James Scott Mansion

[southofbloor]

This is the site in 1896 - the Scott mansion is the yellow building at the corner of Peterboro and Park. The house is said to be 1887 but if that is the case then it was originally built as a wood frame building [[yellow indicates frame construction). If it were stone then it would be grey in tone. The house is smaller than it is now - looks like the apartment wings got added to the back later. Could be that it was renovated to add stone but could also have been a total rebuild. I think it was built as the smaller one shown on the map in yellow, then overhauled at some point after 1896 to be a stone mansion, then had apartment wings added to it after 1910.

[EastsideAl]

Some time between the time of the 1896 map above and the 1921 Sanborn map below though, the apartment addition was built.




Here is a clip from the 1897 Sanborn, showing a closer view of the original house




It looks like Scott built his flat, unlivable "spite" mansion all the way to the back of the lot line of the second lot south of Peterboro, in order to "shade" the lot directly behind it that the owner wouldn't sell to him [[what would have been the lot for 298 Park then).

However, after that lot was obtained [[which may have been after Scott's death in 1910) the large apartment addition was built over the entire thing, save for the airshafts. That sure must've made life beautiful for the people living in the house directly behind it. The apartment addition also seems to have included the building of the eastward tower on the front of the house, with the non-matching windows noted in posts above. Which is also why the shades of the stone on the facade don't match.

[EastsideAl]

As for the question of the construction of the building, from what I observed by looking closely at it years ago after it burned, I suspect that the original mansion may have, in fact, consisted of stone walls thrown up around a wood frame. Remember, Scott didn't really intend to live in it, just to give it a sort of "stage set" appearance of being a mansion. The apartment addition though appears to have been modern 20th century residential construction, which may be why it seems to have stood up somewhat better to the ravages of abandonment, weather, and flame.

Incidentally, I love the Google Streetview shots, which clearly show two people sleeping [[at least I hope they're sleeping) on the porch of the house across Park from the Scott building.

[southofbloor]

That makes sense ESA -

I don't understand the square bump in the middle of the south side of the 1896 Baist's atlas footprint. The bump doesn't correspond with the Sandborn map which is detailed and appears accurate. Baist's at this scale isn't always correct but they don't usually put bulges where they didn't exist - the problem is usually glossing over tower and bay footprints where they did exist.

The original house has a lot of similarities in its stonework to the Whitney and other Gordon Lloyd buildings - haven't found the architect on the Scott house yet though.

[cassave]

Why would this comment assume they had any knowledge of the 100's of thousands already invested by the owner to preserve to this point and prepare for funding and rehab put your money where your mouth is, I have , "The Owner"

[southofbloor]

We're doing a similar project in Toronto right now - 6 adjacent townhouses with probably slightly bigger square footage in total that had weathered 30 years of dereliction - fires, roof cave-ins, termites, partial collapses. They look like a complete right off but anything is fixable, and up here there is no public money to assist. But they'll be on the market by winter. Looking forward to seeing Peterboro and Park come back as well. Fantastic location.

[Gistok]

The folks trying to figure out the cost per unit forgot to factor into $7 million cost... the $2.6 million tax credit.... not exactly sure what that brings it down to... but it does help in the equation...

[hewettbr]

has anyone heard anything about this lately?

[Pcm]

I dunno, she's not looking well.

[hewettbr]

I dunno, she's not looking well.

Yeah i read the NYT piece and remembered reading about this. The proposed condos would likely be out of my price range considering the arena district

[hybridy]

I have heard through the grapevine that Mr Landy has secured the necessary financing to proceed with renovation. No word on a start date though.

[hybridy]

AWESOME!

http://detroit.curbed.com/2016/3/21/...ion-renovation

http://www.mlive.com/business/detroi..._for_18-m.html

[Danny]

I don't see any development over the historic James Scott Mansion, yet.

[hybridy]

I don't see any development over the historic James Scott Mansion, yet.

???

[Pam]

AWESOME!

http://detroit.curbed.com/2016/3/21/...ion-renovation

http://www.mlive.com/business/detroi..._for_18-m.html

This part is also awesome:

Once finished, he expects the apartments will rent for between $650 and $800 per month, which would be something of a bargain in the Cass Corridor and Midtown area.

[JoeGeds]

It looks like the east "tower" [[the one that looks like a rook, the chess piece) was added sometime well after original construction. I saw some photos of the mansion as built, and that left side was not there - only in later photos did it show up. So it wasn't just the back of the building that was added.

[p69rrh51]

While I hope this project does get completed, I am not holding my breath!

[canuck]

While I hope this project does get completed, I am not holding my breath!

The windows on that mansion haven't been washed in a long time.

[Lowell]

Drive by shot from Thursday...

[Whitehouse]

Adding an elevator will only improve the look on the backside. You can actually mirror the front there. Room enough now.

[emu steve]

Did this article from Crains not get posted?

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...ts-spite-house

BTW: Cheap rents?

27
The number of apartments to be created in a $6 million redevelopment of the 20,000-square-foot James Scott House in Detroit. The apartments are expected to fetch between $650 and $800 per month.

******
Would be great rental housing for say out of state or out of country grad students at the new WSU school of business TWO blocks away.

Could there be anything better for them?

[Gistok]

The direct link will give an abbreviated spiel to buy Crain's.... do a Google search on "Crain's Detroit Business Joel Landy begins"....

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

This is progressing nicely.


http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2017/10/james_scott_mansion.html

[night-timer]

Timed nicely for the added renewal of Cass/Midtown with the new Red Wings arena next year or the year after.

On a separate but similar topic, hasn't Detroit tightened its grip on absentee investors, those who buy properties from afar and leave them sitting neglected until prices [[possibly) increase?

I think I read somewhere that absentee investors are now required to obtain tenants for each property, not buy hundreds of cheap hulking shells and leaving them rotting indefinitely... ?

[rjlj]

A local investor rehabbing a property has nothing to do with foreign investors. I think it would be appropriate to start a new and seperate thread.

Bravo to the progress that has happened on the James Scott mansion.

Timed nicely for the added renewal of Cass/Midtown with the new Red Wings arena next year or the year after.

On a separate but similar topic, hasn't Detroit tightened its grip on absentee investors, those who buy properties from afar and leave them sitting neglected until prices [[possibly) increase?

I think I read somewhere that absentee investors are now required to obtain tenants for each property, not buy hundreds of cheap hulking shells and leaving them rotting indefinitely... ?