Friend–Hack House facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Friend–Hack House
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 Location in Michigan
Location in the United States
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| Location | 775 County St., Milan, Michigan |
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| Area | 1.3 acres (0.53 ha) |
| Built | 1888 |
| Architectural style | Stick / Eastlake |
| NRHP reference No. | 91000441 |
| Added to NRHP | April 25, 1991 |
The Friend–Hack House, also known as the Hack House, is a historic building in Milan, Michigan. It was built as a private home in 1888. Today, it is a museum called the Hack House Museum. This house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.
Contents
The Story of the Hack House
The Hack House has an interesting history, starting with its first owner, Olive Friend. She had the house built in 1888. Later, it became home to the Hack family for many years.
Olive Friend and the Sugar Company
In the mid-1880s, a man named Professor Henry Friend claimed he could refine sugar using electricity. He started a company called the Electric Sugar Refining Company in 1884. The company quickly became very successful. Its stock prices rose a lot in just a few years.
Professor Friend passed away in 1888. After his death, his wife, Olive, and her parents took over the company. Olive was originally from Milan, Michigan. She bought land from her uncle, William Henry Harrison Hack. She then had this house built on that land.
A Family Home in Milan
After her husband's death, Olive Friend moved back to Milan in 1888. She lived in this new house with her young son. Soon, other people involved in the Electric Sugar Refining Company became suspicious. They investigated the company's factory.
In early 1889, they found out that Professor Friend's special sugar refining process was not real. There was no machine. Olive and her parents were questioned about the company. Olive and her mother were later released.
Olive returned to this house in Milan. She added a new part to the back of the house. Her mother also built a similar house nearby. Olive soon remarried and moved away to Detroit. She sold the house to her uncle, William Henry Hack. Olive passed away in 1902.
The Hack Family and the Museum
William and Mary Hack moved into the house. In 1901, their son James and his wife Daisy also moved in. James and Daisy Hack lived in the house for a very long time, until 1973.
After the Hack family, a company bought the house. In 1980, the company gave the house to the Milan Area Historical Society. This society now runs the house as the Hack House Museum. It helps people learn about the history of the area.
What the Hack House Looks Like
The Friend–Hack House is a great example of a building style called Stick and Eastlake. It is a large, two-story house with a pointed roof. It has extra parts added to the back and side.
The house is covered with wooden boards called clapboard. Some parts, like the gables (the triangular parts of the roof), have diagonal boards. You can also see decorative wooden posts under the gables. Large porches, called verandahs, go around parts of the house.
Around the main house, there are also smaller buildings. These include a wash house, an outhouse, a carriage house (for horses and carriages), and a chicken coop. These buildings show what a home might have looked like in the late 1800s.
