Beaubien House

The Beaubien House is one of the last remaining residences on what was once the premier residential streets in Detroit. A little farther east are the Moross House (the oldest authenticated house in the city) and the Chene House (now Little Harry's Restaurant). While townhouses along Jefferson Avenue were once a frequent sight, commercial interests have taken over much of the downtown area. The Beaubien House and Renaissance Center across the street provide the viewer in the space of a single block a panorama of changing American life which spans five generations. Because the public is welcome to tour the home, one can get a very clear idea of the scale and rhythm of middle class life in mid-nineteenth century America. The style is eclectic--sort of Italianate with certain Federal aspects a bit of Victorian ornament--the builder undoubtedly a local housewright. The land on which the house sits is part of one of the original strip farms that ran back from the river in the period in which Detroit was a French city. The site is that of the Antoine Beaubien farm, which had a quarter of a mile frontage on the river, but which ran back from the water nearly three miles, and was 336.83 acres in size. He received the patent certificate for the land in 1810. During the next forty years, Beaubien and his son Antoine, Jr. sold much of the property and family members donated some to church and hospital interests. In June, 1850, Lot #8 was purchased by Charles J. Trombly, Antoine's cousin, who that spring had married Elizabeth Knaggs at nearby St. Peter and Paul's Cathedral. Sometime during that year they built the house but there is no conclusive evidence that they resided there very long and in 1855 they sold the property. Other nineteenth century tenants included the Assistant United States District Attorney for Detroit, the Sheriff of Wayne County, and a wealthy rug dealer and real estate entrepreneur. In 1872 the house, now known as 319 Jefferson, was sold to John F. Antisdel, soon to be one of the best known hotel men in the west. He resided there fifteen years, sold it and repurchased the property in 1894. His son, a prominent Detroit jurist inherited the house in 1907 and lived in it until his death in 1943. In 1956 Fred A. Plofchan, a free-lance photographer rented the house and after purchasing it nine years later, he converted the building to apartments. In April, 1977, the Michigan Society of Architects moved in, did some preliminary redecoration and commissioned a restoration study for which the final report is now available. The house, although considerably changed on the interior, is structurally sound; the system of joists exceeds modern building code requirements and the anonymous housewright who built it would be pleased to know that the floors remain level and doors swing freely. The walls are of wood lath with two coats of plaster.

The Beaubien House is a three-story Victorian townhouse with an ornamented side entrance and tall narrow windows with stone sills and lintels. The foundation is fieldstone and the exterior red-brown brick, for which the location of manufacture is unknown. It was originally one of many such townhouses built on deep, narrow lots on Jefferson Avenue, one block north of the Detroit River. The lot probably extended north 300 or 400 feet and included additions and outbuildings, such as kitchen, privy, and barn, which have been torn down in the century since it was built. Because of its close proximity to its neighbors, the front and rear windows were the primary fenestration, both for admitting light and air, and as decorative elements, although there are two windows on the west side with stone sills and brick relieving arches. (The second floor window is presently bricked up and not visible on the interior staircase.) Despite the fact that the facade has been considerably altered with the removal of the cornice and the replacement of the original 4 over 4 windows with casement windows with fixed center sash on the second and third floors, the building retains its original verticality and much of the original ornament. It is divided into three sections with stone belt courses at the second and third floors, but the essential verticality is emphasized by the brick pilasters which frame the eight windows and by the triangular and half-round limestone lintels which cap them. The lintels contain incised flower and scroll forms on the upper floors and rosettes and floral elements over the basement windows. The first floor windows have rounded upper corners with carved fleurs de lys. The handsomely carved double door entry is surmounted by a rectangular etched glass light in which the pre-1920 house numbers are discernible. The door is framed by wooden pilasters which end in projecting carved supports for the overhanging seamed canopy, the last undoubtedly a later addition. The vestibule has double doors with glass panels similar to that above the outside doors and open on to a long narrow hall with a steep staircase with scroll-ornamented stair ends and round-topped octagonal walnut newell posts. The first floor parlor contains a marble fireplace and the cove molding is carved plaster with a leaf set into a talon form. A handsome chandelier hangs from a carved plaster medallion in the center of the ceiling. There are two rooms across the back of the house--one may have been the dining room--which have been considerably remodeled to provide kitchenette, bathroom, and closet space for apartments. On the second floor, the front bedroom contains a second marble fireplace and there is a large office, probably originally two small bedrooms, across the back. The third floor has a large light room across the front, originally perhaps the children's room and a rear office, possibly the servants quarters. A narrow staircase curves around to the roof shed which opens onto the flat roof which affords a lovely view of the river and the spectacular Renaissance Center across Jefferson Avenue. The basement contains brick piers with wooden support beams; access to the outside was, at one time, provided by an exit to the rear of the house which has since been filled in and much of the rear yard is occupied by a brick garage, built much later than the house, which is slated for demolition.