Arden Park-East Boston Historic District

Arden Park-East Boston is significant as an intact, upper-class, residential development illustrating the range of domestic architectural styles popular in the early twentieth century. It is also significant as the home of many nationally and locally prominent industrialists and professionals including several key figures in the evolution of the American automobile industry. The neighborhood traces its origins to McLaughlin's & Owen's subdivision, which was platted on June 1, 1892. The 30-acre subdivision was laid out by Joseph R. McLaughlin and Edmund J. Owen. McLaughlin was a partner in the firm of McLaughlin Brothers Real Estate & Loans with offices in the Moffat Building. Owen's family ran the Detroit Dry Dock company and the Detroit and Cleveland Steam Navigation company. In 1893, one year after Edmund Owen laid out Arden Park, John Owen, Jr., planned Indian Village, now listed as an historic district in the National Register of Historic Places. The two neighborhoods are similar in that both utilized the same broad streets, large building lots, and many of the same building restrictions. Immediately after subdivision, over half of the lots in Arden Park were purchased by Ashley Pond, a prominent Detroit lawyer who served as legal counsel for the Michigan Central Railroad for a quarter of a century.

The Arden Park-East Boston Historic District is located eighteen blocks north of Grand Boulevard. It is composed of six square blocks. The principal east-west streets are Arden Park and East Boston Boulevard. The principal north-south streets are Woodward Avenue, John R, Brush and Oakland Avenue. The area is primarily residential. It also contains two churches, the Mount Olive Baptist Church at 9760 Woodward Avenue and the Blessed Sacrament Church complex which includes separate church, school, convent, rectory and office buildings. The wide streets are lined with large single-family houses set uniformly 40 to 50 feet back from curb behind ample landscaped lawns. All of the houses face either East Boston or Arden Park with the north-south streets serving only to bisect the long blocks and continue the city street pattern through the neighborhood. The adjacent streets are illustrative of an entirely different type of development. Both Belmont and Westminster are built-up with modest closely-spaced one and two-family houses and apartment buildings on small lots with the buildings sited close to the street. The neighborhood is characterized by spacious, two-story, upper income, architect-designed early 20th century residences. The houses illustrate a wide variety of contrasting architectural styles, and the entire spectrum of building materials available at the time. Among the major building styles represented within the Arden Park-East Boston district are the Shingle Style, Italian Renaissance, French Renaissance, Colonial Revival, Tudor-Elizabethan, Bungalow, and Prairie School. Many of the homes are eclectic compositions which utilize elements from many sources. Representative examples include the homes of prominent merchants and industrialists of the period by well-known architects.