Real Estate Blog - September, 2016

Historical Architecture of Grosse Pointe – Talmadge C. Hughes and his homes on Meadow Lane

Those of you who are familiar with Grosse Pointe Farms know that throughout the community there are many dead-end streets. We recently covered one such street – 30 Preston Place, the elegant former residence of Louise Webber and Edward P. Frohlich.

We would now like to turn our attention to another dead end street, Meadow Lane, and the 4 homes that were created by architect Talmadge C. Hughes on this road.

Image courtesy of: historicdetroit.org

Mr. Hughes was born in Alabama in 1887. Having completed his studies and travelling extensively he arrived in Detroit (the year of his arrival is not known) and worked for several prestigious firms in the city, including Smith, Hinchman and Grylls and Albert Kahn Associates.

It appears he had a…

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Historical Architecture of Grosse Pointe – An Elegant Home – 30 Preston Place

Nestled in the corner of Grosse Pointe Farms is a small dead end street – Preston Place.

Preston Place was originally part of Kercheval, however over the years the land was sub-divided, with the separate plots of land creating the Preston Place subdivision.

The home was the recent location for the Grosse Pointe Historical Society’s Pop-Up tour, and we would like to thank the Historical Society for contributing a large amount of their research to us for this blog post.

So lets travel back in time to 1920 – Ms. Louise Webber, niece of J.L.Hudson (of Hudson’s Department store), is living with her husband Roscoe Jackson, president of the Hudson Motor Car Company, in an Arts and Crafts style home (designed by Leonard B. Willeke) in Indian Village.

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Historical Architecture of Grosse Pointe – An Exploration – Part 3: Westchester 2nd block

Having previewed the myriad of architectural styles on display on the 1st block of Westchester we continue our journey down the street as we explore the 2nd block – between Fairfax and Exeter.

Many residences on the first block were created during the golden era of the 1920’s, however the homes on the second block span several decades. Primarily the 1920’s through to 1940, the broader range of influences come from numerous different movements and eras – there is the Art Deco styled modern home at number 766, the excellent example of a classic Georgian Colonial home, number 895, the Tudor inspired home of 718 and the French Provincial style of house number 705.

So lets begin with one of the older homes on the block, house number 705. Designed in the…

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Historical Architecture of Grosse Pointe – An Exploration – Part 2: Westchester 1st block

Continuing with our exploration of individual streets in Grosse Pointe, we now turn our attention to Grosse Park and the sunny street of Westchester with its eclectic mix of homes.

Having recently previewed the houses on several prominent roads in Grosse Pointe Farms and the first block of Roslyn Road in Grosse Pointe Shores, we thought it was time to start exploring the Park.

Many of the houses in the Park were built prior to World War II. Built for high-flying executives looking to relocate their families to Grosse Pointe, the requirement for a grand home close to Lake St. Clair began to attract many noted architects. While some of these architects were based in Detroit, others came from further afield and were of national prominence.

With its…

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