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560 Cadieux Rd.
The house at 560 Cadieux Rd. was designed by architect
Frank E. Hill and built for the Breitenbach family in
1911. At the time, it was one of the few homes on
Cadieux and was surrounded by ample grounds. The
house is located on a gently rising slope, giving it a formal
and classic presence. Its external style is similar to a cen-
ter entrance colonial but its stylistic elements are from
the Arts and Crafts and Prairie styles, with large over-
hanging eaves with roof brackets, a wrap-around veran-
da/rear porch, and evenly-spaced, unadorned windows.
The house is complemented by a two-car garage that
matches the home’s brick architecture.
Interior features of the home include oak woodwork and
floors, an oak paneled dining room, and Pewabic tile fire-
place. A small kitchen, functional by modern standards,
is next to a large formal dining room and entry hall,
indicative of the fact that receiving guests for formal gath-
erings was typical of life in Grosse Pointe during the early
years of the twentieth century.
Harold Prell Breitehbach earned a Ph.D. in Latin and
Greek and taught English at the University of Michigan.
His wife, Charlotte Hanstein, had lived on St. Clair.
Harold and Charlotte Breitenbach’s daughter, Lois, was
two years old when they moved into the house on
Cadieux. She grew up to become Lois Quig and moved to
Chicago. She returned to her parents’ home on Cadieux
in the 1960s and lived there until approximately 2000
when she moved in a nursing home.
Lois Quig recorded her family’s history for the Grosse
Pointe Historical Society in August 2001. She indicated
that her father was responsible for having property set
aside for public use for the residents of the City of Grosse
Pointe, which is now the playground and tennis courts at
Elworthy Field and the lakefront property that became
Neff Park. Lois Quig sold 560 Cadieux to the current
owners, Gregory Jakub and Kathleen Kelly, in 2001, and
she died the next year.
168 Vendome Rd.
The house located at 168 Vendome Rd. was designed by
noted architect Robert O’Derrick, who designed many
well-known buildings in this area, including the Grosse
Pointe Club, the Punch & Judy Theatre, the main build-
ing at the Henry Ford Museum, Josephine Ford’s play-
house on the grounds of the Edsel and Eleanor Ford
House, the F. Caldwell Walker house (also on Vendome
Road) and a number of other private residences.
Construction of 168 Vendome began in approximately
1928 for a local auto baron, but due to the beginning of
the Great Depression, the house was not finished until
the early 1930s. The house is wonderfully scaled and
detailed in the classic Georgian or Federal style with high
ceilings, elaborate moldings, built-in cabinetry and win-
dow seating, features that O’Derrick used successfully on
other buildings. Between each level of the house is 18
inches of concrete, making the house both very sturdy
and very quiet.
The house has original Pewabic Pottery in two of the
bathrooms and an old-fashioned powder room on the first
floor. The back of the house was built for live-in servants
and there is a hot house on the second floor accessible by
a small door. There is a room in the basement for the
storage of fruits and nuts, and the boiler room has a walk-
in, fire-proof vault installed by Peter Olfs Safe Company
from Detroit, used by the original owner to store valu-
ables.
The current owners, Chris and Lisa Maiorana, have lived
in the house since 2000 and have decorated in keeping
with the style and history of the house. They have some
of the original building plans from Robert O’Derrick as
well as a historic water pump chart detailing the home’s
boiler and water system, from the noted heating plumb-
ing engineers, L.L. McConachie Company, formerly locat-
ed at Maryland Ave. and Jefferson in the early 1900s.
Historic Bronze Markers Awarded