The Elisha Taylor House is a historic private house located at 59 Alfred Street in Midtown
Detroit
Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
,
Michigan
Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...
, within the
Brush Park
The Brush Park Historic District is a neighborhood located in Detroit, Michigan. and listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1975. Since 1981, it has served as a center for art and architectural study, known as the Art House.Art House /ref>
History
The Elisha Taylor House was built in 1871 for
William H. Craig
William is a masculine given name of Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is ...
, a local lawyer, land speculator, and president of the Detroit Board of Trade. The architects were Koch & Hess of
Milwaukee
Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...
and Detroit.Pajot, Dennis. ''Building Milwaukee City Hall: The Political, Legal and Construction Battles''. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 3013. In 1875, Craig sold the house to attorney Elisha Taylor. Taylor was a Detroit attorney who held many offices during his career, including City Attorney, assistant Michigan Attorney General from 1837 to 1841, and Circuit Court Commissioner from 1846 to 1854.
Description
The Elisha Taylor House is two-and-a-half stories tall, made of red brick on a rough stone foundation.The Elisha Taylor Home from Detroit1701.org The structure is an eclectic mix of Gothic and Tudor Revival with elements of other styles, including Queen Anne and Italianate. The house has a high
mansard roof
A mansard or mansard roof (also called French roof or curb roof) is a multi-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper, and often punctured by dormer wi ...
with large protruding dormers and unusual
vergeboard
A bargeboard or rake fascia is a board fastened to each projecting gable of a roof to give it strength and protection, and to conceal the otherwise exposed end grain of the horizontal timbers or purlins of the roof. The word ''bargeboard'' is pr ...
ing at the peak. It is one of the best examples surviving in Detroit of post-Civil War residential design.Elisha Taylor House from the city of Detroit
Current use
Since 1981, the structure has been used as a center for art and architectural study. The interior has been well preserved, boasting original fireplaces, mirrors, woodwork, decorative plaster, stenciling,
Mintons
Mintons was a major company in Staffordshire pottery, "Europe's leading ceramic factory during the Victorian era", an independent business from 1793 to 1968. It was a leader in ceramic design, working in a number of different ceramic bodies, ...
floor tiles,
parquet
Parquet (; French for "a small compartment") is a geometric mosaic of wood pieces used for decorative effect in flooring.
Parquet patterns are often entirely geometrical and angular—squares, triangles, lozenges—but may contain curves. T ...