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EnglishTerrace
English Terrace townhouses, at Rivard, Jefferson Ave.,
and Roosevelt Place, were built between 1926-1929 as
apartments.The builder was John Frazer, who lived on
Washington Rd.
The building was designed by architect Richard H. Marr,
who was born in Detroit in 1886, and received his degree
in architecture from Harvard. After practicing for two years
in Boston, Marr returned to Detroit where he specialized in
designing homes and apartment buildings. He designed a number of homes in the Palmer Park-Sherwood Forest area, including a
home for William Fisher, one of the founding brothers of the Fisher Body Corporation, in Palmer Woods.
English Terrace was built in the Tudor style with a steeply pitched slate roof featuring cross gables and dormers.The overall
effect is that of a large English country home.The first floor is brick with accents of limestone and clinker brick.The second floor
and parts of the third floor are generally half-timbered, infilled with stucco.The building features tall, narrow, multi-paned
casement windows, usually in multiple groups, and tall, brick chimneys with limestone caps.
Floor plans have similar configurations and most units have up to six bedrooms. All units have four floors, including full
basements. Interiors feature crown moldings, textured plaster, marble hearths, and front and service stairs to the second and
third floors.There is a secluded park area at the rear of the building.
The building remained as apartments until the 1950s, when the units were converted to individual ownership.
John Kerby Sr. House
The present house at 310 Kerby has been situated on three different sites along
Kerby Rd. In 1796, John Kerby purchased 120 acres of land from his father-in-law,
James Donaldson, for £120. In 1811, his wife, Alice, also inherited additional
adjacent land upon the death of her father. At one time, the ribbon farm consisted of
242 acres, starting at Lake St. Clair and extending north to the present I-94.
The original Kerby homestead was a log cabin located on the waterfront of Lake
St. Clair and Kerby Road. At some point, John Sr. build a wooden structure, which is
the core of the house now located at 310 Kerby. He also opened a dirt lane to Mack
Ave.This tree-lined lane, running through the center of the Kerby property later
became know as Kerby Road.
Rufus Kerby, grandson of Alice and John Sr., lived in this house with his wife Catherine Van Antwerp, which was still on the
waterfront. Rufus was the village’s first postmaster and ran a post office and small general store from the home in the late 1800s.
At that time, many Grosse Pointe houses were moved to make room for Jefferson Ave., mansions or Kercheval businesses.This
was the case with the Kerby house. In 1893, Rufus sold the lakefront portion of his tract and moved his house inland on Kerby
near Charlevoix, not far from the Kerby family cemetery. In 1912, the house was sold to his cousin, E.J.Tucker. In 1928, he sold the
acreage to the school system as the site for the “new”Kerby School.
In the 1940s, the house was again moved to the eastern side of Kerby, north of Beaupre, its present location. At that time, reno-
vations included the removal of the long front porch and a brick façade covered the exterior wooden walls. In 1994 the house still
contained the original mantle and staircase.
355 Lakeland
This home, designed by Crombie and Stanton, was completed in 1927. It is of the French
Provincial Revival style and features intricate brick work, limestone trimmed windows, an
emphasis of symmetry throughout the façade, and a steeply-pitched slate roof with flared
eaves.The doorway is surrounded by Doric columns that support a simple composite cornice.
This is the base for an exquisite, oversized stained glass window of the double-masted ship,
the Griffon, which carried the first explorers to Lake St. Clair.
Although records are inconclusive, it appears that the house was build for Henry Monroe
Campbell Jr.The Campbell family history is deeply entrenched in the French roots of Grosse
Pointe and would explain why the image of the Griffon would have been selected for the
stained glass window.The Campbells owned the house until 1951.
Ford Ballantyne, vice president of the Wyandotte Chemical Company, owned the home from 1952 until his death in 1963.
The longest standing owners have been Tom and Diane Schoenith, who occupied the home from 1976 to 2011.
2011 Historic Plaques