Vacant Apartment Buildings in Detroit MI

Lancaster and Waumbek Apartments, Detroit Michigan

Date added: June 29, 2024 Categories:

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Constructed probably in 1904, the Lancaster and Waumbek Apartments represent the early, turn-of-the-century generation of apartment house development in Detroit. They were designed by the prolific Detroit architect, A.C. Varney, the pioneer apartment building architect in Detroit. The buildings were owned by one of Michigan's first suffragists, Sarah A. Sampson, who resided in the Lancaster with her husband from 1906 to 1919.

The apartment building as a housing type came late to Detroit when compared to its earlier popularity in eastern cities. Because of Detroit's relatively slow population growth until the late nineteenth century and its lack of geographical restrictions to concentrate that growth, the need for high density housing was not great. Terraces, or attached row houses, appealed to those who did not wish to own or live in single family detached houses beginning in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

The development of the apartment building as a legitimate housing type in Detroit mirrors the expansion of Detroit as an industrial city and its subsequent rapid growth and change caused by the automobile boom. Almon Clothier Varney, architect, built the first apartment building in Detroit in 1892. The Varney Apartments (razed in 1995) was a four-story walk-up containing sixteen apartment units. With the turn of the century came the rise of the apartment building as a respectable housing alternative. Between approximately 1895 and 1915, handsome small-scale apartment buildings containing small numbers of spacious apartment units gained in popularity. The Lancaster and Waumbek Apartments are reflective of this earliest phase of apartment buildings. Designed by Varney, these two small scale apartment buildings containing only two units per floor were erected to house Detroit's mid-to-upper classes, including professionals, widows, the business elite and up-and-comers.

The north half of Park Lot 42 on the east side of Woodward Avenue was bought by Joseph B.H. Bratshaw in 1867. Bratshaw platted the subdivision bearing his name on June 5^th, 1878. The first two blocks east of Woodward he named Bratshaw Avenue, as recorded on the plat map (eastward of Bratshaw's Subdivision was Palmer Avenue, which name was subsequently applied to Bratshaw Avenue as well). In 1882, Bratshaw and his wife Susan transferred the property by warranty deed to Susan M. Swales and Sarah A. Sampson, who each then owned an undivided half of the land. Mrs. Sampson was the daughter of the Bratshaws and the wife of George L. Sampson, a merchant and businessman who became associated with the wholesale grocery house of J.B.H. Bratshaw, first as a traveling salesman in 1867. Mr. Bratshaw sold his business to Sampson, Fletcher & Company in 1878; that company changed its name to Sampson, Black & Grant in 1880 and subsequently to George L. Sampson & Company.

Mrs. Swales was also related to the Bratshaws by marriage as the wife of Bratshaw Hall Swales. Mrs. Sampson and Mrs. Swales platted the property on the north side of E. Palmer between John R. and Brush once again in 1888. Mrs. Swales transferred her interest in the property upon which the Lancaster and Waumbek were built to Sarah Sampson in 1903, thus Sampson became the sole owner.

A building permit was issued to A.C. Varney & Company (#1385) on December 21^st, 1901 for the construction of a three-story, six-unit apartment building measuring thirty-six feet by seventy feet on the front of Lot 13, Park Lot 42. The Waumbek, occupying Lot 13, and the Lancaster, occupying Lot 12, were likely constructed according to the specifications on that permit but over two years later. Judging by their quality, their similar appearance, their identical ownership and a mortgage on both properties dated April 18^th, 1904, as well as both buildings first appearing in the 1905 Detroit City Directory, one can surmise that they were both built according to the plans of Varney in 1904.

Mr. Sampson, who came to Detroit in 1865, was born in Lancaster, New Hampshire in 1839; thus the apartment building at 227-29 W. Palmer was aptly named for his boyhood home. "Waumbek" was also likely to be of New Hampshire origin, variations of the name are Indian names for the White Mountains ("Waumbek-Methna" or "Waumbekket-Methna"), whose peaks are visible to the east and south from Lancaster, New Hampshire, and a Mt. Waumbeck is located southeast of Lancaster on present day maps.

Sarah A. Sampson was prominent in the political and social life of Detroit. Sarah Sampson was one of the first women in the state of Michigan to fight for equal rights for women and was known as a suffragist. She was a member of the Women's Club, belonged to the Federation of Women's Clubs, Independent League of Women Voters (which emerged out of the Equal Suffrage League after the latter's mission was accomplished), and the Progressive Civic League. She was eighty-four years old at the time of her death in 1928, living long enough to see women given full suffrage by the State of Michigan in 1918 and the right to vote nationwide in 1920. She was buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit.

The early residents of the Waumbek (old address 83-85 E. Palmer) in 1905 were Wesley R. Mason, district manager for American Car & Foundry Company; William W. Chapin, a lawyer; and George M. Collier, another lawyer. Other apartments were vacant. In 1907, the tenancy changed to include Edwin P. Terry, a travel agent; James W. Partlan, heating and plumbing; Oliver N. Benson, dry goods mens and ladies furnishings; Isaac Crawford, a clerk with F.J. Schwankovsky; and Frank F. Poss, with W.C. Yawkey Estate.

The early residents of the Lancaster (Old address 79-81 E. Palmer) in 1905 were George E. Brown, the janitor, Mary A. Bomlee; Henry C. Hart, mechanical engineer; A.B. Stanton, M.M. Stanton Company, manufacturers of clothing and jobbers in men's furnishing goods; and Oakes L. Heath, a travel agent with the J.C. Woodhouse & Co. Two years later, Stanton still resided there, and was joined by Irwin S. Townsend, M.D.; Albert and Mrs. Kate M. De Steiger, wholesale manufacturing, furriers; Campbell Symington, Jr., with Hudson & Symington, retail store and precursor to J.L. Hudson Company, and Charles D. Ransom, with McCurdy & Ransom, investments, securities and bonds. The Sampsons, George and Sarah, lived in the Lancaster from 1906 until 1919, at which time they moved to Delaware Avenue. The positions of the early residents exhibit some degree of social status or standing in the community.

