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Aphex248
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Username: Aphex248

Post Number: 1
Registered: 12-2008
Posted on Tuesday, March 03, 2009 - 4:29 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Does anyone have any historic photos of the former Scripps Mansion at Trumbull and Grand River in Detroit, the gate remains but the mansion, long gone.
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Mdoyle
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Post Number: 520
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Tuesday, March 03, 2009 - 5:05 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Aphex, Interesting you mention this as I was about to post a similar question. Here are photos I was able to find through u of m.

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/ i/image/image-idx?q1=scripps&r gn1=ic_all&op2=And&q2=&rgn2=ic _all&op3=And&q3=&rgn3=ic_all&r gn4=sortyear&op4=And&q4=&q4=&t ype=boolean&c=dpa1ic&view=thum bnail

I too would appreciate any information. Its hard to believe that such a mansion was once right in my neighborhood. What year did it burn? Does anyone have any photos of it from just before it burned? Thanks
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Sludgedaddy
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Post Number: 303
Registered: 01-2008
Posted on Tuesday, March 03, 2009 - 6:46 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I drive by the Scripps' property on my way to work every day. Two buildings from the original grounds remain today. One appears to be a former carriage house on the south side of the lot. On the eastern lot is something that looks like it was a power house for the mansion.

Today, I noticed some "gifted" artist (like those praised by some posters on this forum) sprayed his hideous scrawl on what was once the power house. I wish to hell these art-farts would stop emulating a dog lifting his leg on Detroit's History. Spray that shit on CCS buildings or
Cranbrook or the Sprawl-Burbs from whence you came.
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Patrick
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Posted on Tuesday, March 03, 2009 - 7:36 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The Booth mansion was across the street as well. There are a number of photos online of both home sin the Detroit Publishing archive as well as the UM/Burton online collection and the Virtual Motor City archive.
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Neilr
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Posted on Tuesday, March 03, 2009 - 9:42 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The Scripps Mansion housed the St. Mary's Residence for Women for many years. The residence started out as a safe haven for young unmarried working women who had moved to Detroit and needed housing. As times changed, that category of young women became much more independent and no longer sought the security of places like the St. Mary's Residence for Women.

The nuns then changed the focus of the Home into an adult foster care facility caring for mentally and/or developmentally challenged women.

I visited the Scripps Home, IIRC, in the 70's during one of the energy crises. The nun who gave me a tour really was quite through with the charm of the old house. They did not have the money to properly heat such an old facility. I remember her telling me that if Detroit's preservationists wanted the house maintained, perhaps they could contribute to cover the heating costs.

I don't remember whether they left the house before or after the fire that destroyed it.

St. Mary's Residence for Women is now located in a quite handsome new (and, I assume, easier to heat) building on Orleans in Lafayette Park right behind St. Joseph's Church.
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Jat44
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Registered: 03-2008
Posted on Friday, March 06, 2009 - 7:52 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"Spray that shit on CCS buildings or
Cranbrook or the Sprawl-Burbs from whence you came".
Sludgedaddy; When will the bashing of the "burbs" end?
How do you know that these "gifted" so-called artists came from the suburbs?
Oh, I forgot that all people in Detroit take care of the city and have full respect for others and the property of others.
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Sludgedaddy
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Post Number: 304
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Posted on Friday, March 06, 2009 - 9:59 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

..On the contrary, Jat44, simply put, the inhabitants of the bombed out wonderful wasteland in which I reside, simply can not afford to spend money on spray paint for "artistic" endeavors. The money is spent on dope, booze or sexual gratification as well as the occaisional bag of chips.

Nothing I like better than watching the setting sun and the fading light play on century old red brick, without the interruption of flourescent projectile vomiting.

Those extremely talented artists would do well to branch out and adorn the many "R" us and "Beyond the beguine ad infitnitum" establishments which went up cheaply and quickly in Sprawl-ville and , again where many of the taggers were originally from.

I prefer my vistas when in a returned to nature state and the ailanthus abounds,to any attempts at spray painted embellishment.

And I maintain my stance that what I have seen recently on the remaining structures of the Scripps' mansion is akin to a dog lifting his leg on Detroit's History.
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Aiw
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Post Number: 1892
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Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 12:16 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Here's the Booth mansion on Trumbull as well:

http://digital.library.mcgill. ca/cab/Volume%201/Issue%2012/v 1n12plate2.gif

http://digital.library.mcgill. ca/cab/Volume%204/Issue%208/v4 n8plate4.gif
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Dcmorrison12
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Registered: 02-2009
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 11:09 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Jat44 - Don't preach to us "stop hating on the burbs" because we ALL know very well that there are plenty of people in the burbs who do just the same to us in Detroit. Granted, it would be better if we would just quite the bickering and work together...
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Andylinn
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Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 12:47 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

What is the history of the structure?

