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Henry S. Frieze House

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1859–1860, 1870. 1547 Washtenaw Ave.
  • (Photo by G. Grubb)
  • (Photo by G. Grubb)
  • (Photo by G. Grubb)
  • (Photo by G. Grubb)
  • (Photo by G. Grubb)

Born in Boston and a graduate of Brown University, Henry Simmons Frieze (1817–1889) came in 1854 to the University of Michigan to teach Latin. In 1859 he purchased over an acre of land at the outskirts of town and began construction of this Italian Villa house, one of the city's finest residences. Perhaps it was inspired by the many splendid Italian Villa houses that he may have seen in Providence after his graduation from Brown. The Frieze house is two stories with a hipped roof and intersecting gables, balconies, and porches. A wooden cupola, added in 1870, has a concave hipped roof topped by a finial and a weather vane. Skilled stonemasons from Guelph, Ontario, split, dressed, and laid local fieldstone two feet thick in the exterior walls. The spacious interior has four fireplaces, and the woodwork is oiled walnut and butternut. The fine proportions and skillful construction of the Frieze house make it an important component of Ann Arbor's architectural heritage.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Kathryn Bishop Eckert
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Data

What's Nearby

University of Michigan Central Campus
Clements Library (William L. Clements Library of Americana)
Allan and Alene Smith Law Library Addition
Law School Quadrangle
Power Center for the Performing Arts

Citation

Kathryn Bishop Eckert, "Henry S. Frieze House", [Ann Arbor, Michigan], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MI-01-WA8.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Michigan

Buildings of Michigan, Kathryn Bishop Eckert. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 147-147.

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