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The Charles Lang Freer House is located at 71 East Ferry Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. It is currently the Merrill Palmer Institute of Human Development & Family Life.
Charles Lang Freer, in partnership with Col. Frank J. Hecker, made his fortune from the Peninsular Car Company. Freer travelled widely, with one of his favorite spots being Newport, Rhode Island. There, was favorably impressed by the shingle style summer cottages built by the wealthy. Desiring a similar home, in 1890 Freer contracted with Wilson Eyre to design a home in Detroit. The house, on Ferry Street next door to Hecker's home, was completed in 1892.
[edit] Architecture[2]
For the exterior, Eyre used coursed hard blue limestone (now discolored) from New York for the first floor. Dark, closely-spaced shingles of Michigan oak cover most of the rest of the facade of the house. On the third story, a triangular gable and various dormers interrupt the roofline. Chimneys dominate the east and west ends of the home, underneath which are porches. These porches were originally open-air, but are currently closed stucco.
The structure on the right is the carriage house of the Freer House, where the
Peacock Room was installed. The structure on the left is the carriage house of the nextdoor
Hecker house.
On the interior, Eyre designed the home with Freer's art collection in mind. (This collection is now in the Freer Gallery , part of the Smithsonian.) There are 22 rooms and 12 fireplaces in the house, as well as an elevator, and numberous balconies, bay windows, enclosed porches, and skylights.[3] In 1906, Eyre designed an art gallery, added above the stable. In 1904, Frederick Leyland's widow sold Freer the Peacock Room, designed by James Whistler, and Freer had Eyre design another room in the carriage house[4] in which to intall it.
In 1916, Lizzie Pitts Merrill Palmer left a bequest of 3 million dollars to found a school centering on home and family development. In 1923, the Institute purchased the house, and have remained there since.[2] In 1980, this Institute was incorporated into Wayne State University.
[edit] References and further reading
- Hill, Eric J. and John Gallagher (2002). AIA Detroit: The American Institute of Architects Guide to Detroit Architecture. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-3120-3.
- Meyer, Katherine Mattingly and Martin C.P. McElroy with Introduction by W. Hawkins Ferry, Hon A.I.A. (1980). Detroit Architecture A.I.A. Guide Revised Edition. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-1651-4.
[edit] External Links
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