Funny thing about great houses... some are palatial and show themselves nicely, and others are just OK. One very famous Detroit house the just isn't that spectacular on the outside or inside is the Charles Lang Freer House on Ferry st. [[next to the Chateauesque Hecker-Smiley Mansion on Woodward). While it is a nice house... it just doesn't wow you like the one next door. Even the inside, while elegant... is rather simple and understated. Only the great gallery room that connects the main house to the carriage wing in back has any real warmth to it [[the famous Peacock Room, now in Freer Gallery in D.C. was in the Carriage wing).

Maybe when it was filled with Freer's famous collection of Asian art it was more inviting. But today it is just a shell as far as I can tell. But then again, I've never warmed up to the shingle style as much as I have Queen Anne, Chateauesque, Victorian "gingerbread", Tudor, and others...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ch...reer_House.jpg