Eberts, John and Emma (Lacey), House

The John and Emma (Lacey) Eberts House, built in 1872 and extensively remodeled in 1892, meets national register criteria A and C as a highly intact example of the homes middle-class working families built in Wyandotte, then an industrial town dominated by the Eureka Iron and Steel Works. Although Wyandotte's old neighborhoods west of Biddle Avenue contain houses dating back to around 1860, including many that appear to date from the 1880s and 90s, relatively few of these houses retain a high degree of historical integrity. The house also meets criterion B as the original Wyandotte home of the Eberts family. John Eberts was an early businessman in the community who founded an early coal and building products firm that, later run by family members who grew up in the house, continued in business until the mid-twentieth century.

Wyandotte is located about eleven miles south of Detroit, along the Detroit River, and is named for the Native American tribe, who settled the area prior to the late eighteenth century. In the early nineteenth century treaties moved the tribes farther west. In the early 1800s white settlers were working and living on the land alongside the Wyandotte village of Maquaqua. George Clark, George Payne, and William Case were among the early names recorded. These settlers came from the East after the close of the War of 1812, seeking richer farm lands, which were rumored to lie along the Detroit River.

Major John Biddle stood out as one of Wyandotte's most influential settlers. He settled in Detroit in 1816 and served as paymaster for the Army. His wife, Eliza Bradish Biddle, became a social leader. Biddle soon turned to politics and his appointments ranged from register of the federal land office and mayor of Detroit in 1827-1828 to president of the Michigan Central Railroad in 1835 and member of the Michigan State House of Representatives in 1841, where he served as speaker. In 1835 Biddle established a country estate he called "The Wyandotte" whose property formed what is now the heart of the city of Wyandotte.

In 1853 Philip Thurber, an insurance agent, returned to Detroit from a vacation trip to northern Michigan, where he had become interested in iron ore, recently discovered there. Having tested a sample of it and finding it of superior quality, he reported this information to a group of local Detroit investor capitalists. The group, headed by Eber Brock Ward, formed the Eureka Iron Company to establish an iron furnace.

The group approached Major John Biddle, who had moved from his Wyandotte estate in 1848, and purchased his 2,200-acre property for their factory site. The location contained riverfront property for easy delivery of materials and thick woods for fuel and lumber. The furnace and a rolling mill were soon established, and Eureka dominated Wyandotte for most of the remainder of the nineteenth century. A large part of the former Biddle estate was soon subdivided into lots by the Eureka Iron Company for sale as workers' homesites and for business locations. Lots for schools and churches were either sold at a discount or donated. The goal was to attract a stable workforce for the company and develop a town. Thus the Eureka Iron Works became the focus and draw for a city to grow up around. The city was called "Wyandotte" after Biddle's estate.

The first part of the village of Wyandotte was platted by John Van Alstyne, the Eureka Iron Company's real estate manager. The plat was filed by the Eureka Iron Company in the office of the Wayne County Register of Deeds on December 12, 1854. Wyandotte filed to be recognized as a city in December 1866, and received final approval on March 5, 1867.

Over the years, Wyandotte has changed from an industrial town into a primarily residential city. While maintaining a small-town atmosphere, it is also self-sustaining and has separate water and electric plants.

The first owners of the house at 109 Vinewood were John and Emma Eberts. John Eberts Jr. was born November 6, 1843, in a home on Congress Street in Detroit (Genealogy Recollection). He was the son of German immigrants and had seven siblings. On February 7, 1872, John married Emma Lacey. She was born on January 24, 1850, the daughter of English immigrants who had come to Amherstburg, Ontario. They moved to Detroit when she was five.

On August 26, 1870, John Eberts paid $325 for Lots 6 and 7 in Block 67 within the city of Wyandotte from the Eureka Iron Company (Property Deed, August 27, 1870). At this time the lots contained a cornfield with a swale running through it. In 1872 the Eberts had the present large two-story home built there by Raphael R. Thomas, a cousin of Emma's. The house was occupied by the couple on December 27, 1872. A family history states that, "The house was rebuilt in the spring of 1892...." It seems likely that most of the present Queen Anne finish dates from that renovation, with a side porch in matching style probably added in the 1910s.

The house as newly built in 1872 reportedly featured the first coal stove in town, a "Crown Jewel." The family history states that, "As there was no coal dealer in town, he purchased a car of coal. This he shared with Reno Thon who also had bought a coal stove." From this experience, he began a coal and cordwood business that became the Eberts Coal Company, Wyandotte's first coal business, in 1874. John Eberts had previously been in "the painting business in all its branches—house painting, papering and decorating, glazing, carriage and wagon painting, lettering and sign painting" (family history), so this new coal business naturally developed into a building materials business as well, supplying the town's need for brick, cement, and other products for construction.

