Bela Hubbard

Bela Hubbard (April 23, 1814 – June 13, 1896) was a 19th-century naturalist, geologist, writer, historian, surveyor, explorer, lawyer, real estate dealer, lumberman and civic leader of early Detroit, Michigan, United States.

He graduated from Hamilton College in 1834, and in the spring of 1835 moved to Detroit, Michigan, to help manage the family's farm and land agency.

Hubbard was quick-deeded ownership of the two-hundred-and-fifty acre Knaggs farm at Springwells on the river southwest of Detroit.

Bela Hubbard used his farm not solely as a means of production but to apply scientific principles towards the advancement of agriculture.

Also in 1846 Hubbard edited and published with William Austin Burt a report on the copper region based on Houghton's notes from his 1845 survey.

He consulted Andrew Jackson Downing's works on the subject and became enamored with the author's philosophy of country living in a romantic villa surrounded by semi-natural parks and gardens.

Davis advised Hubbard to visit Llewellyn Park, a garden suburb that was one of the nation's first planned communities, and to inspect Haskell's Italian villa.

He authored many scientific, literary, and historical papers, and in 1888 published a volume entitled "Memorials of a Half Century in Michigan and the Lake Regions".

Windmill Point at Bela Hubbards farm in 1838
Bela Hubbard residence, "Vinewood", Alexander Jackson Davis, Architect. Built 1856. Demolished 1933. Detroit, Michigan