Rochester Hills Museum at Van Hoosen Farm

Welcome to the Rochester Hills Museum at Van Hoosen Farm! On Saturday, September 17 we will be offering:
- 1pm Vintage Baseball Game: Rochester Grangers vs Royal Oak Wahoos
- 12pm, 1pm, & 2pm Guided tours of the 1840s Farmhouse. Limited to 15 per tour capacity due to room size. First come, first serve. Check in at the front desk in the Dairy Barn.

Included with your admission is a self-paced, interactive look at our community’s local history. You also get to meet the Taylor-Van Hoosen families, check out Mastodon bones, and enjoy a wide variety of local videos from our ski jump to our award winning PBS movie and numerous computer interactives. The guided tour of the Van Hoosen Farmhouse departs from the Dairy Barn, and you may take a self-guided tour of the Bull Barn, Milk House, Equipment Barn, and Children’s Garden, as well as the nearby Stoney Creek Cemetery and our 16 acres or grounds. Come and share your afternoon with us at our site – listed on the National Register of Historic Places!

Exhibits

Welcome Center & Dairy Barn
Permanent Exhibit: The Museum’s permanent exhibit interprets the fascinating lives of the Taylor and Van Hoosen families and the history of our community. The exhibit features the following:

Video theater featuring an introductory video, PBS award-winning documentary film (Pioneer Family – On Van Hoosen Farm), and numerous local history video choices
Anishinabe (Native Americans) in our regional area as the first European settlers arrived
How the communities of Rochester and Stoney Creek grew, and the significance of the rivers and creeks in our growth
The Van Hoosen Family travels to China and Japan in the 1920s
Products made in the Greater Rochester Hills community
What’s new in the Archives exhibit case
Water powered mills
Newberry Hill ski jump
The Van Hoosen Dairy Barn
Community Hall of Fame
Women’s suffrage
Regional history trivia
Local flora
Mastodon bones
and more…

Van Hoosen Farmhouse
Built in 1840, several additions were added and the house is furnished with antiques from the family’s migration to Michigan and their world travels.

Bull Barn
The Bull Barn is open for self-guided tours on Fridays and Saturdays. Built in 1927, the Bull Barn housed the bulls, the most valuable and most dangerous animals in the herd.

Equipment Barn
The lower level of the Equipment Barn is open for self-guided tours on Fridays and Saturdays. Originally built in 1924, and rebuilt in 2021, the Equipment Barn functioned as a garage to store milk trucks, tractors, farm equipment, and cattle show supplies.

Milk House
The Milk House is open for self-guided tours on Fridays and Saturdays. Built in 1911, the Milk House served as a place to cool, test, process, and store milk before shipping it to market.

Red House
Guided tour of the Red House takes place immediately following the Van Hoosen Farmhouse Tour. Fridays and Saturdays and by appointment for group tours. Built in 1850, the Van Hoosen family owned this original Stoney Creek Village residence and rented it to workers on their farm.

Stoney Creek Schoolhouse
Local students use the 1848 Stoney Creek Schoolhouse throughout the school year. Public tours are available by appointment and during special events.

Museum Grounds
Surrounding the Museum buildings are 16 acres of beautiful gardens, meadows, and grounds bordered by Stoney Creek – including the award-winning Children’s Garden. You are welcome to stroll the Museum gardens during daylight hours, except during special events and weddings.

Stoney Creek Cemetery
Within a short ten-minute walk you can tour the Stoney Creek Cemetery and meet the soldiers, scholars, and pioneers from this early settlement. A tour map of the cemetery is available at the Dairy Barn reception desk during open hours.

Stoney Creek Village
Surrounding the Museum buildings is Stoney Creek Village – listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Be aware that traffic is very heavy in this area. Information is available at the Dairy Barn reception desk during open hours.

Please be respectful of these privately owned homes.

Participation in Museum Day is open to any tax-exempt or governmental museum or cultural venue on a voluntary basis. Smithsonian magazine encourages museum visitation, but is not responsible for and does not endorse the content of the participating museums and cultural venues, and does not subsidize museums that participate.