Real Estate Blog - February, 2018

Historical Architecture of Grosse Pointe – 55 Tonnancour

Last week we featured one of the oldest homes in Grosse Pointe, the Cadiuex Farmhouse. This week we turn our attention to another notable residence – 55 Tonnancour Place – one of Grosse Pointe’s more distinctive homes.

The stunning Georgian revival home sits on one of the most distinguished streets in the Grosse Pointe communities, Tonnancour Place, which was originally part of the historic Theodore Parsons Hall estate. Mr. Hall had purchased the 63 acres of land, which stretched back 2 ½ miles from Lake St. Clair, in the early 1880’s, and set about building an elaborate estate called Tonnancour. This included an eye-catching summer residence on the property – a Victorian Swiss Chalet style mansion. Source: Thomas W. Brunk, courtesy of the Grosse…

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Historical Architecture of Grosse Pointe – The Cadieux Farmhouse

Once upon a time, many years ago, 1850 to be exact, a young man by the name of Isadore Cadieux built a house in Detroit. 168 years later the home is still going strong, and now sits in its fourth location. Lets take a look at the story of the Cadieux Farmhouse.

In 1701 the first French settlers arrived in Detroit. As you could imagine the country was vastly different to the shores of France, not only geographically, but also culturally, and environmentally. They started to build residences, but the challenges were monumental. The materials they used in their homeland were unavailable, they had to figure our a way to keep out the bitter cold, and a method had to be perfected to stabilize their structures in order to prevent them from sinking into…

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Historical Architecture of Grosse Pointe – Welcome to Woodland Place

Last year we featured two homes on Woodland Place, number 2 and number 7. This week we thought we would delve into some of the other properties on this picturesque street in Grosse Pointe Farms.

Woodland Place, once a heavily wooded area on the shores of Lake St. Clair, is a narrow street, paved with bricks, and home to eight unique residences. The majority of the homes were built in the 1920’s by a handful of noted architects. Each of these architects worked on a couple of projects on the road, which is quite remarkable given that only 6 homes were built during this era.

Number 7 was the first home to be built on Woodland Place. It was completed in 1909 as a summer home for the Hazen S. Pingree family. Hazen S. Pingree was a four-term mayor of…

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Historical Architecture of Grosse Pointe – Architect Henry F. Stanton

Last week we welcomed you to 330 Provencal, an opulent mansion designed in 1927 by Henry F. Stanton. Having enjoyed his work so much we thought we would delve into some of Stanton’s other projects that can be found throughout the Grosse Pointe communities.

There seems to be very little information on Stanton’s career, however, we do know Stanton was a faculty member of University of Michigan, and formed at least three partnerships with noted architects during his career – including Charles Kotting, Charles Crombie and James Hillier. Charles Kotting was ‘recognized as an architect of pronounced skill and ability whose designs combine in most attractive form, utility, convenience and beauty’. Source: the book ‘The City of Detroit, Michigan,…

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