In November of 2004, the Hoyt House, located at 146 W. Lawrence St., in Pontiac, within the Franklin Boulevard Historic District, became the Sibley-Hoyt House. Eighteen years of research had come to an end for me. The house that I purchased in December of 1986, with little known history, now had a complete identity and paper trail of how it came to be. This new, complete history is on file with the Michigan Department of History, and the National Trust for Historic Places. 

     Sibley's Cabin, an 18x20' cabin is at the center of this old place. The early crude structure was built by Solomon and Sarah Sibley, absentee landlords who provided the primary financing for the settlement of the Village of Pontiac and the construction of its first structures, including the mercantile and mills. The house has seen many changes through the years, including the addition of another house that was moved to this site in 1867 by George Hoyt. The Hoyt family made their home here for 111 years, teaching music and dance from here for 101 of those years. But the significance of this crooked and stand-alone structure existed long before the Hoyts came to town. 

     Solomon Sibley, above, and his wife Sarah, were the central figures behind Pontiac's settlement, in that they provided the oversight and financial means for the first buildings and management team. The Sibley-Hoyt House cabin was built on a 10-acre outlot, owned by the Sibleys.  It would have been used as housing for itinerant workers, with the cellar being a community resource, likely the first cellar built in Pontiac. The cabin was built out of sawn timbers, except the hewn mud sills, which means it couldn't have existed before 1820, when the saw mill was completed. Surely, it was one of the first things built once the mill was up and running. Sibley was an important man in Detroit, the territory, and nationally. He was Detroit's first mayor and drafted its first charter. He was a territorial supreme court judge, and congressman. He was also appointed to chair the committee that was responsible for dividing and selling land to veterans from the War of 1812. As such, he had unique access to the purchase of land in the area that came to be known as Pontiac, named for the prominent Ottawa Indian chief. The land that he and other members of the Pontiac Company purchased, was deeded to them in 1818. The first structure was completed in late fall of that year, one year after Rochester's settlement.

     Sarah Sproat Sibley, Solomon's wife, was said to have brought the first piano to Detroit. She was instrumental in Pontiac's fledgling start as the overseer of the Pontiac Company's activity while Solomon was in Washington, and elsewhere. One letter from Sarah to Solomon describes financial difficulties where Stephen Mack and Shubael Conant, partners in Mack, Conant, and Sibley, prevail upon Sarah to write Solomon asking for financial aid in procuring provisions, mostly food, for the new town. The partnership of these three men was in place to carry out the commerce of the new village, getting buildings built; provisions shipped, stored, and rationed; surveying; and selling land parcels.

ABOVE: An early water-powered mill, similar in nature to the first mills erected in Pontiac. The saw mill was operational by 1820, financed by Solomon & Sarah Sibley. 
ABOVE: Elizabeth (Denison) Forth, was born enslaved in the 1780s in Macomb County, Michigan. In 1825 Solomon and Sarah Sibley sold Mrs. Forth 48.5 acres of land in Pontiac, making her the first woman of color to own land in Michigan. She was free at the time. On November 5, 1992, a historical marker was dedicated through efforts of Mrs. Cora Bradshaw, and her Pontiac, elementary students. It is located in the eastern section of Oak Hill Cemetery, where Mrs. Forth's land was located. 
ABOVE:  The 23-Star Flag became the offical U.S. flag on July 4th, 1820, with the admission of Alabama and Maine to the Union. This is the flag that would have flown at the time the Sibley-Hoyt House, Sibley's cabin, was constructed. James Monroe was president. The flag changed two years later to the 24-Star Flag. Beginning in 1818, when Pontiac was founded, it was decided that only stars would be added for new states, versus a star and stripe as had been done previously. At that time, the flag reverted from fifteen stripes, on the Star Spangled Banner flag of 1814, to thirteen stripes, representing the thirteen founding colonies.

     The little cabin was crude in nature by evidence still here. It languished for some forty-three years before George Hoyt, Professor of music from New York state, bought it and made it his home. In preparation for his marriage to Carrie Wilcox, in 1867, he bought, or was given, a nearby Greek Revival two-story house, that he proceded to have moved to this site and attached to the cabin. George and Carrie had a daughter, Georgia, in 1878. George died in 1885. Several changes occurred over the fifteen or twenty years following George's death, and essentially none since.

Music Taught Here

101 Years

     This picture is the Hoyt House in the first half of the twentieth century. Not sure when. You can barely make out the Victorian porch on the right side of the house, halfway back: the first deck. This porch was gone when I bought it. Additions made by Mrs. Hoyt, and her daughter Georgia include an indoor toilet, and bathroom, fireplace, formal dining room, and the wide front porch. There was only a small front stoop here when this part of the house was moved here. All the Hoyts taught music. George came to Michigan initially through Charles Palmer, of the Myrick-Palmer House, and taught music at the Romeo Academy in Romeo, Michigan where Palmer was the principal. George was blind. The Hoyts had a music store in Pontiac for a few years: Lockwood & Hoyt. Professor Hoyt was partner with Charles Lockwood, formerly of Detroit. They also had a publishing company: Lockwood & Hoyt. After the store closed, the old sign was used to make new cellar stairs here. Access to the cellar in this house changed at least three times over the years. Carrie Hoyt is shown in a city directory as a music teacher from her home, after George passed. Georgia went to school for dance, and taught music and dance here for over sixty-five years.

ABOVE: Georgia Hoyt in one of her gardens here, with a feline friend. She was also an animal rights activist, being a founding member of two animal humane societies. The Michigan Animal Rescue League, still operating in Pontiac, had its first meeting in this house.

     Overall, this house has changed very little in the past one hundred years. It is a time capsule of home improvements from the early 19th century, to the turn of the 20th century.

     These are the original cedar shingles on the front portion of the house that was moved here in 1867. These shingles date to around 1840. Altogether, there were six layers of roofing on this portion of the house when I put the new roof on in the summer of 2007. I am also in the process of doing a complete, and thorough exterior paint job, among other things.

     The Sibley-Hoyt House is located two blocks south of Huron St. (M-59), and one block west of the Woodward Loop (the west side of the loop) near downtown Pontiac. The home is flanked by two large sugar maples.

HOUSE NEWS

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ABOVE: Sibley-Hoyt House, fall 2007 after putting on its first new roof, ever, over the entire structure.

March, 2009, and the sap is running. There are two very old sugar maples here, and one about thirty years old. I have eight buckets on trees as of today, March 14, 2009 and the sap is running well.