The Eberts raised five children in their home at 109 Vinewood: Edith, Elsie, Harry, Frank, and Walter. By 1892 John Eberts had retired from the coal business and gone on to other endeavors. The business was then sold to a third party who owned it until 1895, when son Harry bought it back and re-established it as an Eberts family business. Harry was joined by his brother Frank in 1897, then by brother Walter in 1907. Sister Edith also joined the company as office manager. In 1909, according to the city directory, Walter and Frank were still living at home with their parents, while Harry was living a short distance away on Biddle Avenue. The business, now called Eberts Bros., sold, in addition to coal and coke, builders supplies, including "Sand, Lime, Cement, Brick, Tile, Plaster, Sewer Pipe, Fire Brick, Cement Blocks, Roofing," and offered "Moving and Trucking" services from their yard at Mulberry and Front streets, according to the 1909 directory (adv, pp. 45, 69, 117). The 1930 directory shows the company, by now located at 2439 Van Alstyne Boulevard, still offering "Coal, Builders' Supplies, Face Brick." (The three brothers by then all had their own homes nearby, Frank at 2433 Biddle Avenue, Harry at 2319 Biddle, and Walter at 2413 Biddle.) Eberts was the first coal dealer in Wyandotte, established in 1874, and the Eberts Bros. Coal and builders' supplies business remained in operation until 1956.

Both John and Emma died in the home. John died in 1929 at age 86, and Emma died in 1941 at age 91. After their death, the house passed to Edith and Elsie Eberts who occupied it until their deaths in 1956 and 1962, respectively (Genealogy Recollection). In 1965 Ralph Lubaway purchased the home from the Eberts family. He and his wife Wilma raised eleven children in the house and were active with the Wyandotte community for many years. The Lubaway family owned the home until it was purchased by the city of Wyandotte in August 2005. It was then sold to the Blankenship/Granzeier family in March 2006, they being only the third family to own the home. They bought it when it was threatened with demolition by the city because of its severely deteriorated condition after a long period of decline. The current homeowners have completely restored the home.

The house, as redone in 1892 and renovated in the early twentieth century, is an unusually intact example of the middle-class Queen Anne houses that dot the residential streets in the older eastern part of Wyandotte. While there are some older houses and a small number of larger and more elaborately detailed Queen Anne homes, the Eberts House in its general size and character with simple Queen Anne detailing is one of many generally similar houses in Wyandotte but stands out among them for its high degree of integrity resulting from the recent rehabilitation.

The Eberts House is a two-story gable-front Queen Anne with gable-topped double-decker bay windows on each side, and a one-story rear ell. The walls are clad in wooden clapboarding except for the front gable and the gables topping the side bay windows and the bay windows' wall surfaces between the first and second-story windows. The house's front displays a small turned-post entry porch and square-plan bay window, and there is another turned-post porch on one side. The interior retains its Queen Anne trim but also contains a later Arts-and-Crafts fireplace. The house stands on a foundation constructed in a variety of materials: brick, rubble fieldstone, plain concrete block, and rock-face concrete block.

The house stands at the southwest corner of Vinewood and First streets and faces north toward Vinewood. Vinewood intersects Biddle Avenue one block to the east. Grouped about the Biddle-Vinewood intersection are several of Wyandotte's largest and most historically important Victorian homes, and Vinewood itself contains several other notable Late Victorian houses.

The Eberts House's front displays a small turned-post porch, with balusters, but lacking scroll work. It also displays a square-plan bay window with three sections, double-hung windows flanking a central cottage window with low upper sash containing a glazed lunette. The tall front gable is finished in round- and octagon-butt wood shingles and contains a paired window set in a decorative board frame with its cap seemingly suggestive of a broken pediment treatment. The upper-story windows, like most in the house, are square-head one-over-ones set in plain frames with simple molded caps.

The east side boasts a full, gabled, two-story, slant-sided bay window (added between 1900 and 1912, according to the Sanborn maps). Earlier Sanborns show a square-plan bay window. This two-story bay window structure is capped with a large gable above the second floor. The area between the lower and upper windows is clad in round-butt shingling. The same lunette window design in the front bay window is present here above the main center window on the first floor of this bay. A side entry beyond the bay window is sheltered by a small turned-post porch (probably added during the 1910s), complete with newer balusters.

The west elevation is more plain, with a broad windowless area near the front and double-hung windows irregularly but closely spaced toward the rear. There is a subsidiary gable, faced in round-butt shingling, near the midpoint of the west facade. A one-story gable-roof extension at the house's south (rear) end contains the kitchen. The roof displays a low gabled dormer on each side. A door in the rear gable now leads only to space but is evidence of a past balcony/porch structure.

