Russell A. Alger Jr. House - War Memorial Association, Grosse Pointe Farms Michigan

Date added: September 14, 2023 Categories: Michigan House Mansion Italian Renaissance

The Russell A. Alger, Jr., House is a major work of the nationally prominent architect, Charles Adam Platt of New York. Though Platt, renowned for his design of large country estates, designed a series of estates in the Grosse Pointe area, this is considered his most important commission. Designed in the Italian Renaissance style, the Alger House displays Platt's ability to integrate the house with its setting and gardens. The estate was the home of Russell A. Alger, Jr., the millionaire son of General Russell A. Alger, a Civil War hero, Detroit lumberman, Michigan Governor, U.S. Senator, and President McKinley's Secretary of War. Russell A. Alger, Jr. was one of the founders of the Packard Motor Car Company in 1903, and served as its vice president for many years. The junior Alger had the house built in 1910 and resided there until his death on January 26, 1930. In 1949 the Alger family donated the estate to the Grosse Pointe War Memorial Fund, now the Grosse Pointe War Memorial Association, for use as a community cultural center.

Charles Adam Platt started his career with the idea of becoming an artist by studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1892 he took a trip to Italy with his brother, a landscape architect, to study Renaissance gardens. Two years later his book Italian Gardens was published. His experience with gardens and their decorative structures led to his ability to design houses and surroundings as an integrated whole, evident in the design of the Alger house. The Alger house takes advantage of the natural descent in the property to the lake by opening the house to three floors overlooking terraces leading to the lake. All major rooms in the house were designed with views of the lake and/or formal gardens and are provided with easy access to the surrounding landscape via French doors; from indoors one could step out to a terrace, a vine-covered pergola, a walled flower garden or a paved fountain court, each designed to provide views of the house, formal landscaping or the lake. Platt worked with landscape architect Ellen Shipman of New York in planning the landscaping of the grounds.

Russell A. Alger, Jr., born February 27, 1873, was the oldest of the nine children of Russell A. and Annette Henry Alger. After a distinguished military career during the Civil War, the senior Alger (1836-1907) became the leading partner in several successive timber companies, the best known being Alger, Smith and Company, established in Detroit in 1881. The firm became one of the nation's leading producers of long timber, which was in demand for spars, masts, and heavy construction. Alger, Sr., served as Michigan's governor from 1884-1887, Secretary of War under President McKinley, and U.S. Senator from 1902 until his death in 1907.

Russell A. Alger, Jr. was the director and vice president of the Packard Motor Car Company, which he helped establish in 1903. He was the executor of his father's large estate and managed the millions of dollars in investments his father had accumulated. He was also an early supporter of the aviation industry and in 1909 joined in the formation of the Wright Company in New York. He had the first privately owned airplane in Detroit. Russell A. Alger, Jr., married Marion Jarvis in 1896, and had this house built in 1910. He lived in this house with his wife and three children until his death in 1930. Mrs. Alger moved from the house in the early 1930s and the house was donated to the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1936. In 1948 the property was given up by the Art Institute and reverted to the Alger family.

In 1949, the Alger family deeded the house and grounds to the Grosse Pointe War Memorial Library Fund, a group dedicated to the establishment of a Memorial Library and Community Center. The organization changed its name in 1949 to the Grosse Pointe War Memorial Association and continues to operate the estate as a community cultural center.

Building Description

The Russell A. Alger, Jr. house is a stone-trimmed, stuccoed Italian Renaissance-style mansion located amidst 4.5 acres of landscaped grounds on the shore of Lake St. Clair in Grosse Pointe Farms, a suburban Detroit community. Built in 1910, the house is situated on one of the highest pieces of ground on the Michigan shoreline of Lake St. Clair. Architect Charles A. Platt took full advantage of the site, designing the house with major room orientations towards the lake and integrating the house with garden and landscape features that overlook and lead to the lake. Two stories on the street side, the house opens to three stories facing the lake. The main section of the house is a rectangular block with symmetrically designed street and lakeside facades and is topped with a low-pitched, tiled hip roof. The house and grounds retain their original appearance and are now used as a community cultural center.

The house is entered from a forecourt with circular drive of stone and Belgian cobbles laid around a fountain. The symmetrical street facade is arranged around a central gabled pavilion containing the main entrance. The main entrance is detailed with a rusticated stone surround topped with a broken pediment enveloping a small balcony supported by one large console. The second-floor window leading to this balcony possesses an elaborately detailed window surround including an entablature hood containing the date MCMX (1910). Directly above in the gable end is an ornate wreathed and festooned circular window.

The entry foyer is dressed in marble and cut stone and contains the grand staircase to the second floor. The foyer leads to the reception hall, the largest room in the house. This room boasts a herringbone pattern wood floor, concrete ceiling beams painted to simulate wood and a huge 17th-century Italian stone fireplace. Heavy logs for the fireplace were brought up from below in a concealed hand-operated wood elevator. Three sets of French doors in the reception hall open to a narrow balcony overlooking Lake St. Clair.

To the west, off the reception hall, is the library, also with French doors overlooking the lake. One wall of the room is lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and another wall contains a large stone fireplace. The plaster ceiling is highly decorative with coffers and rosettes. Off the library and leading to a pergola and gardens is a loggia, providing views to the south of the lake and to the north and west of formal gardens arranged around a rectangular pool.

To the east of the reception hall is the richly paneled dining room. Again, this room has French doors overlooking the lake, a large stone fireplace and a decorative plaster ceiling. Beyond the dining room is a conservatory, identical to the loggia on the opposite end of the house, though enclosed with glass. To the east is the servants' wing with kitchen, servants' dining room, butler's pantry, kitchen storage and servants' rooms.

The upper level is reached by the monumental stone staircase with heavy-turned balusters. The ornate plaster ceiling of the stairhall contains coffers and rosettes. The upstairs contains six bedrooms and a sitting room, all except one with fireplaces. The master suite is at the west end of the house with the Algers' sitting room in the northwest corner, Mrs. Alger's bedroom in the southeast corner overlooking the lake and opening to the loggia roof and Mr. Alger's bedroom over the foyer. Each master bedroom has its own bath. Three other bedrooms, two for the Algers' daughters and one for guests, plus two baths extend along the lakeside with the son's room and bath across the hall. A room for the governess is located two steps down at the end of the hall next to the servants' wing.

The lower level of the house, opening only on the lakeside, contains a den, a billiard room and a large plant room leading out onto the terrace. The billiard room is walled with paneling from an English inn. The remainder of the lower level is utilitarian; storage, laundry, valet's room, and boiler room. The grounds of the estate were designed to afford views from the house and encourage outdoor living. The terrace reached directly from the lower level or from staircases at either end of the main floor, leads to a bowling green via a broad flight of steps. Beyond the bowling green are more steps leading down into the water of a small harbor. In this harbor were two Venetian gondola poles, hence the estate was sometimes called "The Moorings."

The house and landscaping remain in original condition including some original furnishings. The house is now used as a community cultural center and houses offices of community groups on the second floor. An auditorium addition was added at the west end of the pergola in 1962. This section was designed to compliment the house, but unfortunately, blocks the view of the lake from the formal gardens. An art wing was added in front of the servants' wing on the street side in 1977.