Pleasant Ridge East Historic District

The Pleasant Ridge East Historic District is significant for its association with the broad patterns of suburban development in the Detroit metropolitan area during the early to mid-twentieth century. The district exemplifies the transformation of Pleasant Ridge from a rural area into a suburban community, reflecting the broader trends of suburbanization that characterized the growth of American cities during this period. The district's development was closely tied to the expansion of the Detroit metropolitan area and the rise of the automobile, which facilitated the movement of people from urban centers to suburban areas.

The district is also significant for its architectural character, which reflects the popular residential styles of the early to mid-twentieth century. The homes in the district represent a variety of architectural styles, including Bungalow/Craftsman, Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, and Minimal Traditional, among others. These styles were popular during the period of the district's development and are well represented in the district's housing stock. The district's architecture reflects the influence of national trends in residential design, as well as the availability of plan books and pattern books that promoted these styles to a broad audience.

The Pleasant Ridge East Historic District is a cohesive and intact example of a suburban residential neighborhood from the early to mid-twentieth century. Its streetscapes, characterized by mature trees and well-maintained homes, contribute to its historic character and sense of place. The district's physical separateness from surrounding areas, reinforced by major roads and the lack of connecting side streets, further enhances its distinct identity as a suburban enclave.

Overall, the Pleasant Ridge East Historic District is significant for its association with the historical development of suburban communities in the Detroit metropolitan area and for its architectural character, which reflects the popular residential styles of the early to mid-twentieth century. Its intact streetscapes and cohesive architectural character make it an important example of suburban residential development from this period.

The Pleasant Ridge East Historic District is a remarkably intact and cohesive assemblage of single-family homes that, representing a variety of architectural styles popular during the second quarter of the twentieth century, stand along narrow east-west side streets off Woodward Avenue, the Detroit area's primary commercial corridor. Commercial buildings along Woodward's east side form the western boundary of the district, with the district boundary drawn to include the surviving older brick commercial buildings dating from the district's period of development, the 1920s to mid-1950s, and exclude later redevelopment. While the character of the district is established by the scale and style of the homes, the streetscapes are greatly enhanced by the mature maple and oak lining the thoroughfares as well as the well-established landscaping of the private residences.

The district includes nearly all of Pleasant Ridge east of Woodward Avenue; most of the city's neighborhood west of Woodward is already listed in the national register as the Pleasant Ridge Historic District—the excluded portions containing non-contributing properties. It is bounded on the north by Ten Mile Road, which today serves as the I-696 Service Drive; on the east by the Conrail railroad tracks and the city of Ferndale city limits; on the south by the rear property lines of Woodward Heights Boulevard, which marks the boundary with the city of Ferndale; and on the west by Woodward Avenue and Main Street. The neighborhood within these boundaries forms a distinct entity, physically separated from the surrounding areas by the major adjacent roads and railroad line and by the lack of connecting side streets. Interstate 696 and its service drives create a wide, high-speed barrier to the north; the Conrail railroad grade is a consistent physical barrier to the east; the six lanes and median of heavily trafficked Woodward Avenue define the district's western boundary, and the rear lot lines of the southern edge of the district along Woodward Heights Avenue offer no through connection to Ferndale to the south. In sum, no through streets link the district to neighboring communities, and, in fact, there are no direct links connecting the district east of Woodward Avenue to Pleasant Ridge neighborhoods west of Woodward Avenue. This physical separateness reinforces the neighborhood's character and cohesiveness.

The district is almost entirely residential in composition, with commercial properties limited to Woodward Avenue and the short section of Main Street. The oldest houses in this portion of the city post-date the earliest houses in the Pleasant Ridge national register district to the west, but, similar to those western neighborhoods, the vast majority of houses were built between 1920 and 1930, with some dating from the 1930s, later 40s, and early 50s as well. The residences are generally one or two stories in height. Colonials, English Cottages, bungalows, Arts-and-Crafts-influenced ("Craftsman"), and "Minimal Traditional" houses predominate.

The homes in the district front on eight east-west streets; from north to south: Kensington Boulevard, Devonshire Road, Wellesley Drive, Amherst Road, Maywood Avenue, Sylvan Avenue, Fairwood Boulevard, and Woodward Heights Boulevard. Commercial structures occur along the western periphery on northwest-southeast-bearing Woodward Avenue and north-bearing Main Street. Other north-south streets within the proposed district that provide vehicular access but do not have address frontage are Indiana Avenue and Bermuda Avenue. Two small parks, generally paralleling the Conrail railroad grade at the eastern city limits, provide expanses of open space. Gainsboro Park occupies unplatted land northward from the end of Amherst Street past the termini of Wellesley and Amherst Streets to Kensington Boulevard, and Flynn Field extends northward from Sylvan Avenue to Maywood Avenue west of Gainsboro Avenue.

