For our final MAF Architecture Road Trip of 2024, let’s explore some of the more unique and historical buildings located in the Detroit area. In particular, the city of Detroit has a rich architectural history that serves as a tribute to its important and influential role in the late 19th and early 20th century. Most of the structures in this month’s road trip mark the early careers of both business leaders and their architects.
If you are planning a trip to Detroit (or want to make a virtual voyage), please consider visiting some of the following sites to learn more about Michigan architecture, and learn how our road trip series helps reinforce MAF’s mission of “advancing awareness of how architecture enriches life.”
Andrus House: 57500 Van Dyke Road, Washington Township
The Andrus House ranks among Michigan’s finest surviving examples of a mid-19th century American octagon or eight-sided house. The most dramatic feature is the circular staircase that rises up through the middle of the house. Loren Andrus had the house built in 1860 by his brother-in-law who designed and constructed the house. After a half century of varied uses, starting in 1930, the house was purchased by a non-profit group known as the Friends of the Octagon House, who restored the house and still operates it today as a museum and education center.
Loren Andrus Octagon House – Loren Andrus Octagon House
History – Loren Andrus Octagon House
Loren Andrus Octagon House (Loren and Lucina Davis House) | SAH ARCHIPEDIA (sah-archipedia.org)
Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory: 4 Inselruhe Avenue, Belle Isle, Detroit
Also known locally as the Belle Isle Conservatory, this greenhouse and botanical garden was built in 1904 and is the oldest continually running conservatory in the United States. Built to evoke the majesty of the turn-of-the-century City Beautiful movement, the conservatory echoes earlier conservatories, including one at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The conservatory marked an early success for young Albert Kahn, who demonstrated here and elsewhere that he could tackle any commission with ease and grace. Please add the following text to the appropriate paragraph that aligns with Lisa’s article: Read more about the Conservatory, which is included in this month’s MAF ‘Must See Michigan Architecture’ feature (originally published May 2022).
https://www.belleisleconservancy.org/anna-scripps-whitcomb-conservatory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Isle_Conservatory
Indian Village: Burns, Iroquois, and Seminole between Jefferson and Mack, Detroit
A historic residential neighborhood association founded in 1937 and listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Detroit offers many old, distinguished neighborhoods, but perhaps none has fared so well over the years as this east side district of broad lawns and notable architecture. Built mostly during the formative years of the city’s automotive boom, the district features numerous examples of fine materials and workmanship including Arts & Crafts, Federal, Tudor, Renaissance, and more.
www.historicindianvillage.org/about/
Indian Village, Detroit – Wikipedia
Indian Village | SAH ARCHIPEDIA
Greektown: Monroe between Beaubien and St, Antoine and environs, Detroit
Anyone who doubts that urban vitality lies in preserving older, human-scale buildings need only visit Greektown to be convinced. This collection of humble Victorian-era commercial structures, built in the mid-to-late 1800s has evolved over time into one of Detroit’s liveliest tourist destinations. The creation of Greektown Casino in the late 1900s added a new presence—the latest chapter in a neighborhood that began as a pioneer farm, morphed into a German and then a Greek enclave, and today pulses to the beat of urban entertainment.
Greektown, Detroit – Wikipedia
Greektown Neighborhood Partnership (greektowndetroit.org)
History — Greektown Neighborhood Partnership (greektowndetroit.org)
St. Mary Catholic Church: 646 Monroe Street, Detroit
A twin-spire church is always visually arresting, seldom more so than in this exuberant composition in what is now Detroit’s Greektown district. St. Mary’s remains one of Detroit’s oldest active parishes, founded in the 1830s to serve the city’s German-speaking Catholics. Designed by Peter Dederichs and completed in 1885, this current church building shows the hallmarks of the High Victorian sensibility, with its effusive blend of influences and detail.
