Barber Briggs House

Barber and Mary Swan Briggs migrated to the Ann Arbor area from New York State in 1834. They moved to a large parcel of land near Grand Rapids in 1850, clearing it for a farm and constructing this house in 1850-52. Their son Edward served in the Michigan House of Representatives from 1873 to 1876, and around 1875 their son Charles developed the property into an eighty acre dairy farm called the Oakgrove Dairy Company. In 1911 Charles Briggs sold eleven acres of land at the corner of Oakwood Avenue and Knapp Street to the city of Grand Rapids for use as a park, which the city named Briggs Park. The Briggs farmland was eventually subdivided as the Pasadena Park neighborhood; however, the farmhouse has remained in the Briggs family for over 150 years.

Grand Rapids, Michigan · United States