Scarab Club

The Scarab Club is significant for its historical role in the art community of Detroit and for its unique architectural character. The Scarab Club started around 1909 as the Hopkin Club honoring Robert Hopkin famous Detroit artist of the latter 19th and early 20th century. When Mr. Hopkin died in 1909, the name was changed to the Scarab Club.

The organization took an increasingly important role in the art and cultural life of the community. The club founded the first Michigan Artists Exhibition in 1911 and sponsored it until 1928 when it was taken over by the Detroit Institute of Arts. During its entire life, but especially since the Club opened its present clubhouse in 1928, it has been the scene of all types of art exhibitions featuring every sort of media. Although many of the exhibitions have been sponsored by the club itself, some have had the sponsorship of a wide variety of community art groups who have no other place to present their exhibitions.

The Club also sponsors social events which are open to non-members. The most famous of these entertainments has been the Scarab Ball which was a major social event in Detroit during the first third of the century. Such Detroit social notables as General Knudson, the Edsel Fords, the Fred Algers, the Horace Dodges, the Ralph Booths and others patronized these lavish masquerade beaux-arts balls. Although some of the Scarab Balls were held at outside ballrooms or hotels, many were held at the clubhouse which was suitably decorated for the occasion.

The Scarab Club continues to play a vital role in the art and cultural life of the greater Detroit community. It is truly the focal point for organized artists' activities. Its clubhouse is located in the heart of the Cultural Center: just east of the Detroit Institute of Arts, south of the new Center for Creative Studies and just north of the Detroit Science Center. The Scarab Club is also important as an accomplished example of the eclectic architecture of the early twentieth century.

The architect for the Scarab Club, Lancelot Sukert, was born in Detroit in 1888 and died in 1966. He studied architecture at the University of California, Columbia University, and the University of Pennsylvania. During World War I he was a First Lieutenant in the aviation section of the Signal Corps and erected airdromes at the front. He worked two years in the office of Albert Kahn before starting his own practice.

The Scarab Club is an interesting building reflecting the severe, brick, Renaissance Revival architecture popular in northern Europe in the first decades of the 20th Century. It is virtually unique in Detroit. Lancelot Sukert was quick to take advantage of the opportunity to design a strikingly different structure for his aesthetically minded, but budget conscious, clients. The powerfully composed facade with its sparing use of ornament and bold massing executed entirely in brick is a skillful blend of the artistic and functional.

The interior reflects the fading 'Arts and Crafts' movement in its handcrafted coziness. Dark woodwork, beamed ceilings, fireplaces, wood carving, leaded-glass and hand-forged metalwork, all executed in motifs alluding to the arts, provide the homey, aesthetic ambience appropriate to a combination studio and clubhouse. The significance of the structure is enhanced by its pristine condition and its continued use by the organization it was originally designed for.

The Scarab Club constructed its present facility in 1928 after being quartered in various other locations since 1909. The building was specifically designed to accommodate the functions of the artists' society it still houses. There have been no major alterations made to the interior or exterior of the building since its completion. The Scarab Club is a brick, rectangular, flat-roofed, three-story structure with a high basement.

The only significant elevation faces Farnsworth Avenue. Originally the building was closely abutted on both sides by the large houses that comprised this elegant, upper-class, late Victorian residential area behind the Detroit Institute of Arts. Since the 1920s, the neighboring houses have been replaced by parking lots and a filling station with the result that the blank sidewalls are now exposed to view. The facade is a severely restrained, asymmetrical, abstract composition executed entirely in reddish brick laid in ornamental contrasting patterns.

The first level contains only a recessed doorway sheltered by a modern canvas awning and a band of brick laid in a chevron pattern indicating the level of the raised first floor. The upper part of the first story is accented by a band of nine, small, square, grilled panels. At the second and third stories, three large tripartite, leaded-glass windows with gauged brickwork mullions are inset between brick piers with terra cotta tile caps. At the roofline is a false, steeply-pitched, parapet roof.

The most distinctive feature of the facade is the club's insignia, a large ceramic scarab medallion at the third floor level executed at the locally famous Pewabic Pottery by Mary and William Chase Stratton. In 1976, a large, sheet copper sculpture by club member Steve Veresh was installed on the blank west wall. The interior contains four floors. The simply finished basement is used for sketch classes, crafts and as a ballroom.

The first floor contains offices and a gallery. The second floor includes a cloakroom, dining room, lounge and kitchen. The third floor is divided into six large studios with interior balconies. Throughout, the handcrafted detailing reflects the 'Arts and Crafts' period in its dark wood trim, beamed ceilings, carved reliefs, stained glass panels and hand-wrought chandeliers.