Alexander Chene House

The Chene House is significant as one of only a very small number of surrounding examples of the Federal style in Detroit, and is notable for its association with the Chene family, which was among the earliest in the Detroit vicinity. The house was built in the 1850s on land which had been granted to the Chene family by Louis XIV of France in 1707. Alexander Chene received ownership of the property from his grandfather, Gabriel Chene, in 1850. A later owner, Charles B. Warren, had the rear wing constructed sometime between 1902 and 1914.

Located on the northwest side of East Jefferson Avenue, the Alexander Chene House is a two-story, Federal-style house with applied Colonial Revival facade motives, added subsequently to the original construction. Originally rectangular in plan, the house was given a rear extension in the early twentieth century. Its facades are of red brick. The side walls rise above the roof forming fractables.

A one-story, Room-Doric porch projects from the center of the Jefferson Avenue facade. The windows have decorative, flat-top, iron lintels and a modest cornice molding spans the Jefferson Avenue facade. The house rests above the tall basement level.