On September 21, 1887 Olive E. (nee VanNess) Friend purchased 1 and 43/100 acres, about one mile east of the village of Milan, from William and Mary Hack. Mary (nee Case) Hack was the half-sister of Olive's mother Emily (nee Burnham) Howard. Olive and her husband Henry Friend planned to build their country home away from New York City where Henry Friend was involved with the New York Electric Sugar Company.
In January of 1888 Olive borrowed $7,000 from William Hack and started having the house built. The buildings that were planned to be built at this time were the house, an out-house, a chicken coop where OLive planned to house her exotic birds, and a carriage barn.
Henry Friend died in a snow storm in early spring of 1888. Olive and her three year old son William H. Friend moved to the new home and on April 19, 1888 purchased an additional 2 and 1/2 acres from William and Mary Hack.
In 1893 the book Art Work of Washtenaw County was published. In the book is a photo labeled "The Residence of Mrs. Olive C. Friend - Milan". This is a photo of the house after the house was expanded to include several more rooms that doubled the size of the house.
In 1895 an atlas of Washtenaw County, Michigan, was published. On the York township plat map there is listed O.E. Friend with a 36.5 acre lot with two buildings.
In December of 1888, Olive, her mother Emily Howard and step-father William E. Howard, her cousin by marriage Orin Halstead and Orin's brother George started having legal troubles with the New York Electric Sugar Company. By the time the trouble was over, William E. Howard was sentenced to seven years in Sing Sing, a New York state prison; the other four had spend a year in the Tombs - the New York City jail, before being released without going to trial.
Olive was finanically ruined and left the area in 1895. The property and buildings were then purchased by William and Mary Hack. They moved from the village of Milan to their new home with their son James (Jim) who was about 14 years old.
William Hack was a farmer and a stock trader. He had several other buildings build on the property: a barn, a pig house, a milk house and a granery. Jim Hack started courting Daisy Cooper and in 1903 they were married. Jim and Daisy lived at the Hack house with Jim's parents. William Hack died in 1907 and around 1915 Mary Hack moved to the village to be closer to her social activities. Jim and Daisy were finally masters of the house.
In 1968 Owens-Illinois, Inc. purchased 40 acres from Jim and Daisy Hack, including the house and farm buildings. The Hacks had a provision that they could live in the house as long as they wanted. In 1975 the Hacks moved to the Evangelical Home in Saline. Jim died in 1978 at the age of 98 and Daisy died in 1984 at the age of 104.
In 1980 Owens-Illinois donated the Hack House, four outbuildings and 1.267 acres of land to the Milan Area Historical Society.
In 1991 the Hack House was listed in the National Register of Historic Plances.
In 1993 the Hack House was opened as a historic house museum.
The Hack House museum is opened from May to late November on Fridays from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.. It is opened on some Saturdays for special events. Students from the Milan Schools visit the Hack House each year as part of their local history / social study classes.
Last Changed on September 20, 2005.