Stepping past the stone arch and through the heavy wood front door, you’re in a foyer with an arched ceiling.
You’ve also entered another time – one of the area’s most elegant mansions at 355 Lincoln in Grosse Pointe.
Though understated with its stucco exterior and slate roof, this English Manor-style home surprises and delights with interior details like a two-story, barrel-vaulted library and subtle details throughout that signify the gracious lifestyle of an earlier era.
Most of the home’s woodwork has been restored, complementing the decorative carved stone fireplaces and embellished plasterwork. In the large former dining room, the ceiling is banded by a strip of intricate bas-relief medallions of turtles, fish, lobsters, peacocks, and other animals.
A grand living room dominates the first floor while a modern glass portico leads into the library, and a charming walled courtyard is off the kitchen. In the backyard, a stone patio encircles a fountain. And throughout the home, large windows flood the rooms with sunlight.
“It’s one of the most fascinating houses in Grosse Pointe,” said Jaime Rae Turnbull, the real estate agent representing the home for Higbie Maxon Agney. It is listed for $2.1 million.
As one of the largest homes in the city of Grosse Pointe, the 8,700-square-foot manor has six bedrooms – most with attached baths – and sits on a 2/3-acre parcel on the corner of Lincoln and Maumee. In the original plans, one of the bedrooms is listed as a governess.
According to Grosse Pointe City records, the home was built in 1913, though other sources say 1923. It was designed by Alfred Hopkins, a noted New York estate architect, for Dr. Theodore McGraw Jr., the son of the founder of the Detroit Medical College, which became Wayne State University’s medical school.
The home’s original gardens were designed by Ellen Biddle Shipman, a landscape architect known for her formal, lush gardens, several of which were in the Grosse Pointes.
Years after McGraw died in 1924, the home went through a series of owners, with some more dedicated to its preservation than others. Among the good owners were the grandparents of David Laurie, a former Grosse Pointe resident who moved to Rhode Island. His grandparents lived there in the 1970s.
“It was a beautiful place to go to as a young boy,” Benjamin Gravel wrote on his Grosse Pointe Architecture page on Facebook. Laurie recalled the polar bear rug in the living room, the giant globe in the library with its rolling ladder to reach the books on the upper shelves and the large Christmas tree set up during the holidays.
He also recalled the now-restored wood-paneled coolers off the kitchen “that were filled with Vernor’s and Hires” root beer. “Although it was over 50 years ago, my memories of that house are wonderful,” he said.
Another who remembers the home fondly is Gary Wilson, a former Grosse Pointe attorney who now lives in Lexington, Michigan. He knew the family that lived there in the 1990s and had pleasant memories, especially of the library. “It’s a very cool room,” he said, with its large stone fireplace and the stairs leading to a choir loft at one end of the room.
“I enjoyed a bourbon or two there in front of the fireplace. Stunning,” he recalled. But at times in its long history, the home sat vacant as passersby and neighbors wondered what would become of it. Some feared it would be torn down.
Many admired it as they went by and were curious about it, among them Grosse Pointe Mayor Sheila Tomkowiak. “I frequently walk by that house and have always been fascinated by it,” she said.
By 2015, the home was not in good shape. It had suffered years of neglect. At one point, a real estate agent even had potential buyers sign a legal liability waiver to tour it. Enter the present owner, whose family owns property on Mackinac Island.
“The seller went to great lengths to respectfully restore this home. Every space needed a lot of work,” said Turnbull.
While the restoration was underway, her family lived in the two-bedroom carriage house above the four-car garage. Leaks were fixed, the exterior stucco was repaired, and a craftsman restored the damaged plaster.
The only room still unfinished is the kitchen. While all the appliances are in place and working, the walls show signs of the extensive repairs the house has received. “It’s just waiting for the new owner to put in the kitchen they want,” said Turnbull.
For more information on this exquisite home, contact Jaime Rae Turnbull at Higbie Maxon Agney, 248-672-2020, jrt@jrturnbull.com.
“The seller went to great lengths to respectfully restore this home. Every space needed a lot of work,” said Turnbull.