Days are numbered for 149-year-old Riggs house

On Sept. 1, a crew was at the 149-year-old Riggs Park Heritage Farm House, at the corner of East Huron River Drive and Martinsville Road. Crew members said they were getting ready to remove asbestos from the house so it could be razed.
The house was built in 1867 by Loren Riggs, a member of the pioneer Riggs family, and much of the materials for the building was hauled by horse and wagon from a place on Wayne Road just outside of Romulus.
According to the history book “Water Under the Bridge,” one of the most distinctive features of this home is the cupola on the roof. Over the generations, the Riggs children and grandchildren have scurried up there to look out as dinner time approached, so that they could call out to the mothers preparing the meals that the men were returning from their day in the fields.
The historic house was part of the property given to the township in the deal to build Country Walk subdivision. The township considered making a mini Greenfield Village there and moving other old homes from the township to the site. Riggs Park and a walking trail was established. The township put up a new roof on the house and fencing, but never moved forward on renovations.
On Thanksgiving 2013 the barn behind the house burned and the $30,000 the township got in insurance money is being used to demolish the house.