The Old Michigan at Sawyer Homestead
Overview
The Sawyer House, also known as the Sawyer Homestead and in its previous incarnation as the Navarre House, is a city-owned house located at 320 East Front Street in Monroe, Michigan. It was listed as a Michigan Historic Site on June 19, 1975. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 23, 1977, and is also part of the larger Old Village Historic District. The home was given to the City of Monroe by Dr. Sawyer’s daughter Jenny Toll Sawyer in 1938. The house has been used by the Red Cross, the Camp Fire Girls, the Boy Scouts and the Monroe County Historical Society Museum. The Sawyer Homestead is used for events such as weddings, showers and receptions with the proceeds going to maintenance of the historic house. The house remains owned by the City of Monroe and is available for public use through the custodial group, called The Sawyer Homestead, a group who collects rent to fund the house’s upkeep.
History of the Sawyer Homestead
The Sawyer Homestead within Monroe County has had a place in the everyday life of Monroe since the City’s beginnings. It is the site of the home of the first white settler in Monroe, Francois Navarre. His farm was acquired from the Potawatomi Indians in 1785 and served as a center for the River Raisin settlement. General Winchester made the Navarre home his military headquarters prior to the Battle of the River Raisin in 1813. Dr. Alfred I. Sawyer and his family lived there from 1859 to 1870. It was then demolished to make room for the present structure. The charming Italianate home was completed in 1873.
Dr. Sawyer was one of the early proponents of homeopathy as the correct philosophy of medicine. He was an American delegate to the International Homeopathic Congress in London in 1881 and was elected president of the National Institute of Homeopathy in 1889.
Get familiar with the property and its background
The property was settled in as early as 1785 along the banks of the River Raisin, and it was the first piece of land settled by European explorers. There have been two different houses on the property since 1785. The first house on the property was built by early-French explorer Francois Navarre, who was the first European to settle the area that would later become Monroe. The property was given to Navarre and served as the center of the new settlement. The Navarre House was famously used as the military headquarters for James Winchester, who commanded his troops during the ill-fated Battle of Frenchtown during the War of 1812. The house had several different owners, but its namesake comes from Dr. Alfred Sawyer, who was a famous early proponents of homeopathy. Dr. Sawyer lived on the property from 1859 to 1870. When the Navarre House was demolished in 1873 to make way for the current house, it was the oldest structure in the county.
The Uniqueness of the Sawyer Homestead
The Sawyer House, built in Italianate architecture, replaced the Navarre House on the property in 1873. Timbers from the original Navarre House were used to create the stair banister in the Sawyer House. While Dr. Sawyer did not live in the house after 1870, the property remained in his family’s ownership. His daughter, Jenny Toll Sawyer, gave the house to the city of Monroe in 1938. The house stood empty before a group of citizens pooled their private funds and restored the building, creating an organization whose main reason for existence was the maintenance of the historic structure.
Next place of interest: Monroe Escape Rooms
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