[1] In 1842, flour mill owner Jacob (or Jabez)[3] Fountain hired local builder William S. Carr[3] to build what is now the first floor of this house.

[3] Bessac died in 1885, and the house passed to his daughter Mary, and her husband, pharmacist George Haeussler.

[3] By 1947, the house had been either vacant or rented for some years, and Raynor Haeussler sold it to potato farmers Mary and Tom Walton.

[3] In 1949–50, the Waltons hired Emil Lorch, dean emeritus of the University of Michigan School of Architecture, to renovate and update the building.

The 1842 first floor is of a Greek Revival design, with a five-bay front facade and a portico stretching the width of the house.