Mrs. Sampson sold the Lancaster and Waumbek Apartments to Robert B. Weaver (1869-1956) and his wife Nannie in 1919. Mr. Weaver was one of the organizers of Timken-Detroit Axle Company and remained a stockholder and plant superintendent until he retired in 1918. The Detroit City Directory of 1926-27 lists widows, like Mrs. Mary Carroll, professionals, like F.C. MacDonald, branch manager with First State Bank, and A.A. Webster, manager at American Type Founders Company, as well as a watchman, press operator and cosmetician residing in the two apartment buildings. While other apartment buildings of similar scale were subdivided to create additional units to house the rapidly expanding population of the city, a phenomenon coinciding with the construction of full-lot apartment buildings beginning about 1915, the Lancaster and the Waumbek were never subdivided. Mr. Weaver's heirs sold the property out of the family in 1961. The Lancaster and the Waumbek stand fairly intact, although in a somewhat deteriorating state, today.

Building Description

The Lancaster and Waumbek Apartments, located at 227-29 E. Palmer and 237-39 E. Palmer respectively, are two side-by-side three-story brick and stone-trimmed apartment buildings of English Revival design that are similar in scale and massing with slightly different facade detailing. Each building is rectangular in plan with projecting bays on the front facade and a small light well in the middle. The flat roof above a parapet wall cannot be seen from the street. On the interior, the two spacious apartments on each floor are similar in layout and feature decorative plaster and woodwork.

The Lancaster and Waumbek apartment buildings are located on adjacent lots on the north side of E. Palmer in the second block east of Woodward Avenue, just one block north of the East Ferry Avenue Historic District, in the area of Detroit known as the Cultural Center. The block, part of a grid street plan, is comprised of other apartment buildings and now vacant land. The Lancaster and Waumbek are identically situated on their lots with shallow setbacks from the public sidewalk, a minimal amount of open space between the two buildings, and substantial rear yards.

Each of the two buildings measures approximately thirty-six feet wide by seventy feet deep. Each is three stories tall with an elaborately detailed, English Revival style facade of red brick that turns around to the side elevations before common brick replaces it as the major material of the side and rear elevations. Their central three-story monumental porticoes consists of brick pairs rising two stories and smaller brick piers at third story level carrying the roof of the porch. Surmounting the central entrance bays of each building are three story, three-sided bays. Molded stone cushions and bases serve as transition elements between the brick basement level, second and third stories and the porch roof.

At the first story of the central bays of each of the two buildings, reached on axis up several cut stone stairs, is the arched entrance opening surrounded by a cut stone archway beneath the nameplate panel. The detailing of the archways of the two buildings differ; the arched entrance of the Lancaster is surrounded by cut-stone quoins, while that of the Waumbek has a label molding beneath the nameplate. Beyond the archway of either is a wide wooden door flanked by sidelights. Openings lead out onto ornamental iron balconies at second and third story levels; those of the third story of the Lancaster have molded Tudor arches, while those of the Waumbek are surrounded by quoins at second story level and label moldings at third story level. Above the flat porch roof is an arcade of blind brick pointed arches.

The side bays of the Lancaster and Waumbek facades feature three-sided projecting bays rising three stories. Each face of the bays of the Lancaster is slightly angled, while the bays of the Waumbek are bowed, but all contain three double-hung sash windows per floor. The bays, like the monumental portico, are trimmed in limestone; the water table, continuous sills, continuous lintels, molded belt courses and cresting are all of cut limestone. Courses of cut stone alternate with brick between windows within the bays. Each side bay culminates in a crenelated parapet wall with a masonry gargoyle hanging out of its center. On the Lancaster, the flat surface of the outer bays rises into a Flemish gable with stone coping, and a blind raised brick oculus is centered in the gable. On the Waumbek, the flat surface of the outer bays rises into a gable that has stepped corners and stone coping, and a molded stone trimmed brick oculus is centered in the gable.

A chimney projects from the unfenestrated red brick forward sections of each side elevation. Most window openings in the common brick of the side elevations have brick relieving arches composed of three rows of headers; windows are of the double-hung sash variety. Towards the rear of the sides are paired flat-arch window openings with shared sills.

The interiors of the two buildings similarly feature oak stair halls lined with wood paneled wainscoting containing lancet arches, ceramic-tiled floors, wood-paneled plaster ceilings, original ceiling medallions, and round columnar newel posts with rounded newel caps. Two large, spacious 1800 square foot apartments occupy each floor, one to either side of the entrance hall. The individual apartments are similarly laid out: a front parlor featuring a bay window and a tile-faced fireplace wall occupies the width of the front of each unit, followed by two bedrooms off of the long hall that leads to the dining room. A kitchen with paneled cabinets still intact and a pantry/storage area are to the rear of the dining room. Areas originally finished with molded wood trim are the window openings, panels beneath bay windows, baseboards, and doorways.

Most of the stylistic detail on the exterior of the Lancaster and the Waumbek is intact today, while the interior has suffered worse over time. Still, the grandeur of these two small-scale, turn-of-the-century apartment buildings is evident and can be restored. Palmer Development Group plans to undertake the restoration of these two buildings and those on the south side of East Palmer while building new townhouses on vacant lots, thus re-establishing the street as a desirable residential area.