Priscilla Calkins Prior House / Priscilla Calkins Prior House

Frederic and Priscilla Prior and four of their seven children were among Milford Township’s earliest settlers. Originally from Massachusetts, the Priors came to Michigan in 1835 and settled near Sears Lake. This house was completed soon after Frederic’s death in 1840. Priscilla married Charles Colton of New York and continued to live in the house following his death in 1853. Prior family descendants owned the property until 1936. Built around 1841, the Prior house exemplifies Greek Revival residential architecture. The house mimicks the New England saltbox form, no doubt familiar to Frederic and Priscilla Prior who built the house after migrating from Massachusetts in 1835. The house originally occupied a forty-acre farm. Owned by descendants of the original owners until 1936, the house was associated with one of Milford’s most prominent pioneer families.