In April 1888, Olive Friend and her young son, William, moved into the house she had just built. It was a gorgeous “stick style” Victorian house on County Road east of Milan. Olive bought 40 acres from her Uncle Henry Hack and his wife, Mary, to use for the house and farm.
When she moved into the house, Olive was a recent widow. Her husband, Prof. Henry Friend, had died in New York March 10, 1888 just before a terrible snowstorm hit. Since he was a major figure with the New York Electric Sugar Refining Company, the company kept his death a secret to prevent people from selling their stock.
Olive knew it was a good time to leave New York and come back to her home town of Milan. Soon the people in New York and in Europe would find out that their investments in the Electric Sugar Refining Company were worthless. Soon the people would want to punish Olive and her family for tricking them into thinking they could refine sugar with an electric process.
Olive lived in her house, making an addition on the back which more than doubled its size. Olive’s mother, Emily Burnham Howard, had a nearly identical home built on the northeast corner of Arkona and Platt Roads north of Milan.
When Olive moved out of the beautiful house, she sold it to her Uncle Henry Hack. Later the house was owned by James and Daily Hack, and it was known as the “Hack House.
Owens-Illinois bought the Hack House from Jim and Daisy in 1968.
In 1991, the
Hack House was honored with a listing in the National Register of Historic Places, building #91000441. It is listed as the Friend-Hack House with the National Register of Historic Places.
The Hack House museum is open from May to late November on Fridays from 1:00
p.m. to 4:00 pm. It is open upon request for special events.
© 2001-2008 Milan Area Historical Society, P.O. Box 245, Milan, Michigan 48160.
Contact: Sara K. Ford, membership chairman:
734-439-4007 or sarak.ford@yahoo.com
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Martha A. Churchill, Webmaster, milanhistory at yahoo dot com.