Crocker House Museum & Gardens

This museum spotlights the late Victorian home-life experience influenced from the mineral bath era of Mount Clemens, Michigan. The first mayor of Mount Clemens, Joshua Dickinson, built this place in 1869 which was then passed on through many different generations. People from all over would come to Mount Clemens for the healing powers of mineral baths. A visit will take you back to when the Crocker family lived in the home and will educate about Mount Clemons famous mineral bath era. This time was a period of prosperous popularity within Mount Clemons as the resort city for mineral water.

The 1860s oil fever directly led to the discovery of mineral water which caused Mount Clemons to become notorious for supply for about 90 years. This Black water healed many different people with many different problems over the span of this century. Charles Steffens drilled the first well in 1862 and was looking for brine and happened to come upon a surplus of mineral water. At the beginning of 1985, the well was used for drilling once again. A farmer by the name of Dorr Kellogg discovered the unique healing powers of the mineral water when it cured his eczema. With this newfound miracle water, the public received the benefits of it as the healing began.

The mineral bath era span 1862 to about 1940. Due to the use of internal medicine after the Great Depression, this mineral bath era was ended but had a lasting impact on the city of Mount Clemons. Its popularity has never been higher than that of it from 1860-1940 and the most people are not around from that time making it easier to forget about every day. The Crocker House was not used for mineral bathing, but the time it was around made was directly in that time range. Truly, the Crocker House was just a family's home that is now used to remind those who are unaware of the notorious Mineral Bath era.

Joshua Dickinson gave Crocker house to his daughter back in 1870 after her marriage. George Crocker, a former prosecuting attorney, became mayor upon Joshua Dickinson's death which occurred less than one month after he took office. The house was then moved in 1908 to make room for a new post office, but the Crocker family remained in the home and owned the house until 1921. The goal at the Crocker house now is to educate those who have never heard of the mineral bath era as this is such an old building with a lot of symbolism. They hold events monthly to keep people coming back, although they are not as active, and their hours are not as convenient as those at most museums.

Accessed March 14th 2022. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=85658.

Accessed March 14th 2022. Calendar of Events (crockerhousemuseum.org).

Accessed March 14th 2022. https://cms8.revize.com/revize/mtclemenspublib/history/origins%20of%20the%20bath%20era.pdf.