Built in approximately 1850, the Red House originally stood across the street from the Van Hoosen Farmhouse. Designed in the Greek Revival style, the small structure appears to have been built in three different phases, suggesting additions that accommodated changes in family size. Dr. Sarah Van Hoosen Jones purchased the house for use as a tenant farmhouse so her employees could live near the Van Hoosen Farm, and she had it moved across the street, over the existing wall, onto a new foundation. A northern lean-to addition, added before the move, provided a first-floor bathroom and bedroom. In 1954, during a trip to Vermont, Sarah Van Hoosen Jones saw a similar house painted bright red, and in 1955 the house, then known as the brown house, was moved slightly north and west to its present location, modernized, and painted red. The fireplace, chimney, and octagon-shaped window near the roof on the north side were added then; otherwise the exterior remained the same. In December 1996, Michigan State University gave the house to the City of Rochester Hills, and since then the building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has undergone a complete restoration.