Most of the residences occupy narrow, fifty-foot lots with consistent setbacks that foster a dense residential character. However, occasionally wider lots occur along Devonshire near Woodward in the west end of the district, and these are the locations of some of the more imposing homes in the neighborhood, generally English Cottage or Colonial in inspiration. The narrowest lots, forty feet in width, occur along the south side of Woodward Heights Boulevard, in the southern edge of the district, and in the eastern blocks of Kensington in the northeast corner of the district, and are occupied by the community's most modest houses, generally small bungalows. Despite a variation in lot size, most houses are enframed in mature street trees, generally at least one centered on the lot directly in front of each residence, and are further enhanced by individually landscaped yards. The homes comprising the neighborhood east of Woodward were virtually all built prior to World War II, although residences built in the decades following the war are also present, and blend well in terms of scale and style with the earlier residences. The houses together present a consistent streetscape of well-kept homes.

Commercial property in Pleasant Ridge has historically been confined to the Woodward Avenue corridor, essentially an extension of the Ferndale commercial district to the south and the Royal Oak business district to the north. No large enterprises occupied this zone, which originally consisted and continues today as one primarily of small service businesses, specialty stores, and professional offices. The buildings along Woodward not included in the district are all under 50 years old.

Much like the national register-listed neighborhoods west of Woodward Avenue, the blocks east of the avenue are notable for their consistency of architectural style and character, and the occasional architecturally distinguished residence. The district's largest homes tend to be located along the block or two closest to Woodward, and the most modest in scale in the easternmost block or two near the railroad line. In general, the east side district's houses are of somewhat smaller scale relative to the dwellings across Woodward. While renovations have occurred more frequently than in the blocks west of Woodward Avenue, the general architectural integrity of the eastern neighborhood remains high and virtually every residence is maintained in a state of excellent repair. The entire district averages less than one vacant lot per street, and these lots appear to have been vacant since the original platting.

According to city assessor's records, the oldest houses in this district date to 1915 and 1916, represented by four dwellings—at 37 Kensington and 15 Devonshire (built in 1915) and 21 and 93 Kensington (built in 1916). The next phase of construction, dating between 1920 and 1922, is confined almost without exception along Kensington, Devonshire, and to a lesser extent, Woodward Heights. Nearly 95% of the houses built in the district prior to 1923 are located on these three streets. The vast majority of housing stock on other streets in the district was built during an ensuing mid-1920s construction boom. While the city assessor's records date only four houses built prior to 1920, nearly 70% of houses in the district were constructed between 1920 and 1929, with over one-half built between 1923 and 1927.

The following decade, extending through the depths of the Great Depression, reflects the economy of the nation and Michigan. While about 12% of the district houses were erected between 1930 and 1939, only four were constructed between 1931 and 1934, while the others were built between 1936 and 1939 as the nation's economy began to recover. World War II profoundly influenced the decade encompassing 1940-1949 (just over 9% of the district's total houses). While thirty-seven houses were built in the two years immediately preceding the war, only three houses were completed during the conflict, while twelve were erected in the immediate post-war period. Some 8% of the district's houses were constructed between 1950 and 1955, and only seven dwellings, or just over 1% of the district's housing stock, post-date 1955.

Most commonly these residences express architectural affinities to and stylistic attributes of the Arts-and-Crafts (Bungalow/Craftsman), English Cottage, and Colonial styles—often mixing Colonial detailing with steep rooflines suggestive of English Cottages and just as often tossing in some Craftsman features. Excellent examples of each of these styles are found throughout the district. A large plurality, over 40% of the houses in the district, share strong affinities with the bungalow and Craftsman-influenced style. The house at 01 Kensington is a textbook example of the Craftsman style, with stucco cladding, bracketed eaves and porch, and bands of multi-light windows. The house at 21 Kensington, one of the oldest houses in the district (built in 1916), is an excellent representative of Bungalow/Craftsman in the district, frame and rather diminutive in scale, but presenting the low profile bungalow form, textured wall planes, expressive porch with flared pillars, roof dormer, prominent brick wall chimney, and Craftsman eave brackets.

Three other styles are each about equally represented and together comprise just over one-half of the houses in the district. The two most popular period revivals, Colonial and English Cottage, together comprise well over one third of the houses in the district. Houses sharing Colonial style references (i.e., generic Colonial, Cape Cod, Dutch Colonial, Garrison Colonial) include the dwelling at 16 Maywood, which is typical of the style found in the district, with its explicit symmetry, side-gabled roof with dormers and an end chimney, and formal entry featuring sidelights. The Dutch Colonial subtype is represented by 29 Fairwood, a frame dwelling with symmetrical fenestration, a gambrel roof with a shed-roof facade dormer, an exterior end chimney, and an entry porch with prominent eave returns. The number of English Cottage houses almost exactly equals the Colonial component. The house at 10 Fairwood is typical of the style in the district, with its asymmetrical massing, prominent facade cross-gable, massive exterior chimney, and secondary use of stucco-and-half-timbering effects. The dwelling at 11 Sylvan is also of brick, and presents multiple intersecting gables and a very complex roof silhouette as well as arched windows and doors and flared eaves.

