstate New York, was one of them, snapping up cheap government land in Farmington Hills. He built his home around 1845. This was no grand plantation mansion, but rather a modest, timber-framed Greek Revival farmhouse built with heavy local oak beams. It had classic low-pitched gables. You can still see the ax marks on the joists downstairs. Botsford wanted something familiar, so he recreated the architectural styles of his youth right in the frontier mud.

Most of these old farmhouses vanished after World War II. Developers bulldozed them for subdivisions and strip malls. But this one survived. Albert Graser bought the place in 1915, preserving the hand-carved trim while dragging the plumbing into the modern era. Decades later, concrete swallowed the surrounding fields. Orchard Lake Road turned into a busy multi-lane corridor, yet the house held its ground. It remains a rare physical link to the county's pre-industrial farming days. An unlikely survivor of relentless suburban sprawl.