Lancaster and Waumbek Apartments

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Lancaster and Waumbek Apartments

Lancaster and Waumbek Apartments DEMOLISHED Detroit.jpg

Lot where the Lancaster and Waumbek Apartments once stood
Location 227-29 and 237-39 East Palmer Avenue
Detroit, Michigan
Coordinates 42°21′47″N83°3′55″W / 42.36306°N 83.06528°W / 42.36306; -83.06528 Coordinates: 42°21′47″N83°3′55″W / 42.36306°N 83.06528°W / 42.36306; -83.06528
Built 1904
Architect Almon Clother Varney
Architectural style Tudor Revival
Demolished November 2005
NRHP reference # 97000921 [1]
Added to NRHP August 21, 1997

The Lancaster and Waumbek Apartments were small apartment buildings respectively located at 227-29 and 237-39 East Palmer Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. The apartments were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. [1] They were demolished in November 2005. [2]

Detroit Largest city in Michigan

Detroit is the largest and most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan, the largest United States city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of Wayne County. The municipality of Detroit had a 2017 estimated population of 673,104, making it the 23rd-most populous city in the United States. The metropolitan area, known as Metro Detroit, is home to 4.3 million people, making it the second-largest in the Midwest after the Chicago metropolitan area. Regarded as a major cultural center, Detroit is known for its contributions to music and as a repository for art, architecture and design.

Michigan State of the United States of America

Michigan is a state in the Great Lakes and Midwestern regions of the United States. The state's name, Michigan, originates from the Ojibwe word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake". With a population of about 10 million, Michigan is the tenth most populous of the 50 United States, with the 11th most extensive total area, and is the largest state by total area east of the Mississippi River. Its capital is Lansing, and its largest city is Detroit. Metro Detroit is among the nation's most populous and largest metropolitan economies.

National Register of Historic Places federal list of historic sites in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.

Contents

Significance

The two structures were well-designed examples of turn-of-the-century apartment houses in Detroit. [3] They were designed by the prolific Almon Clother Varney, a notable architect of apartment buildings in early 20th century Detroit. [3] These two buildings were once owned by one of Michigan's first suffragists, Sarah A. Sampson, who lived in the Lancaster with her husband from 1906 to 1919. [3]

History

The subdivision where these buildings stood was platted in 1878 by Joseph B.H. Bratshaw. in 1882, Bratshaw transferred the property to his daughter Sarah A. Sampson and Susan M. Swales. The land was re-platted in 1888, and in 1903 Swales transferred her interest in the property to Sampson. Sarah A. Sampson was prominent suffragist, and active in politics in Detroit. She was married to George L. Sampson, a merchant and businessman who owned a wholesale grocery house founded by Bratshaw. [4]

In 1901, Sampson hired Almon Clother Varney to design an apartment building; Varney took out a building permit for the lot where the Waumbek eventually stood. It is likely that both the Lancaster and Waumbek were constructed according to Varney's plans, but probably a few years later in 1904. The apartments were named for Lancaster, New Hampshire, where George L. Sampson was born, and the Indian name for the White Mountains of New Hampshire. [4]

Lancaster, New Hampshire Town in New Hampshire, United States

Lancaster is a town in Coos County, New Hampshire, United States, on the Connecticut River. The town is named after the city of Lancaster in England. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 3,507, the second largest in the county after Berlin. It is the county seat of Coos County and gateway to the Great North Woods Region. Lancaster, which includes the villages of Grange and South Lancaster, is home to Weeks State Park and the Lancaster Fair. Part of the White Mountain National Forest is in the eastern portion. The town is part of the Berlin, NH−VT Micropolitan Statistical Area.

White Mountains (New Hampshire) mountain range in New England, United States

The White Mountains are a mountain range covering about a quarter of the state of New Hampshire and a small portion of western Maine in the United States. They are part of the northern Appalachian Mountains and the most rugged mountains in New England. The range is heavily visited due to its proximity to Boston and, to a lesser extent, New York City and Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Early residents of the Lancaster and Waumbek Apartments included families with some social status, including the Sampsons themselves, who lived in the Lancaster from 1906 until 1919. In 1919, Mrs. Sampson sold the Lancaster and Waumbek Apartments to Robert B. Weaver. The Weaver family owned the apartments until 1961. The two buildings were abandoned as of the mid-1990s, [4] and were demolished in November 2005. [2]

Description

The Lancaster and Waumbek Apartments were two small three-story red brick Tudor Revival apartment buildings of similar design located side-by-side on East Palmer. [3] Each building was constructed of brick trimmed with stone, and designed in a Tudor Revival style, although with slightly different detailing on the exterior. The façades featured projecting bays with a small light well in the middle. [3] Both buildings measured approximately thirty-six feet wide by seventy feet deep. [4]

Tudor Revival architecture architectural style

Tudor Revival architecture first manifested itself in domestic architecture beginning in the United Kingdom in the mid to late 19th century based on a revival of aspects of Tudor architecture or, more often, the style of English vernacular architecture of the Middle Ages that survived into the Tudor period. It later became an influence in some other countries, especially the British colonies. For example, in New Zealand, the architect Francis Petre adapted the style for the local climate. Elsewhere in Singapore, then a British colony, architects such as R. A. J. Bidwell pioneered what became known as the Black and White House. The earliest examples of the style originate with the works of such eminent architects as Norman Shaw and George Devey, in what at the time was thought of as a neo-Tudor design.

The buildings were symmetrical, with a three-story monumental portico in the center of each, supported by brick piers rising two stories, and smaller brick piers on the third story level. The arched entrance was at the first floor of the portico, reached by a short flight of stairs. Detailing around the entrance archways differed between the two buildings, with the Lancaster entrance surrounded by cut-stone quoins, while the Waumbek had a label molding beneath the nameplate. Flanking the central entrance were three story, three-sided bays trimmed with limestone, containing three double-hung sash windows per floor. At the top, the bays culminated in a parapet wall, with the two buildings having slightly different detailing on the parapet. [4]

On the interior, each of the two buildings were similar, with oak stair halls lined with wood paneled wainscoting. Each floor was divided into two apartments of similar layout, one on each side of the hall. The apartments had similar layouts: a front parlor with a bay window and a fireplace at the front of each unit, a long hall with two bedrooms off to the side, and the dining and kitchen in the rear. [4]

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References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2008-04-15). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 The Year In Review: 2005 Archived 2008-10-06 at the Wayback Machine . from BuildingsOfDetroit.com
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Lancaster and Waumbek Apartments Archived 2011-06-06 at the Wayback Machine . from the state of Michigan
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Marilyn Florek (February 1997), NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES REGISTRATION FORM: Lancaster and Waumbek Apartments
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