Rather than add this to any existing thread, thought it deserved its own!
Webber house for sale in Grosse Pointe Shores is filled with lavish details
"From its striking terracotta chimney stacks down to its hand-carved
chestnut walls, the Oscar Webber house in Grosse Pointe Shores -- for
sale at $1.3 million -- is among the finest examples of luxury and
hand-craftsmanship from Detroit's high-flying 1920s."
"According to architectural historian Thomas Brunk, the house is
considered the best work by architect Leonard B. Willeke, who designed
homes for such historic Detroit families as the Fords, the Hudsons, the
Clays, the Kanzlers and the Webbers.
For this house, his client was Oscar Webber, one of the four Webber brothers whose uncle was the original Joseph L. Hudson.
Hudson, who had no children, mentored the four sons of his sister Mary Eleanor Webber and made them his heirs. When Hudson died in 1912, the four brothers took over the Hudson department store and ran it for decades.
Willeke was a prominent architect, but Webber was no passive client. His
requests and revisions covered several years and multiple versions of
the house. Webber constantly sought refinements, such as shaping the
interior chestnut paneling with a hand adz, not a machine. Slight
irregularities in the chestnut surface emphasized reflections off of
Lake St. Clair."
Full article with photo gallery: http://www.freep.com/article/2011121...lavish-details
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