Milton Henry Haselswerdt House

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

This Georgian-style residence was built for Milton Henry Haselswerdt (1882-1976), banker, real estate developer and prominent community leader in Rochester during the first half of the twentieth century. Haselswerdt was credited with preventing the failure of the First National Bank of Rochester during the Great Depression. He also served on the Rochester Board of Education, and served as a director or a principal investor in several Rochester businesses.

Images

Milton Henry Haselswerdt House, east elevation, 2013

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

This house was built in 1928 as the family residence of Milton Henry Haselswerdt and his wife, Augustine Blanchard Haselswerdt. The Rochester Era reported on October 12, 1928: "M. H. Haselswerdt, president of the First National bank, who is building a fine new 12-room home, is nearing completion. The house is of colonial design, with exterior walls of buff brick and tile roof. The colonial entrance and arched windows add much to the attractiveness."

The Detroit Free Press reported in March 1929 that the Haselswerdt family was moving into their new home, describing it in part, as follows: "Mr. and Mrs. Milton H. Haselswerdt moved into their charming new home on North Main street on Thursday of this week. The house which stands well back from the road is of buff brick and roof of green tile, partly colonial and partly Georgian in style, with long French windows either side of a circular, white-pillared entrance"

Milton H. Haselswerdt was born April 20, 1882 in Washtenaw County, Michigan, the son of Conrad J. and Elizabeth K. Haselswerdt. He married Augustine Blanchard on August 14, 1907 in St. Ignace, Michigan, and the couple had three children. Haselswerdt began his banking career in St. Ignace, but relocated to Rochester in 1908, where he participated in the organization of the First National Bank of Rochester.

Haselswerdt brought the First National Bank of Rochester out of the 1933 bank crisis in reorganized form, as the Rochester National Bank. This bank later merged with National Bank of Detroit (NBD), and Haselswerdt stayed with NBD as a director of the Rochester branch. He retired from National Bank of Detroit in 1957. Milton H. Haselswerdt died at Crittenton Hospital on September 11, 1976. He was entombed at White Chapel Cemetery in Troy.

Sources

"Builds Fine Home," Rochester Era, October 12, 1928, p.1.

"Mr. and Mrs. Milton H. Haselswerdt moved...," Detroit Free Press, March 24, 1929, p.7.

"Milton H. Haselswerdt, Retired Banker," [obituary], Detroit News, September 13, 1976, p.4C.

Avery, Lillian Drake (ed.), "An Account of Oakland County," in Fuller, George N. Historic Michigan: Land of the Great Lakes. Dayton, Ohio: National Historical Association, 1925?, vol.3,p.249

"Former Bank Head Dies at Age 94," Rochester Clarion, September 23, 1976, p.12.

"United States, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/J4SB-Z41 : accessed 27 Mar 2013), Milton Henry Haselswerdt, 1942.

"United States Census, 1940," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/K4GB-W46 : accessed 27 Mar 2013), Milton Hasklwerdt [sic: Haselswerdt], Rochester, Avon Township, Oakland, Michigan, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 63-3, sheet 61B, family 296, NARA digital publication T627, roll 1798.

"United States Census, 1930," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org /pal:/MM9.1.1/XQ1V-WY2 : accessed 27 Mar 2013), Milton H Haselwerdt, 1930.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

Deborah Larsen