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·Overview -
»Archives and Collections -
·Endowment Fund -
»History -
·Meet the Staff -
·Membership -
»Mothers, Daughters, and Leaders of Oakland County -
»Museum Site -
·Museum Store -
·Exhibits, Programs and Events -
·Renting Museum Buildings and Grounds -
»Rochester Grangers Vintage Base Ball -
·Stoney Creek Schoolhouse -
·Teachers Resources -
·Wall of Donors -
·WWII Honor Roll Monument -
·Your Wedding
Museum Site
·Overview -
·1840 Van Hoosen Farmhouse -
·1850 Red House -
·1927 Dairy Barn -
·Museum Grounds
The Van Hoosen Dairy Barn
Got History?
 Renovation to the 1927 Van Hoosen Dairy Barn is complete! This Nationally Registered Dairy Barn has been converted from a milking facility, that was once the cornerstone of the Van Hoosen dairy operation from 1927-1954, into a year-round cultural, educational, and recreational facility. The building is climate controlled and contains exhibit and display space, meeting room, media room, gift shop, kitchenette, archive room, and Museum offices. The building is fully handicapped accessible and includes forty paved parking sites nearby.
Visitors can enjoy permanent exhibits on the history of our local community, tour exhibits in our silos, enjoy a children's play area, a touch screen computer that contains hundreds of archival photographic images, gift shop, meeting room, temporary exhibits, and more!
The Van Hoosen Dairy Barn is open for drop in tours on Wednesdays Saturdays from 1:00-4:00pm Group tours and other times are available by appointment.
Permanent Exhibits
Van Hoosen Dairy Barn
 The permanent exhibit, "A Lively Town: Greater Rochester 1817-1952" identifies three major themes of our community's history.
Settlement (1817-1850) discusses our earliest pioneers. Who were they? Where did they come from? An Agricultural Community (1850-1900) interprets the various types of family subsistence farms as well as the changes in trade goods with the coming of the railroad. From Farms to Suburbs (1900-1952) explores the rise of suburbs, how our community evolved from small family farms to commercial agricultural operations, and the growth of industry through the products that were made in Rochester.
The Community Hall of Fame, sponsored by the Rochester Education Association, showcases 18 people who have impacted our community in monumental ways. The honorees are: Earl Borden, William Austin Burt, Tess the Horse, Bertha Van Hoosen, Madonna, Dorothy Beardmore, Fidelia Gillette, Richard Huizenga, James Graham, Matilda Rausch Dodge Wilson, Robert Clark Kedzie, Abram William Van Doren, Lt. Samuel Harris, Sarah Van Hoosen Jones, Howard Leadley McGregor Sr. and Howard Leadley McGregor Jr., Helen Southgate Williams, and Lysander Woodward. If you want to learn more about these individuals, please visit the exhibit.
Self-guided tours of this building are available Wednesdays through Saturdays from 1:00-4:00pm.
Other Dairy Barn Features
The entrance to the Dairy Barn features a vaulted ceiling where hay was once stored between the two grain silos.
The Van Hoosen bull pens contained the most valuable animals on the farm and the bulls were exported internationally.
The adaptive reuse of the Dairy Barn has turned the milking parlor into our permanent exhibit gallery. We have also preserved a portion of the original milking area.
A Meeting Room has been created that can be rented for a nominal fee. It features the comforts of a modern office- internet access, multimedia projectors, TV/VCR, while surrounded by the ambiance of a historic building.
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