The other "style" represented in numbers equal to each of the revival styles is "Minimal Traditional," generally composed of a side or cross-gabled plan, often executed in brick, with muted style references. Typical examples are the rather low-profile brick dwelling at 8 Maywood and the houses at 5 Amherst and 5 Sylvan that include small picture windows and stone accents. Ranch houses, single story with low pitch roofs, generally executed in brick and often with stone details, such as the example at 3 Devonshire, compose the only other sizable element in the district's architecture, but still constitute less than 5%.

While most examples of these styles and types display references to the favored styles of the period, certain residences stand out in their uniqueness. An excellent example is the Spanish Colonial at 12 Devonshire, with its stucco walls, red tile roof, narrow arched windows, and matching garage, while 6 Devonshire is a low-profile example of the International Style, with a shallow pitch shed roof and bands of windows.

Plan book architecture from the major publishers of the period inspired the design of some residences in the district. Although the size of the district (ca. 600 properties) prohibited a building-by-building search through period architectural plan books, a review of a sample of these publications (such as Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalogues from the 1920s; Stickley's More Craftsman Homes, 1912; National Building Publication's 124 Distinctive House Designs and Floor Plans, 1929; Loizeaux's Plan Book #7, 1927; Walker and Clements' Small Homes, 1940; and Radford's Home Builders' Red Book, 1925) identified many examples very similar to houses built on the east side of Pleasant Ridge. These dwellings exemplify the period revival, Craftsman, and Minimal Traditional styles prevalent at the time of these publications.

Almost all plan books from the 1920s-1930s era consistently promoted architectural styles that were almost all variations of the favored Colonials, English Cottage, Dutch Colonials, and bungalows. Local house plan books followed this trend and often emphasized Craftsman and Foursquare variants with sharply pitched front gables that distinguish Pleasant Ridge's streetscapes. Plan books published in Detroit (see bibliography) that offered these favored styles include Miller-Storm, the Builder of Good Homes (1925), Your Choice of a Home: A Book of Home Building Ideas (1928), Character Homes (1928), Your New Home (1930), and Homes of Distinction (1936).

Variations of houses that appear to be, at a minimum, inspired by national plan books include (see Sweitzer and Davis 1990): 15 Sylvan, perhaps derived from the "Sussex," a 1931 Gordon-Van Tine design (p. 177); 14 Amherst, referencing Aladdin's 1937 design, the "Marblehead" (p. 201); 8 Devonshire, patterned after a 1930s design by Sterling (p. 186); 22 Maywood, inspired by the 1930s Sears design for the "Chevy Chase"; 7 Devonshire, an early ranch design perhaps derived from the 1945 Sterling offering, the "Marleen"; and 35 Maywood, derived from a 1934 Lewis-Liberty design, the "Victoria" (p. 211). Some other examples include 3 Amherst, derived from the 1927 Radford design, the "Morley" (Radford 1927: 72); 6 Sylvania, which appears to be based on the Sears "Birmingham" offered between 1931 and 1933, and 6 Fairwood, relating to another Sears design, the "Cedars," available between 1928 and 1931 (Stevenson and Jandl 1986: 296, 213); 11 Fairwood and 28 Devonshire, which appear to be generally inspired by Loizeaux's 1927 Tudor Design 14060-B (Loizeaux 1927: 66); and 50 Maywood, which relates to a 1925 Montgomery Ward design, the "Pullman" (Montgomery Ward & Co., 1925: 87).

Commercial buildings comprise under 2% of the district. The contributing commercial buildings along Woodward Avenue were erected between 1925 and 1956, and are single- and two-story brick buildings, most often with Georgian and Colonial Revival features. These provide a physical bridge across Woodward to the National Register-listed Pleasant Ridge Historic District. Perhaps the most impressive representatives of the commercial component are the Gehrke Real Estate Building at 23900 Woodward, which features limestone masonry accents in the simple cornice, entry keystones and plinths, and window sills, and the Field Art Studio building at 24220 Woodward, noted for its broad expanses of display windows but distinguished primarily by its vintage neon marquee.

In sum, nearly 90% of properties within the district are evaluated as contributing to the proposed historic district, as are Gainsboro Park and Flynn Field, which provide recreation areas that contribute to the overall social and landscape fabric/quality of life of the district. The few vacant lots, four in total, with no more than a single example on any street in the district, have never had houses on them and are generally incorporated into the yards of adjacent homes as landscape assets. The continuity of the streetscapes is remarkable for its built consistency and architectural cohesiveness in terms of style and scale. It is also notable that more recent (non-contributing) construction is not architecturally inconsistent with the district in terms of scale, materials, or even style, with the majority presenting scaled down or muted references to the Colonial or Georgian Revival styles.