In 1824 Joshua Simmons of Bristol, New York, obtained a federal patent for 160 acres in Livonia Township. He and his wife, Hannah, were among the township's earliest white settlers, first living in a log shanty built in 1826. In 1841 they built the house in the Greek Revival style popular in New York State, and the farm was named Meadow Brook. Joshua Simmons (1801-1882) hewed lumber for the earliest barns and mills in Livonia, Farmington, and Plymouth, and as he acquired more acreage he became one of Livonia's most prominent landholders. In 1920 Sherwin and Jean Boyd Hill bought the farm and renamed it Greenmead. The city of Livonia acquired the property in 1976 as a park, and it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.