St. Mary’s Catholic Church — Historic Detroit
St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church | Detroit Historical Society
St. Mary Roman Catholic Church (Detroit) – Wikipedia
Wayne County Building: 600 Randolph Street, Detroit
Built with pre-automotive fortunes when Detroit was just coming into its own, the Wayne County Building aimed at and hit the goal of being among the most sumptuous buildings in Michigan. An outstanding example of Beaux-Arts Classicism, it features four stories of Ohio sandstone surmounting a rusticated granite base. Baroque sculptural elements pierce the skyline, and a slim yet elaborate tower emphasizes the lofty ideals of a free people. Designed by John Scott and built between 1896-1902, the building was later restored in the 1980s by Quinn Evans Architects and Smith, Hinchman & Grylls and remains one of Michigan’s architectural masterpieces.
Old Wayne County Building — Historic Detroit
Old Wayne County Building – Photos gallery — Historic Detroit
Wayne County Courthouse | Detroit Historical Society
Wayne County Building – Wikipedia
Elwood Bar & Grille: 300 Adams Avenue, Detroit
Good things come in delightfully small packages. This lively little gathering spot gives a human touch to Detroit’s theater-stadium district and remains the city’s best-known example of the streamlined Art Moderne style. The enamel steel panels, and rounded corners look as fresh today as when first built. Originally built at Elizabeth and Woodward (hence the “El” and “Wood” of its name), it was moved in the late nineties to make way for the new Tigers and Lions stadiums. Today it stands just outside the entrance to both, draws huge crowds on game days, and remains of the Detroit’s great architectural “saves.”
Elwood Bar and Grill | SAH ARCHIPEDIA (sah-archipedia.org)
David Mackenzie House: 4735 Cass Avenue, Detroit
Scholar David Mackenzie built this home in 1895 for himself in the Queen Anne style, and it shows many characteristics of the type, with picturesque massing, the elaborate conical-roofed tower, and a variety of exterior surface materials. Today, Mackenzie’s house represents one of Michigan’s great preservation wins. The house was slated for demolition in 1975 to make way for a sewer line, were it not for two Wayne State classmates, Allen Wallace and Marilyn Florek who rallied like-minded people to convince the university to save the building. Today it serves as the headquarters of Preservation Wayne, Detroit’s leading non-profit advocate for historic architecture.
David Mackenzie House | Detroit Historical Society
New address for Wayne State’s historic David Mackenzie house (detroitnews.com)
Charles Lang Freer House: 70 East Ferry Street, Detroit
Charles Lang Freer made his fortune manufacturing railroad cars, but he is remembered chiefly for his art collection, today housed in Washington, D.C.’s Freer Gallery. Yet his home in Detroit remains in some ways his most notable effort. Foregoing the Gilded Age palaces favored by his contemporaries, Freer chose the quieter pleasures of the Shingle-style for his home which was built in 1890. As Detroit scholar Dr. Thomas W. Brunk writes, “His home, like many of the contemporary American paintings Freer collected, was not created for public exhibition rather this home reflected his own cultivated taste and discreet collecting habits.”
Charles Lang Freer House (placeandsee.com)
The Legacy of Charles L. Freer – Hour Detroit Magazine
About – Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute – Wayne State University
Hecker House: 5510 Woodward Avenue, Detroit
This house ranks high among Michigan’s rare but incredibly fine examples of French Chateau architecture. Col. Frank J. Hecker was a Union Army veteran and manufacturer and his sumptuous mansion with its forty-nine rooms and elegant marbles hints at what Detroit’s Gilded Age must have been like. The house, completed in 1891, was designed by architect Louis Kamper, who was just emerging as the city’s master of opulent historical styles. Kamper went on to craft the famed Book-Cadillac Hotel in the 1920s.
Col. Frank J. Hecker House — Historic Detroit
Col. Frank J. Hecker House – Photos gallery — Historic Detroit
Hecker-Smiley Mansion (Frank J. Hecker House) | SAH ARCHIPEDIA (sah-archipedia.org)