Hugh T. Keyes
| Hugh T. Keyes | |
|---|---|
| Born |
1888 Trenton, Michigan, USA |
| Died | 1963 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Known for | Significant houses in Grosse Pointe and Bloomfield Hills, Michigan |
Hugh Tallman Keyes (1888 – 1963) was a noted architect of the early to mid-twentieth century, called “one of the most prolific and versatile architects of the period” in Metropolitan Detroit.[1]
Career
Keyes studied architecture at Harvard University and became an associate to Detroit architect Albert Kahn (“the foremost industrial architect of the United States”[2]). After serving 2 years in the Navy during World War I, Keyes opened his own office in Detroit in 1921.[1] During a career that lasted into the 1960s, Keyes's style ranged from Early French Renaissance and Georgian to rustic log chalets, but he is most noted for the bow-fronted wings and hipped roofs of the Regency style of architecture.[3]
Keyes was one of the Detroit architects that frequently employed architectural sculptor Corrado Parducci to embellish his designs.[4]
Significant Keyes-designed houses
Wildwood Manor
Vaughan Rd., Bloomfield Hills
Style: Regency, French Renaissance
Secluded far beyond its high stone walls and private winding and wooded drive (making it the most hidden from view of Keyes’s houses), Wildwood was once the country estate of John S. Bugas[5] (local FBI head and second in command at Ford Motor Company, behind Henry Ford II[6]). The “manor” house (from which the owner managed his vast cattle ranch[7]) features Regency bow-fronted wings and hipped/mansard roofs, expansive formal gardens and orchards, and adjoins Kahn and Saarinen's architecturally renowned Cranbrook Kingswood. (It is also known as the Taubman House, after subsequent owner Robert S. Taubman.[8])
Woodley Green
Lake Shore Dr., Grosse Pointe (1934)
Formerly the lakeside estate of Benson Ford (grandson of Henry Ford),[9] Woodley Green, with its parapet and hipped copper roof is “one of his (Keyes) finest houses.” “Set in the midst of beautifully landscaped grounds on Lake Shore road, it has the appearance of some venerable English country seat. A gravel driveway loops around to a stone entrance porch with Corinthian columns. The bow-fronted wings on each side of the façade give the house a late eighteenth century character foreshadowing the Regency style.”[1] (It is also known as the Emory W. Clark House, after the then president of the First National Bank of Detroit.[10])
Mennen Hall
Provencal Rd., Grosse Pointe Farms (1929)
Style: Tudor Revival
Arched chimney caps dot the roofline of Keyes’s stately brick Tudor, Mennen Hall, that sits along a private, guarded road. It was built for (real estate tycoon) Henry P. Williams and his wife Elma C. Mennen (heiress to the Mennen personal grooming products fortune), whose eldest son was G. Mennen “Soapy” Williams (a six-term Governor of Michigan and Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court).[11]
Dwyer/Palms House
Lake Shore Rd., Grosse Pointe Farms (1928)
Style: French Normandy
Built for the widowed daughter of a Michigan lumber baron and grain merchant, the French Normandy style house was the first in the area wired for telephones (and, until recently, there was a circuit panel in the garage through which all the neighborhood phones were wired).
William P. Harris House
Windmill Pointe Dr., Grosse Pointe (1925)
Style: Tudor Revival
Designed by Keyes in an extravagant Tudor style[1] for William Pickett Harris (an investment banker, expert on squirrels, and curator of mammals at the museum of zoology of the University of Michigan[12]), the “sprawling palace on Windmill Pointe with its groomed grounds, coffered ceilings and limestone arches was the childhood home of Julie Harris”[13] (the stage, screen, and television actress—“the most decorated performer in the history of Broadway”[12]), William Harris's daughter. (The house has been erroneously attributed to New York model farm architect Alfred Hopkins,[13] though W. Hawkins Ferry correctly assigns it to Keyes.[1])
Ridgeland
Lewiston Rd., Grosse Pointe (1924)
Style: Mediterranean, Tuscan
On a sloping ridge surrounded by giant oak trees lies Ridgeland, a rambling Italian villa made of tawny bricks (rather than Italian stucco). The variously scaled rooms open up through French doors to intimate gardens and stretches of lawn.[3] (It is also known as the Charles A. Dean House.)
Keyes-designed lodges
Hidden Valley Lodge
Otsego Ski Club, Gaylord (1939)
Style: Swiss Chalet
Built in 1939 by Detroit-area steel magnate Donald McLouth (of McLouth Steel)[14] as a Tyrolian-style ski resort for Detroit industrialists (including the families of Henry Ford, William Durant, Walter Briggs, C. Thorne Murphy, Alvan Macauley, David Wallace, Gordon Saunders, and Lang Hubbard[15]), Hidden Valley Resort was the first private ski club in North America.[14] Keyes incorporated his signature bow-fronted wings into the design of his “Hansel-and-Gretel-look lodge.” The log lodge inspired an alpine theme throughout the nearby village of Gaylord.[16]
Gail Stevens Hunting Lodge
Metamora (1931)
Style: Log Lodge, Swiss Chalet
Keyes's rustic hunting lodge (specifically for horseback fox hunting common in Metamora) of full log construction, with a massive stone fireplace and ornate murals, referenced the nineteenth century Great Camps and Swiss chalet style of architecture.[9]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Ferry, W. Hawkins (1968). The Buildings of Detroit. Wayne State University Press.
- ↑ Hildebrand, Grant (1980). Designing for Industry: The Architecture of Albert Kahn. MIT Press.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ferry, W. Hawkins (1956). A Suburb In Good Taste. Michigan Society of Architects.
- ↑ Kvaran & Lockey, A Field Guide to Architectural Sculpture in America, unpublished manuscript
- ↑ Michigan Historical Collections. Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. Retrieved on February 3, 2013.
- ↑ UPI (1982-12-03). "John S. Bugas is Dead at 74; Was Top Executive at Ford". The New York Times.
- ↑ From FBI to Ford Motor. Made in Wyoming. Retrieved on November 25, 2013.
- ↑ teNeues (2008). Luxury Private Gardens. teNeues.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Michigan Historical Collections. Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. Retrieved on February 3, 2013.
- ↑ Meyer, Katherine Mattingly and Martin C.P. McElroy with Introduction by W. Hawkins Ferry (1980). Detroit Architecture A.I.A. Guide Revised Edition. Wayne State University Press.
- ↑ Burton, Clarence M. (1922). The City of Detroit Michigan 1701-1922.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Julie Harris, Celebrated Actress of Range and Intensity, Dies at 87". The New York Times. 2013-08-24.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Michigan House Envy: Windmill Pointe palace offers medieval charm". Detroit Free Press. 2012-11-04.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 "Peaks and Valleys". dbusiness. September 2009.
- ↑ Eckert, Kathryn Bishop, ‘’Buildings of Michigan’’. Oxford University Press, New York, 1993 p 440
- ↑ "Key impetus for Alpine Village theme". Herald Times. 1989-03-09.