The home has had some changes and alterations in its existence. The present owners have completely restored the home to original condition, although maintaining the renovations made by the original owners between 1892 and about 1920.

Interior: The main floor contains a very spacious living room, landing, and smaller "alcove." Farther back (south) are a large dining room, foyer on the east side, and half-bath. The south or rear end ell hosts a large kitchen with a separate "kitchen nook." In the second story at the north or front end are a large master bedroom and a separate small nursery contained within the master bedroom. Behind or southward are three mid-sized bedrooms (two facing the east and one the west), all immediately off a long hallway with two 90-degree turns that stretch from the master bedroom to the far back bedroom at the south of the house, which sits over the kitchen.

The (roughly 800 square foot) one-room, open attic is recently floored, yet otherwise completely original and unfinished, with large rough-cut wooden rafters. The basement consists of a wide L-shaped main area with a smaller rectangular side storage room to the east middle of the basement. This smaller room hosts an original limestone wall, which separates it from the main area.

The first floor living room has as its decorative centerpiece an electric fireplace, with Arts-and-Crafts tile surround, broadly projecting wooden mantel, and hearth faced in small glazed tiles. There are no other fireplaces. The light fixtures, as well as door hardware, also have Art Deco elements. Bath fixtures have Art Deco flair, which flow with the overall first-floor interior style.

High (nine-and-a-half-foot) ceilings extend throughout the first floor. Original wood trim, window frames, doors, baseboards, and moldings have been maintained, the vast majority stained rather than painted. Most windows contain the original glass (now wavy/distorted). The interior walls are finished with original horsehair plaster. The kitchen, located in the one-story rear ell, has many historic features, such as a built-in ironing board and built-in wood cabinets. The wooden staircase to the second floor may be an original 1872 feature, with its simple round newel post and spindles in the railing. The staircase is a duplicate of the staircase at the historic 1862 Marx home, located nearby at 2630 Biddle Avenue, already listed in the national register.

The floors are all of pine (slightly reddish in color in the living room and first floor landing areas, white pine in the kitchen nook and throughout the second floor) and thought to be part of the original 1872 finish. The east foyer and dining room display oak hardwood floors over the original pine. The kitchen has a tiled floor over the original pine.

The current owners have completely restored the home, maintaining the renovations and cosmetic changes made by the owners between 1892 and about 1932. They have restored the windows according to the National Park Service guidelines for historic homes and also obtained consultation as to appropriate interior paint colors. All electric, plumbing, heating, and cooling systems have been carefully replaced/installed in a manner to maintain original plasterwork, wood moldings, and other features. When feasible, all original plasterwork was kept intact as well as other original fixtures. All original hardwood floors remain, although some have been refinished.

The house's grounds once contained several outbuildings, which stood in the southwest corner of the property, but none have survived. Historically, the yard was home to a locally renowned garden. Emma Ebert was known for her gardening skills and held an annual celebration to view a rare night-blooming cereus ("Beautiful Display in Local Garden," Wyandotte News Herald, 1932). John also planted chestnut shade trees on the curb in front of the house. Of particular note were Emma's rock garden, along with its irises and roses, which could be found in a variety of colors. A wisteria arbor is still located near the east porch and may be a historic feature of the gardens. Currently, the landscape retains some of the original elements. A modern picket fence borders the perimeter of the east and north side of the property. The arbor is still in existence, and the homeowners believe the rock gardens are currently buried underneath fill soil.

The John and Emma (Lacey) Eberts House, built in 1872 and extensively remodeled in 1892, meets national register criteria A and C as a highly intact example of the homes middle-class working families built in Wyandotte, then an industrial town dominated by the Eureka Iron and Steel Works. Although Wyandotte's old neighborhoods west of Biddle Avenue contain houses dating back to around 1860, including many that appear to date from the 1880s and 90s, relatively few of these houses retain a high degree of historical integrity. The house also meets criterion B as the original Wyandotte home of the Eberts family. John Eberts was an early businessman in the community who founded an early coal and building products firm that, later run by family members who grew up in the house, continued in business until the mid-twentieth century.

The Eberts House is a two-story gable-front Queen Anne with gable-topped double-decker bay windows on each side, and a one-story rear ell. The walls are clad in wooden clapboarding except for the front gable and the gables topping the side bay windows and the bay windows' wall surfaces between the first and second-story windows. The house's front displays a small turned-post entry porch and square-plan bay window, and there is another turned-post porch on one side. The interior retains its Queen Anne trim but also contains a later Arts-and-Crafts fireplace. The house stands on a foundation constructed in a variety of materials- brick, rubble fieldstone, plain concrete block, and rock-face concrete block.