Completely renovated Detroit house filled with materials from historic homes, buildings
A once-abandoned brick house in Detroit's North End neighborhood along the Woodward Corridor, renovated using recovered materials from various historic houses and buildings, is listed for sale at $475,000.
“Every piece has been constructed or restored with materials from around Detroit,” said Adam Soroka of real estate firm @properties Christie's International, who listed the house at 246 E. Philadelphia St. on Oct. 21.
It's filled with reclaimed fixtures that originated at Marygrove College, the Book Tower and historic homes and buildings in Corktown, Boston Edison, Birmingham, Lapeer, New York and Maine.
The four-bedroom, 1 ½ bath house built in 1905 with 2,223 of above-ground living space was completely remodeled this year.
Owner Kyle Dubay purchased the fire-damaged house from the Detroit Land Bank Authority, which sells city-owned vacant homes. A homeowner who lives across the street from the house had plans to purchase and tear the burnt home down because it was an eyesore, Dubay said.
Those plans changed when Dubay and his partner Bo Shephard, Detroit residents who own Woodward Throwbacks — a Hamtramck company that designs and builds furniture and spaces using reclaimed and found materials, looked at the property in search of salvageable goods.
The couple thought it wasn’t in terrible shape, compared to many demolition-bound buildings they visit. After having a conversation about the property, they talked with the neighbor about their intention to purchase and fix the house instead.
“So that’s how it started,” Dubay said.
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The house has been renovated from head to toe.
“Every piece of the home tells a story, which makes it very unique,” said Soroka. “It’s a brand-new house, but with historic materials that are high quality.”
Original mosaic tile greets guests in the foyer, and the front door, original to the house, has been stripped and fitted with new trim and hardware from a Detroit church. A light fixture in the foyer comes from Marygrove College, and its metal crown was salvaged from a building in the Lansing area.
To the left of the entrance is an office/library with a desk made from salvaged slate chalkboards from Transfiguration School in Detroit and reclaimed oak base made from church pews.
To the right is a living room that has a fireplace mantle salvaged from late 1800s brick townhomes in Detroit's historic Corktown neighborhood. A coffee table in the living room was made from salvaged walnut parquet flooring from a 1920s era mansion in Birmingham. The living room light fixture was a salvaged courthouse light from Portland, Maine. The end tables are made of reclaimed flooring with salvaged green marble tops.
The dining room offers custom built-in seating and salvaged wood-cladded walls. The table is made of salvaged oak with legs made from the old support columns in the basement. A leaded transom window above the back door come from an early 1900s house in upstate New York.
The kitchen has modern amenities, including a subzero fridge, pantry, salvaged scaffold shelving and salvaged phenolic resin lab counters from Romeo High School. The island is made of salvaged white oak.
Off the kitchen is a deck and a fenced yard with a two-car parking pad.
The powder room on the first floor is equipped with a vanity made of reclaimed walnut parquet flooring from a mansion in Birmingham and reclaimed oak base from church pews. The door is salvaged from the Grand Army of the Republic building in downtown Detroit.
Built-in shelving outside of the powder room was once a maple display cabinet from New Martha Washington Bakery in Hamtramck.
A staircase salvaged from a late 1800s house in Corktown leads to the second level, which has three bedrooms with floors salvaged from a maple basketball court at the former E.T. White school building in Lapeer, and doors salvaged from a 1920’s mansion in Birmingham.
The full bathroom on the second floor has a vanity from a science lab salvaged from Marygrove College and a marble countertop salvaged from the Book Tower downtown.
The second-floor laundry has a sliding door that was a reclaimed carriage house door from a house in Detroit's Indian Village neighborhood.
A salvaged spiral staircase from a house in Boston Edison leads to the third level, an attic converted into an extra bedroom with additional living space.
The real estate listing notes that the house has been completely updated with new windows, roof, two high efficiency furnaces, two AC units, plumbing and electrical.
Followers of the popular Woodward Throwbacks Instagram page, have been able to watch the transformation of the, house, using the #wtphillyhouse hashtag.
The couple originally planned to move into the house, but last year found a different "dream home."
“We built this house to the nines as if we were gonna live in it, so we didn’t spare any money,” Dubay said. “Everything except for building the house and framing the house, we did.”
The furniture used to stage the house is also for sale.
“They brought the house back to life, using their own materials and sense of creativity,” Soroka said.
Brendel Hightower is an assistant editor at the Detroit Free Press. Contact her at bhightower@freepress.com. To subscribe, go to freep.com/specialoffer.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit house renovated with reclaimed materials for sale
