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Bloomfield Blossoms: p. 76-77

Smith, Kay, 1925-

Bloomfield Township Public Library

Bloomfield Township (Mich.) -- History

Elijah Bull House ""Old Oak"" (Bloomfield Township, Mich.) -- History

Dwellings -- Michigan -- Bloomfield Township -- History

GB01a040

part of 'Bloomfield Blossoms' by Kay Smith

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CANDIDATE #2- THE ELIJAH BULL HOUSE "OLD OAK" On the southeast shore of Wing Lake, on land originally owned by Sheriff Austin E. Wing, possibly on a land grant, Elijah Bull bought 160 acres on a patent signed by President Andrew Jackson October 1, 1829, as the assignee of Austin E. Wing. Here he built first a log house, and then, in 1833, a frame house to shelter his bride Melinda and later their ten children. He fashioned a wrought-iron doorknocker shaped like an oak leaf with an acorn clapper and called his house "Old Oak." Bull was a religious man, and as assistant to the Rev. Hornell received the first charter of a Presbyterian church in this area on June 1, 1831. He built a church on his property and was active in it until his death August 9, 1871. The church didn't long survive him, and the abandoned building was eventually moved to a site across the road on the Pickering Farm and used as a barn. It was struck by lightening and burned down in 1922. "How do you turn a church into a barn?" Homer Case once asked Helen Pickering. "Well, I guess you don't" Mrs. Pickering replied mildly, "It was struck by lightning, wasn't it?" The house has had six owners since the Bulls, and has undergone many renovations and updatings. Today the six-inch planks of white pine on the floors and the old huge fireplace with its brick oven are about the only portions of the original house remaining. Still, it does qualify as one of our oldest houses.