Historic Homes in Ruin

 

Detroit had so many beautiful homes that were in ruins. These pictures were taken in Brush Park District right in midtown Detroit. 

 



Brush Park is a 22 block neighborhood which began in 1850 when lumber barons, bankers, merchants, manufacturers, judges, lawyers, a senator and philanthropists built thier homes here.  The last house to be built in Brush Park was in 1906.

This house is the Ransom Gillis House built in 1876. The architecure style is Venetian Gothic.

 

 

 

This picture of Ransom Gillis House was taken by Camilo Jose Vergara who photographs and documents American slums and decaying urban environments.

 

 In the late 19^th century Brush Park was known as the “little Paris of the west. 

The Albert Kahn house, it was built in 1906 in the English Renaissance style, but with a clean, modern look. This was the last house to be built in Brush Park.

Albert Kahn was a successful architect who built much of Detroit’s buildings. Including; General Motors Building, 1919, largest office building in the world at that time,  Belle Isle Aquarium, Packard Automotive Plant, Detroit News, and Edsel & Eleanor Ford’s house.

Kahn lived in the home until his death in 1942. After Kahn's death, the Detroit Urban League acquired it and has been at that location ever since.