201 West Henry Street

1994 Survey Photo by Kosky & Glynn Associates
Copyright held by the City of Saline

Photo by Lori Swick
October 2012

Architectural Description: This is a two-and-one-half story Queen Anne style house. It has a hipped roof with lower cross-gables. There is a two-story bay on the west elevation. A shingled beltcourse forms the roof of the front porch and continues on the west bay and east porch. The north-facing façade has a partial-width porch with turned supports and a spindlework balustrade and frieze. The porch details have been changed since the 1994 Survey photo.
Above the front porch, there is a sleeping porch with similar detailing. The side (east) porch (neither seen or described in the 1994 survey) has matching details as well. The front gable has a small semi-Palladian window in the peak and the side gables contain pairs of small square windows. All gables contain a combination of visually interesting patterned shingles.

History: This house was built in 1894 for George and Emma Nissley. The Nissleys purchased the property on West Henry in 1885, while they were living at 9279 Macon Road (now the Homestead Bed and Breakfast). A drawing of the farmstead on Macon Road can be seen on the 1874 Combination Atlas Map of Washtenaw County, Michigan with the name George Neissle. In 1880, George Nissley began publishing the Saline Observer. In the 1899 Saline Village Directory, George was listed as the proprietor of a Michigan poultry farm on Henry W., Saline. The original Nissley property on West Henry included much of the land from Mark Hannah Court to the Oakwood Cemetery on Monroe Street. George Nissley died in 1902, at the young age of 44. Emma remained in the house on until her death in 1935. George and Emma’s daughter, Luella (Nissley) Parsons and her husband Harry Emmons Parsons, Sr. were listed as living at 201 West Henry St. in the 1945 Saline City Directory.

Sources:
Everts and Stewart. Combination Atlas Map of Washtenaw County, Michigan. Chicago: Dural and Hunter, 1874.

"Historic District Study Committee Report of West Henry/South Lewis Local Historic District." 2001.

Kosky & Glynn Associates. "Historical and Architectural Survey." Saline, Michigan. 1994.

"U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989."  http://home.ancestry.com/.

Suggested Reading: McAlester, Virginia, and Lee McAlester. A Field Guide to American Houses. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984.

Prepared by Lori Swick
April 17, 2013