Alexander Chapoton House

The Alexander Chapoton House is significant as one of the last well-preserved vestiges of nineteenth century residential development in downtown Detroit. It is also important as an interesting and, for Detroit, rare example of a middle-class Queen Anne rowhouse. Alexander Chapoton was a direct descendent of one of Detroit's oldest families. His ancestor Dr. Jean Baptiste Chapoton came to the city in 1719 to serve as surgeon to the garrison at Fort Pontchartrain. Chapoton's father was a mason and Alexander succeeded him in business, inheriting a substantial fortune in real estate. He augmented this with additional land acquisitions while increasing his stature as an important contractor. He was appointed as one of three commissioners to supervise the erection of the present state capitol in Lansing, served in the state legislature, served on the Detroit Board of Public Works and conducted a brisk contracting business erecting many commercial blocks and residences in Detroit. He brought his son, Alexander Jr., into partnership with him to carry on the business after his retirement. He lived his entire adult life in the same house on Congress Street in downtown Detroit where he died in 1893. He left a large estate which included considerable downtown real estate as well as 511 Beaubien and its now vanished neighbors on both sides. In the 1880s, when Chapoton built number 511 as a rental property, Beaubien Street was part of the old downtown residential area extending northward from Jefferson Avenue. Over the years, the old French ribbon farms had been subdivided into house lots and built-up. Beaubien Street took its name from the family whose farm it traversed. In the 1830s the Beaubien family had sub-divided the southern portion of its ancestral acres to accommodate the eastward growth of the city. In the 1860s the first substantial construction occurred, although it was not really until the post Civil War boom of 1870s that the tract was densely settled. By 1880, the southern end of Beaubien Street was almost entirely filled with closely-built, brick duplexes and short blocks of rowhouses sited at the edge of the sidewalk. These urban house types, which were necessitated by the high land values adjacent to downtown and the riverfront, were soon eclipsed in popularity by the detached single- or two-family dwelling that has dominated residential construction in Detroit down to the present. By the mid-1880s the pressures for development were strong enough to warrant the replacement of an old wooden outbuilding on the site with 511 Beaubien, which was one of the last houses constructed in this thriving middle-class community. As the business district spread out in the twentieth century, this unique rowhouse neighborhood, like the few other similar sections that had existed in Detroit, were redeveloped for commercial and industrial purposes. The lower Beaubien streetscape, however, remained partially intact into the 1960s. At this time, much of Beaubien Street was cleared for new construction and widening. Only number 511 and a few dilapidated houses in the next block survive today as reminders of an earlier period of residential development downtown and of Detroit's brief experiment with the rowhouse as a dwelling type. The house that Chapoton built at 511 Beaubien for investment in 1885 is an interesting example of a speculative dwelling whose design was probably taken from a periodical or plan book. The assymmetrical facade with its mis-matched lower and upper stories derives it architectural distinction entirely from stock, cast metal elements applied to the flat facade. The metal and wood cornice was removed a few years ago, but is to be replicated from an historical photograph of a similar structure that once stood nearby. The interior reflects the Queen Anne style in its layout and woodwork. The long, narrow, sidehall of earlier rowhouse floor plans has given away in the Chapoton House to a fairly broad, spacious, "L" shaped hall large enough to accommodate comfortable furniture and living activities. Some interest is lent to the space by the dramatic, canted staircase with its sinuous handrail and ornamental balustrade. The parlor, with its plasterwork, panelled aprons under the windows and fancy Eastlake design mantel is isolated from the dining room at the rear of the house by the large hall. This is a significant departure in arrangement from the "en suite," front-to-back arrangement of rooms of more traditional townhouse plans. The spacious bath and nine bedrooms are reminders that many householders at the period not only had large families, but also took in boarders. The present owners acquired the house after it had been a roominghouse for decades. They are seeking National Register listing as protection against encroaching urban redevelopment projects. They are also interested in utilizing the provisions of the Tax Reform Act of 1976 to help finance their restoration and adaptive re-use of the Chapoton House as an art gallery and studio.

The Alexander Chapoton House is a brick, three-story-with-basement, flat-roofed, townhouse built at the edge of the sidewalk. Originally part of a complete streetscape of attached and free-standing Victorian rowhouse type structures, it now shares its block between Larned and Congress streets in the central business district of Detroit with a modern office building. The surrounding neighborhood is filled with small office and commercial buildings, mostly built in the twentieth century. Only the front elevation is of architectural note, although both the north side of the house, which faces a small alley, and the rear or west side have six-over-six sash windows set in unarticulated segmentally-arched openings. Above the low, stone-faced basement the first story is divided into three bays. The double-door entrance at the north side is balanced by a pair of segmentally-arched, one-over-one, sash windows. The windows and the doorway are surmounted by massive, arched, moulded, cast-iron panels that extend to the broad, moulded, belt course separating the first and second stories. The belt course extends across the front and terminates in projecting, decorative, blocks ornamented with stylized floral motifs. The upper two floors are each divided into four bays of one-over-one, sash windows that are not aligned with the first story fenestration. The center windows are paired on both the second and third floors. The second floor windows are topped with segmentally-arched, brick, hood moulds with label stops and keystones while the third floor windows have semicircular, brick, hood moulds. The ornamental cornice treatment has been removed, and today there is only a plain parapet wall. The interior has been little altered since the house was built. The floor plan is an interesting adaption of a modest townhouse format to accomodate a fashionable Queen Anne living hall. The entrance leads through a panelled vestibule and an inner set of half-glazed double doors into a broad, L shaped hall that wraps around two sides of the front parlor to the left of the front door. An open well staircase angles around the corner on the inside wall of the hall and continues in a straight run along the east side of the back hall. The rear portion of the house is divided into two, nearly equally large rooms with the dining room on the right and the kitchen on the left with its wainscoting of vertical, tongue-and-groove boards. The second floor is similar in general plan to the first. There are two rooms of the same size occupying the front half of the building separated by a central hall from three small rooms across the rear. The bathroom in the south rear corner is finished with a high wainscoting of vertical tongue-and-groove boards. The third floor is similar in plan to the second floor with two large rooms in the front and three smaller ones across the back.