A search on wikipedia just turns up a different structure in lake orion!

when / how did it burn?

was it a private mansion at one point, who was scripps, etc...
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Jat44
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Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 1:07 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

One question: How come there are no such structures like this in "the burbs"?
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Kathleen
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Username: Kathleen

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Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 1:25 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

James E. Scripps: He started the Detroit News in 1873.
http://media.library.ohiou.edu /cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT =/scripps&CISOPTR=1277&CISOBOX =1&REC=8

Daughter Ellen Scripps married George Gough Booth. Together George and Ellen founded Cranbrook. http://www.cranbrook.edu

James Scripps' son William built the Scripps Mansion in Lake Orion. http://www.friendsofscrippsest ate.org/

Try this Lost Mansions of Detroit thread for more info on the Scripps and Booth families and mansions. https://www.atdetroit.net/forum/mes sages/89914/92575.html?1176924 476
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Melocoton
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Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 1:52 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Was the "Scripps branch" reading room (pictured on the U of M site that Mdoyle linked above, http://tinyurl.com/aw7944) a part of the mansion as well? The current DPL branch on Grand River doesn't exactly compare.
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Barnesfoto
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Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 5:56 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

There was another mansion on or near the site of the current DPL, as I recall, that was demoed around 1960 for the stunning example of drab mid-century functionalist architecture that stands there today
as for the Scripps Mansion...

"when / how did it burn?"

1986. Mysterious causes.

There was an organization run by Christian Charlatans that used the Mansion as a halfway house for druggies...They owned a number of properties on the east side of Trumbull. After this structure burned, they moved their operations further north to a couple of large old homes and one apt. building.
All of the buildings operated by the jesus-creeps eventually burned under equally mysterious circumstances. The last of these structures was demoed a few years ago..

(Message edited by barnesfoto on March 07, 2009)
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Sstashmoo
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Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 7:47 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Quote: "by the jesus-creeps"

Like Atheist scumbags are any better.
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Mauser765
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Username: Mauser765

Post Number: 3046
Registered: 01-2004
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 7:09 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"One question: How come there are no such structures like this in "the burbs"?"

There are many such places in the suburbs, that is not a very honest question.

Or.......do you mean burned out cinder footprints of where shit used to be ? No, not too much of that in the "burbs".

And FYI: Woodbridge and Boston Edison and Brush Park WERE the "burbs" in their day.
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56packman
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Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 3:56 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"One question: How come there are no such structures like this in "the burbs"?"

There are, not as many as there once was in Detroit, and they are well-hidden.
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Patrick
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Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 4:05 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

One question: How come there are no such structures like this in "the burbs"?

Goerge Mason, Richard Marr, Marcus Burrowes and many others created grand country estates in Bloomfield Hills. Mason's greatest was probably the Stahelin estate. Of course, GP isnt really considered suburban to me.
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Suburbanbliss
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Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 5:58 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

By the way, these structures are no longer in Detroit. They no longer exist.
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1kielsondrive
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Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 9:22 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I think I caught the fire at the Scripps Mansion on Trumbull as I was driving home one night. If I remember correctly (not likely after all these years and substances) there was strong suspicion of arson. The gates and fence are still there. I've also been to the Scripps mansion in Lake Orion on numerous occasions. They usually have an open house once or twice per year. I found it by accident one time when I was going to a radio controlled airplane field across the road. You can satellite map it easily if you know the roads. I can't remember the roads (Baldwin?)names but I can locate it by driving to it in my mind. Duh. It's not too far from the Palace.
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Eastsideal
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Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 9:52 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

quote:

Was the "Scripps branch" reading room (pictured on the U of M site that Mdoyle linked above, http://tinyurl.com/aw7944) a part of the mansion as well? The current DPL branch on Grand River doesn't exactly compare.



The Scripps branch of the Detroit Public Library pictured on that site was in the Booth mansion, which was donated to the city (along with the land that became Scripps Park) in 1905. My mother has great memories of that building since she grew up in the neighborhood and spent a lot of time there. She was very upset when they tore it down back in the early '60s.
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Suburbanbliss
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Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 - 12:34 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

After the suspicious fire destroyed the Scripps Mansion there was an effort by the Woodbridge community to acquire the property. The hope was to restore the remaining structures and create a garden on the grounds. Within weeks of the fire the surrounding Victorian fence was stripped of the ornamental ironwork and a fire was set in the carriage house. Vagrants took over the corner and made life pretty miserable for the homeowners restoring buildings on that end of Lincoln. As a result many of those beautiful homes on Lincoln were lost. This was not the result of CCS students or suburban "taggers". Also the stunning ornamental gates to the Booth Mansion which remained were subsequently removed by scrappers. Despite an effort by the church at that corner to raise money for restoration of the massive stained glass windows they continue to deteriorate. While the corner building at Grand River was rehabbed the theater next door was razed. Evidence of the ornamental plaster is visible on the side of the office building now adorned with one of those hideous urban murals. All the Victorian homes north of the Scripps Mansion were indeed destroyed by another massive fire several years ago. All in all another lost area of Detroit's once beautiful neighborhood opportunities.
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Gingellgirl
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Username: Gingellgirl

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Posted on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 - 4:14 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

1kielsondrive -

Come visit.
Bring friends.
http://www.friendsofscrippsest ate.org/
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Pmb
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Post Number: 39
Registered: 07-2007
Posted on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 - 5:06 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Notice as well the similarities of the Scripps mansion with what was Trinity Episcopal Church and is now Spirit of Hope. The Scripps/Booth family had the whole corner and of course now the property that was the Scripps mansion is now Scripps Park. James Scripps built the church building (originally a woodframe) in 1892 and donated it to the congregation. More pics of Spirit of Hope/Trinity can be found at http://www.spiritofhopedetroit.org



(Message edited by pmb on March 11, 2009)

(Message edited by pmb on March 11, 2009)

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