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BE in the News

It's not only the residents of Boston-Edison who think the neighborhood is a great place to live.  The Metro Times calls Boston-Edison "one of the most appealing neighborhoods in Detroit," and "one of Detroit's richest sources of history;" and Detroit Home readers voted Boston-Edison the area's "Best Historic Neighborhood." We agree. In addition to the The Metro Times, both The Detroit News and Model D has profiled Boston-Edison and the surrounding area.  Curbed Detroit covers the neighborhood extensively, and Experience Detroit includes the neighborhood on its tour of historic neighborhoods.


Excerpts from Articles

A few sentences from a select few articles about the Boston-Edison Historic District.

  • Friday, December 13, 2013 3:37 PM | Deleted user

    Maureen Feighan, Detroit News, December 13, 2013 (The 2013 Holiday Home Tour)

    Frederick J. Fisher, the eldest of the seven Fisher brothers who started the Fisher Body Company and changed the face of automobiles, seemed to have two goals in mind when he hired architect George D. Mason in the 1910s to design a home for him and his wife, Bertha: to entertain and to impress.

    His 12,000-square-foot house, built in an Italian Renaissance style in 1918 in what is now Detroit's Arden Park-East Boston Historic District, certainly does both.

  • Sunday, September 15, 2013 3:37 PM | Deleted user

    Megan Krueger, BLAC Detroit, September 2013 (An introduction to the neighborhood)

    Boston-Edison is a special slice of Detroit for many reasons - from grand homes once owned by some of the city's biggest names to a vibrant community of passionate residents who keep the neighborhood looking good.

    "There's a lot of history here," says Brian Ceccon, president of the Historic Boston-Edison Association and resident for 15 years. Homes in the neighborhood were built in subdivisions during three different time periods: 1905-06, 1915-16 and 1925, he says....

    Ceccon says Boston-Edison has always been a diverse neighborhood. Even historically, the neighborhood never had "restrictive religious covenants" preventing any group of people from living there, the site notes. "Racially diverse, socio-economically diverse, ethnically, religious, sexual orientation - it's just a very diverse neighborhood, and I think that's another one of the attractions," he says.

    Dorothy Hall, 83, has lived in the neighborhood since 1968. She says everybody who lives there is "really nice." "It's kind of like everybody looks out for everybody else," she says.

  • Friday, September 06, 2013 3:39 PM | Deleted user

    Paul Beshouri, Curbed Detroit, September 6, 2013 (An overview of houses for sale in Boston-Edison)

    Boston-Edison's enchanting homes haven't made an appearance here for a while, so let us take a spin through the listings in one of Detroit's greatest 'hoods. This list isn't exhaustive, but we've made a market sampler platter of the current listing crop, ranging from those needing a total rehab to homes that are move-in ready.

  • Thursday, July 05, 2012 3:40 PM | Deleted user

    Nicholas Köhler, Maclean's, July 5, 2012 (Interviews with residents, and neighborhood initiatives in housing and beautification)

    [The years of the early 20th century] were Detroit's salad days, and Boston-Edison reflected that glory. Here the Ford home is modest beside many of its neighbours. A district of leafy boulevards, stately mansions and handsome cottages stretched out over 36 city blocks just north of midtown, it was the domain of auto executives, hard-charging industrialists and retail tycoons. Sebastian S. Kresge, founder of what later became K-Mart, Jacob Siegel, head of the American Lady Corset Company, and Walter Briggs, who was, among other things, owner of the Detroit Tigers and Briggs Stadium—they all lived here, and all made sure their homes were stamped with appropriate grandeur....

    [In the 21st century] the community has hung on, even shown signs of improvement, and is attracting dozens of newcomers, thanks largely to the ingenious interventions of the neighbourhood's homeowners.... The people of Boston-Edison, many of them preservationists who withstood the magnetic pull of the suburbs, banded together. "There are a lot of professionals here," says Brian Ceccon, a retired social worker and a former director of the neighbourhood association. "They don't have to live here - they're choosing to." The homeowners began a policy of adopting empty houses, mowing the lawns and keeping watch. "We secured funding to purchase locks and secured the homes if there was a break-in, hung curtains, trimmed shrubs - just to make the homes appear occupied," says Pamela Miller Malone, a former neighbourhood association president.

  • Thursday, December 22, 2011 3:42 PM | Deleted user

    Douglas J. Forsyth, American Bungalow, Winter 2011 (Arts and Crafts architecture in Detroit in Boston-Edison)

    Boston-Edison is one of the largest residential historic districts in the nation. It constists of over 900 houses, most of them built between 1905 and 1925. From the beginning, it has been one of Detroit's premier residential neighborhoods. Henry Ford (1863-1947) lived here; so did Sebastian S. Kresge, the founder of Kresge Department Stores; James Couzens, vice president and treasurer of Ford Motor Co. and later U.S. Senator and Detroit mayor; Walter O. Briggs, auto-body manufacturer and former owner of the Detroit Tigers baseball team; Clara Clemens, daughter of Mark Twain; heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis; Walter Reuther, the United Auto Workers leader, and Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records. Boston-Edison has one of the oldest neighborhood associations in the country, founded in 1921.

    Download the rest of this article in pdf format.

  • Thursday, December 01, 2011 6:56 AM | Andrew Moskalik (Administrator)

    George Bulanda, Hour Detroit, December 2011 (Restoration of the Fisher Mansion)

    In the Roaring ’20s, the 18,000-square-foot house on Detroit’s Boston Boulevard itself roared with activity. The clamor of children’s voices, the bustle of 17 live-in servants, and the lively conversation of guests in the ballroom animated the home.

