East River Road Historic District

Prominent Detroit merchants, William and Alexander Macomb, purchased Grosse Ile from the Potowatomi Indians, July 6, 1776. By 1860 when a Wayne County land ownership map was published, the island boasted about fifty property owners. Nine of them agreed to subscribe to the map and were listed with their occupations. These included five farmers, a school principal, a part-time farmer and hotel proprietor, and Dallas Norvell who operated a fishery on nearby Stony Island. His home, which is indicated on the map, is among those within the East River Road Historic District. A Mrs. Norvell was listed separately as a farmer, and her home was next to his on the site of the present Michigan Central Railroad depot. The well-known architect, Gordon W. Lloyd, is shown as the owner of a lot in the district. He may have been considering the lot for his own residence. In any case, he later built his Swiss Chalet-style residence on the riverfront in Ontario. Lloyd was a noted church architect skillful in the use of the Gothic Revival style, and he was later commissioned to build St. James Episcopal Church in that style. His other activities on Grosse Ile included designing the country residence of Circuit Court Judge Samuel Townsend Douglass, which was completed in 1860 and appears on the map. Hawkins Ferry described the Douglass House: 'it epitomized the new vogue for country living. Scalloped vergeboards, ornamental brick chimneys, and an assortment of porches added interest to this charmingly rustic dwelling.' In the early days, Douglass would remain in Detroit all week and return to Grosse Ile weekends by steamer during the warm months or by cutter across the ice in winter. (Douglass appears on the 1860 list as a Detroit subscriber along with the address of his law office.) Samuel Lewis's name also appears on the 1860 map. His house, was under construction when the map was published. It was built by an unknown architect and is another significant architectural component in the East River Road Historic District. With its Gothic windows, ornamental vergeboards and board and batten, the house is an excellent example of Gothic Revival style architecture. Surprisingly, the house is actually brick beneath its board and batten. The Lewis House was noted in Wayne Andrews' Architecture in Michigan as were St. James Chapel and the Douglass House. Lewis was a prominent Detroit capitalist. At the time of his death in 1878, he no longer owned the house on Grosse Ile. He was described as the president of the Detroit Gas Light Company and was one of the directors of the Detroit Savings Bank. Contemporary accounts of Grosse Ile include the following, written in 1874: Grosse Isle (sic) ... on which are a number of extensive and well-cultivated farms. This island has become a very popular retreat for citizens of Detroit during the heat of summer, there being here located good public houses for the accommodation of visitors. Silas Farmer wrote in 1884: Several citizens of Detroit have elegant residences here, and there are many fine farms and homes. The Canada Southern Railroad extends to the island, connected by ferry with the Canada shore. In the 1870s a railroad bridge connected Grosse Ile with the U. S. mainland. The railroad's right-of-way across the island follows today's Grosse Ile Parkway. Another railroad bridge ran east of Grosse Ile to Stony Island where ferry service ran to the Canadian shore. When the bridge was scheduled for repairs about 1883, the decision was made to discontinue it instead. By the time the present railroad depot was built in 1905, the Michigan Central Railroad Company had bought out the Canada Southern. Today, the MCRR depot is an integral part of the East River Road Historic District serving as the island's historical museum. Located at the mouth of the Detroit River, Grosse Ile was so-named by early French explorers because it is the largest island in the Detroit River. Since the days when Detroit merchants, William and Alexander Macomb, purchased the island it has been associated with the city. The farm products and fish harvested around the island surely found their way to Detroit markets. While summer brought vacationers from the city, weekend commuters were also a common pattern. Ferry boat and cutter across the ice plus a later railway bridge made commuting possible for island residents.

Located on the east side of Grosse Ile, eleven buildings along East River Road at the intersection of Grosse Ile Parkway constitute the East River Road Historic District. Among the buildings are St. James Episcopal Chapel (already entered on the National Register in its own right), as well as seven private residences, two outbuildings, and the Michigan Central Railroad depot. The depot now serves as the island's historical museum. Five of the buildings are of locally-quarried limestone. Gordon W. Lloyd was the architect of two buildings in the district: St. James Episcopal Chapel and the Judge Samuel Townsend Douglass House. Also of architectural note is the Samuel Lewis House by an unknown builder. Aside from the three turn-of-the-century buildings--the Osborn Cottage, the Smith House, and the MCRR depot--the buildings in the district date from the mid-nineteenth century. The Dallas Norvell House is the oldest and was built in the 1840s. St. James Chapel, the Dudgeon House, the Judge Douglass House, and the Samuel Lewis House follow; they were built in the late 1850s and 1860s in the Gothic Revival style. The Anderson House, in the Swiss Chalet style, was probably built during the 1870s or 1880s. The buildings of the East River Road Historic District face the Detroit River and Canada beyond, with a generally uninterrupted view of marshlands and island along the Ontario shore. Frequently, a Great Lakes freighter comes into view, passing through the Livingstone Channel on the far side of Stony Island en route downriver to Lake Erie or upriver to Detroit. The exteriors of the buildings are basically unaltered, and the buildings are in excellent condition. The island is still a fashionable residential area with overhanging hardwood trees although air pollution is a problem on the northwestern side of the island, overlooking the downriver factories of Trenton, Michigan.