Wisner House 2021
Located about a mile from downtown Pontiac on Cesar Chavez Avenue, Pine Grove is the home of the Oakland History Center and the Oakland County Pioneer and Historical Society. We also house the collections of the Oakland County Genealogical Society.
Overhead View
Pine Grove was the home of Moses Wisner, Michigan’s 12th governor, who served from 1859 to 1861. The buildings from his time here date from the 1840s to the 1860s. These buildings are maintained in period styles.
The campus is a 4 acre parcel we use to interpret history. There are 10 buildings in total, only one of which is not available to the public (our sheds).
The Wisner House is an opportunity for people to see a period building set in an authentic style, and showcasing how people lived in Victorian-era Pontiac. It is set as a Victorian house of the 1860s – 1880s and represents Moses Wisner’s time here and the period when his descendants used the house as a summer home.
 Welcome to Pine Grove. |
 Side Porch |
A number of outbuildings, including the summer kitchen, a root cellar, a smokehouse, the remains of his ice house, and a privy represent the business end of his working farm. These buildings let us tell the story of how our ancestors lived their lives from day to day.
Overhead 2
The one room schoolhouse, brought here from Waterford in 1965 and restored to an 1870s era period, lets us educate our members and the public about school back in the day. Our collection of period appropriate school desks is considered to be one of the best in the state, and our collection of period schoolbooks and texts is second to none.
The Carriage House, our big red barn, is built on the foundation of Wisner’s original barn and its look is reproduced from the original. It houses our offices and the Research Library, our collection of archives from various people, places and organizations.
The Carriage House also houses a small museum of farm implements, ice harvesting equipment, and tools of the trade used by our ancestors in Oakland County. It is also where the Oakland County Genealogical Society houses their collection.