    There were also informal gatherings in the downstairs pub, the air choked with cigar smoke, while men talked robustly of business and finance amid the clack of billiard balls in an adjoining room. Sometimes the majestic Estey pipe organ in the foyer permeated the sprawling mansion with its stentorian notes.

    Fifty years later, those sounds surrendered to silence. The lady of the house, then in her 90s, lived there quietly, her circle of servants narrowed considerably, the children grown, her husband dead since 1963. She maintained the home until her death in 1974.

    Today, a different kind of noise is enlivening the home, which was built in 1922 for Charles and Sarah Fisher, of the “Body by Fisher” family. The rat-a-tat of hammers and the clang of plumbers’ wrenches punctuate the renovation taking place. Outside, landscapers are busy planting trees and bushes, while three stories up workers repair leaks to the slate roof.

  • Sunday, December 19, 2010 3:59 PM | Deleted user

    Greta Guest, Detroit Free Press, December 19, 2010 (A tour of the neighborhood and homes on the 2010 Holiday Home Tour.)

    In Detroit's historic Boston-Edison district, where a 3,000-square-foot home is considered small, it takes commitment and cash to keep up the roughly 900 houses in the 36-block area. There are 30 homes for sale in the neighborhood, priced from $12,000 to $1.2 million.

    [T]he rewards of living in the neighborhood that was fashioned by Detroit's leaders of the last century are many, residents say. Most of the stately homes and mansions were built between 1905 and 1925 and became the gathering place of Detroit's elite residents of the time including the Fisher Brothers, Fred W. Sanders, Sebastian Kresge, Benjamin Siegel and, more recently, Berry Gordy Jr.

    "I would never want to discourage anyone from living in these areas, but when you do a repair or modernization you are talking about huge areas of square feet," [said Cheryl Kachaturoff, a Realtor with Century 21 Curran and Christie]. "A lot of people go in with excitement about fixing up these beautiful mansions, but they don't think about the repairs." That said, Kachaturoff notes that those who do buy in such neighborhoods have the benefit of living near others who share their love for historic homes and are very involved in the community.

    "People who are looking now are so lucky," [HBEA vice-president Wanda] McGlown said, noting that the housing slump has made most homes in the district extremely affordable. McGlown said the area has been getting a lot more attention, including being featured recently on an episode of "Detroit 1-8-7." And the area is in a Neighborhood Enterprise Zone, which gives tax breaks to residents. "It's a great, great neighborhood," said McGlown, a Chrysler engineer. "To look at Detroit as an opportunity is what we try to do."

    View the photos accompanying the article.
  • Friday, September 24, 2010 4:00 PM | Deleted user

    Greta Guest, Detroit Free Press, September 24, 2010 (Restoring Charles T. Fisher's Boston-Edison mansion.)

    The house has 12 bedrooms, 17 bathrooms and a pub. It boasts a private chapel, marble ballroom and a private office that once connected Charles T. Fisher to the former General Motors headquarters in the New Center area. It even has a sitting area for the ladies' English porcelain powder room.

    The 18,000-square-foot Fisher Mansion -- the largest in Detroit's historic Boston-Edison district -- is going though its first major renovation in 36 years as its new owner strives to preserve some of the city's rich automotive history.

    The mansion was built by architect George Mason for Charles T. Fisher and his wife, Sarah Fisher.

    Charles Fisher and his brother Fred and uncle Albert founded the Fisher Body Co. in 1908. By 1914, it had become the world's largest maker of auto bodies that included Cadillac, Ford and Studebaker.

  • Saturday, September 26, 2009 4:01 PM | Deleted user

    Michael M. Phillips, The Wall Street Journal, September 26, 2009 (The story of one house in Boston-Edison.)

    The brick-and-stucco home at 1626 W. Boston Blvd. has watched almost a century of Detroit's ups and downs, through industrial brilliance and racial discord, economic decline and financial collapse. Its owners have played a part in it all. There was the engineer whose innovation elevated auto makers into kings; the teacher who watched fellow whites flee to the suburbs; the black plumber who broke the color barrier; the cop driven out by crime....

    As Ford and Detroit prospered, so did the Averys. Their move from a small house near the Ford plant to their freshly constructed home on West Boston Boulevard was a steep climb up the social ladder. Henry Ford's own starter mansion stood close by.

    The Avery home had four bedrooms and a third-floor suite for the German maid. There was a butler's pantry off of the kitchen and a fireplace in the living room. Mrs. Avery set trellises against the front of the house and hung frilled curtains in the upstairs windows. Shortly after moving in, she gave birth to Anabel in a bedroom facing the street....

  • Wednesday, September 16, 2009 4:03 PM | Deleted user

    Lori Ella Miller, LISC Detroit, September 16, 2009
    (Preservation and neighborhood in Boston-Edison.)

    A neighborhood is more than the houses that line city streets and boulevards. It is an intricate tapestry woven together by history, memories and the hopes and dreams of its residents. Nowhere in Detroit is this more evident than in the community of Historic Boston-Edison....

    Preservation is paramount. Several local community organizations, including Detroit LISC, have united for a common cause: to stabilize Boston-Edison and restore it to its former glory. Central Detroit Christian CDC, a community development organization with extensive experience in housing and beautification, and the Boston-Edison Association have joined forces to spearhead the Boston-Edison Housing Preservation Initiative....

    Ava Tinsley, lifelong Boston-Edison resident, lives in the three-story brick house that has been in her family for three generations. "Boston-Edison is an historic jewel. My mission is to return it to its former grandeur, like it was when I was a child," says Tinsley.

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