John T. Woodhouse House
John Thompson Woodhouse House | |
Location | 33 Old Brook Ln., Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan |
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Coordinates | 42°24′24″N 82°53′18″W / 42.40667°N 82.88833°W |
Architect | George D. Mason |
Architectural style | Tudor Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 05000715[1] |
Added to NRHP | July 20, 2005 |
The John Thompson Woodhouse House is a private house located at 33 Old Brook Ln. in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.[1]
John Thompson Woodhouse
John Thompson Woodhouse was born on September 3, 1861, in Waterford, Ontario to William Thomas Woodhouse and Elizabeth Thompson, and came with his family to Detroit in 1874.[2] In 1880 he became a clerk at the M.L. Wagner Company, a small tobacco products manufacturing company. By 1881 he was a partner in the firm, and from there on the company flourished. By 1892 the name had changed to the Wagner and Woodhouse Company, and in 1901 became John T. Woodhouse & Company. By 1911, Woodhouse was the company's president and sole owner.[3]
Woodhouse had married Alice Matilda Goodyear, daughter of Nicholas Goodyear and Jane Almond, on January 30, 1884, in
Further history
After John Sr.'s death in 1930, his son John moved into the house. He sold off portions of the surrounding property as lots. The younger John maintained ownership of both John T. Woodhouse & Company and of this house until his death on December 10, 1967, in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. At this point, the house was put up for sale. The house was purchased in 1974 by Drs. E. G. and Aspasia Metropoulos, who undertook a substantial renovation of the property.[3]
Description
The John Thompson Woodhouse House is a 2+1⁄2-story, irregularly massed
The house is unusual in that it has two prominent facades. The original front, once visible from Lake Shore Road, has a center entrance with an elaborate stone pediment above containing garlands of fruit and the sculptured head of the Greek goddess Hera. The entry doorway contains a double door flanked by sidelights. A two-story bay window containing multi-light windows with decorative carved stone panels sits next to the entrance. A metal balconet under a broad tripartite window sits above the entrance. On the other side of the house, the current main entrance is in the center of an irregular facade. The entryway is set in a square-headed limestone door surround with a sculptured stone head of Zeus centrally positioned above the door. Above that is a bank of windows.[3]
Inside the house, the entry is through a small vestibule which opens into a large entry hall containing the main staircase. The entry hall has a heavy oak beamed ceiling and oak floor, and the staircase is constructed from heavy carved dark oak. The living room and dining room are off the entry hall. The living room has oak wainscoting and bookcases, a dark oak floor, and a carved stone fireplace. The dining room has decorative molding with patterned frieze encircling the room. The nearby breakfast room has a Pewabic tile floor.[3]
The original address of the John Thompson Woodhouse home was 337 lake Shore Drive, Grosse Pointe Farms, Wayne County, Michigan, USA. The John Thompson Woodhouse palatial home was modeled after Scale Hall in Skerton, Ecclesiastical District of St. Luke's, Lancashire, England, which had been occupied by one branch of the Woodhouse family for generations.
References
- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ George Newman Fuller (1939), Michigan: A Centennial History of the State and Its People, vol. 4, Lewis Publishing Company, p. 353
- ^ a b c d e f Marilyn Florek (April 2005), NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES REGISTRATION FORM: Woodhouse, John T., House