What is it with Grosse Pointers? They casually demolished houses designed by such masters as Horace Trumbauer, Charles Adams Platt, John Russell Pope, Ralph Adams Cram, and even Detroit's undisputed favorite, Albert Kahn.

What did they embrace? Besides miles of McMansions, such blockbuster architectural offenses as the presently discussed schlock chateau, an abomination unworthy of a Holiday Inn in Wichita; not to be outdone, a trash man enhanced the lakefront with what may have been intended as a Palladian villa but came off more like a Georgian almshouse; one auto scion did put up a convincing shingle style house, albeit after destroying a house by one of the aforementioned masters.

The only postwar house built in GP that could rightly be considered apt company for the earlier masterworks is the Mott B. Schmidt gem at 1000 Lakeshore. The Ferry house in GPS is a attractive anomaly which can't be be fairly considered with more historical styles.

Had any of the lost houses been built in such places as Greenwich, Hillsborough, Atherton, Buckhead, Bel Air, or even the architecturally addled Beverly Hills, they would surely still be standing. Grosse Pointe lacks not for the money but for the more elusive qualities defining an outstanding built environment.