Real Estate Blog - April, 2018

Historical Architecture of Grosse Pointe – The Lost Estates – 525 Lakeshore

This week we continue with our review of the lost estates of Lakeshore with our penultimate post about these wonderful homes.

Last week we reviewed the lost Ford estates, designed by Pittsburgh architect Albert H. Spahr. This week we focus on 525 Lakeshore – one of the largest estates to have ever graced Grosse Pointe – Deeplands, set on a colossal 80 acres. To give you a rough idea on the size of this estate, once the home was demolished and the land sub divided more than 80 homes (of varying sizes) were built on the area. Source: Grosse Pointe 1880-1930 by Madeleine Socia and Suzy Berschback.

Deeplands was built in 1911 for Henry D. Sheldon, and his wife Caroline. They were married in 1887 and had three children. Mr. Sheldon was born in…

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Historical Architecture of Grosse Pointe – The Lost Ford Estates – Designed by Albert H. Spahr

This week lets continue with our exploration of the lost estates of Lakeshore. So many of these wonderful homes have been lost over time with many of the properties being subdivided and sold for new projects.

Last week we featured 415 Lakeshore, the former home of Lieutenant Colonel J. Brooks Nichols, demolished in the late 1950’s. Now lets turn our attention to the work of Pittsburgh based architect Albert H. Spahr and the three homes, all of which are now gone, he created for the Ford siblings Mrs. Hetty Ford Speck, Mr. Emory L. Ford, and Mrs. Stellar Ford Schlotman.

The siblings, along with a third sister, Mrs. Nell Ford Torrey, were the grandchildren of John B. Ford, an American industrialist and founder of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company.

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Historical Architecture of Grosse Pointe – The Lost Estates – 415 Lakeshore

This week we continue with our review of the lost estates of Lakeshore. We have featured some wonderful homes, all of which have been lost overtime. Most recently we featured ‘Cherryhurst’ the home of Paul H. Deming located at 111 Lakeshore.

What makes the homes on Lakeshore so interesting, and also so difficult to research is how many of the house numbers have changed in Grosse Pointe Farms. The new numbers were issued in the late 1930’s. This is the case with many of the lost mansions we featured, including –

447 – 457 (Roy D. Chapin)

421 – 431 (William P. Stevens

273 – 259 (Frank P. Chesbrough)

429 – 437 (Richard H. Webber)

415– 421 (J. Brooks Nichols)

*red text denotes the house number we referenced.

We now turn our attention…

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Historical Architecture of Grosse Pointe – The Lost Estates – 111 Lakeshore

Lets continue with our review of the lost estates of Lakeshore. Over the past few weeks we have featured some stunning homes, most recently the William P. Stevens estate – 431 Lakeshore.

The number of mansions that have been razed over the years is astonishing. According to an article in the Detroit News (1997) ‘of the 43 estates listed in a 1956 article about mansions in the Pointes, only 13 still exist’, and since 1997, more have fallen.

This week we turn our attention to 111 Lakeshore, also known as ‘Cherryhurst’ – home of engineer, and financier Paul Harvey Deming.

111 Lakeshore was built in 1907. It was one of the first year round residences to be built in Grosse Pointe Farms. French farmers first inhabited the two-acre site along…

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