It is one of the oldest and most beautiful houses in Detroit.
The house was built between 1876 and 1878 for Ransom Gillis, a wholesale dry goods merchant. It was designed by Henry T. Brush and his assistant, a young George D. Mason. Mason would go on to become one of Detroit’s most prolific architects.
The Ransom Gillis House introduced the Venetian Gothic style popularized by John Ruskin’s book “The Stones of Venice” to Detroit. The centerpiece of the structure was the tower at the front left corner. It was adorned with five rows of tiles in simple geometric designs in shades of bright blue, red, yellow and brown. Similar tile work was distributed throughout the structure. The base of the tower was decorated with stone carvings of quadruplets of flowers, similar but all slightly different. The tower was supported from below by an ornamental stone post. Ornately carved dark wood columns enclosed the porch at the entrance to the house. A steep, dark slate roof with ornamental ironwork completed the peaks in a traditional detail of the period.
Several attempts were made to restore the main structure in the 1970s, 1980s and mid-2000s, none of which were successful.
But on March 24, 2015, Nicole Curtis of HGTV’s “Rehab Addict” announced that she would be fixing up the Gillis House. Given the home’s location near Comerica Park and the upcoming construction of the Detroit Red Wings hockey arena, the metro Detroit native told WXYZ-TV that she “finally found a way to make the numbers work.” She set out to completely renovate — though not restore — the mansion, including its iconic tower.
The redevelopment was part of a broader Brush Park development plan that is expected to see the construction of hundreds of new residential units, as well as commercial and green space. The largest partner in the project is Bedrock Real Estate Services, part of Dan Gilbert’s empire.
A little more than seven months later, on November 1, a line stretching for several blocks formed to get a glimpse inside the restored mansion. By 2:30 p.m., the Detroit News reported, “the line to get into the house snaked from its porch steps to the sidewalk on Alfred Street toward Brush and then down Edmund Place, up the other side and back onto Brush, stopping just short of Watson Street.”