Hecker House

The Hecker house, built between 1888 and 1891, was one of Detroit's most fabulous mansions, the home of one of her most notable citizens. Colonel Frank Joseph Hecker was born in Freedom, Michigan, in 1846. At the age of eighteen, Hecker joined the Union Army. After the war, Hecker worked as an agent for the Union Pacific Railroad, representing the road for several years in the East and returning in 1879 to Michigan to organize the Peninsular Car Company in Detroit. Hecker's wealth and the architectural talents of Lo s~~er, a German-American whose drawings were the basis for much of Detroit's most lavish architecture, were combined in rare triumph for both - the Hecker mansion on Woodward Avenue, long a center for gala social events in Michigan, still a center for the performing arts in Detroit. Hecker served as president of the Peninsular Car Company until 1900. During the Spanish-American War, he was charged with responsibility for moving Spanish prisoners from Cuba and Puerto Rico to Spain. Theodore Roosevelt appointed Hecker to the Panama Canal Commission in 1904. During these and subsequent years, Colonel Hecker helped to organize and administer major middlewestern banks, served as Detroit Police Commissioner, and sat on the controlling boards of the Detroit Copper and Brass Rolling Mills, Michigan Fire and Marine Insurance Company, Detroit Lumber Company, and LaSalle County Carbon Coal Company. Hecker died a multi-millionaire in June, 1927. Hecker and Kamper reportedly agreed on a design for the Hecker mansion which closely followed the lines and mood of the Chateau de Chenonceaux near Tours, both men feeling that Detroit needed more architectural cognizance of her French historical roots. Hecker engaged Kamper to design not only the mansion itself but all of the interior detailing and furniture. The completed mansion was the scene of countless and elaborate society fetes. Presidents McKinley and Hayes visited there, and Colonel Hecker modestly dubbed one wing of his castle 'the Presidential Wing' in their honor. When the Heckers left the house, it was converted into a rooming house and apartment building. Later, the house was purchased by Smiley Brothers Music Company, and since then it has been used for both commercial purposes and as a center for the performing arts in Detroit: the Hecker House was the birthplace of Detroit's Chamber Music Workshop and Women's Symphony. The carriage house has been converted into a recital auditorium capable of seating 200 persons, and many rooms are now used for musical instruction and practice.

The most striking aspect of this large French Renaissance house's design has always been its lavish interior detail and furnishing, a twentieth century reproduction of imperial grandeur. The house, located at the east corner of Woodward Avenue and Ferry, is built of Indiana Bedford limestone and has a steep, grey, slate roof. There are forty-nine rooms in the three-story main structure and service buildings containing more than a dozen Egyptian Nubian marble and onyx fireplaces. All of the interior partitions are stone and brick, and floors in the house have elaborate parquet designs which vary from room to room. The Hecker house was intended to be a harkening back to Detroit's French roots: it is undoubtedly more representative of the new rich Detroit of the twentieth century than of the fort from which the city was born. In the center of the house is a colonnaded reception room from which a grand staircase rises to a twelve foot high stained glass window at the landing. The reception hall is paneled in white oak, and the vestibule is wainscoted in Italian Siena marble. The first floor of the house is designed so that doors can be rolled back converting the entire floor into an immense ballroom. The oval dining room is paneled in Honduras mahogany with scrolls of fruit adorning woodwork and doors. Much of the wall area is crusted with hammered copper leaf, and the fruit motif is carried out in the ornamental plaster ceiling. Oak paneling in the library has carefully arranged patterns of natural grain which create lion head figures in the center of each panel. Upper walls in the library are covered with gold tapestries. The den or trophy room has teakwood floor covering, a magnificent fireplace, and ceiling beams. The drawing and music rooms are separated by two white pillars. The ceiling and frieze in the music room are embossed with musical instruments. An ivory piano embellished with figures of birds and flowers was originally the centerpiece of this room but has since been removed. Although the Hecker house was one of Detroit's first private residences to be electrically lighted, lighting in the house is actually a combination of electricity and gas. Several original electrical fixtures have been retained. Rooms in the house are now studios or display areas. Most of the original lavish interior detail is intact today.