BACK TO SPRING 2022 IMPRINTS NEWSLETTER

Repairing Water Damage

When the Freer House was unoccupied last August due to COVID restrictions, part of its HVAC system failed, allowing condensate water to flood from the third floor to the main floor, damaging the second floor offices (former guest bedrooms) and the ground floor parlor. The house also withstood multiple weather-related water infiltrations throughout key areas. These challenges came when the WSU Facilities Department was facing many flooding and building repair emergencies across campus, coupled with a shortage of staff equipped to handle historic preservation standard of repairs needed at the Freer House.

I reached out to colleague and friend Mark Heppner, president & CEO of Grosse Pointe's Edsel and Eleanor Ford House, for guidance on diagnosing and remedying the complex water infiltration conditions facing the Freer House. Mark generously offered the expertise of the Ford Estate's Director of Historic Preservation Rebecca Torsell, to help guide Wayne State's Facilities, Planning and Management Department in finding new ways to address the Freer House maintenance issues.  Thanks to Rebecca's recommendations, the Freer House and WSU hired one of the nation's top historic masonry experts, Simon Leverett of Leverett Masonry Consulting in Chicago, to investigate and propose solutions. 

I also contacted Rob Davenport, WSU's vice president for Facilities, Planning and Management to elevate the Freer House as a university priority and establish a preventive maintenance protocol for the building that meets historic preservation standards. Rob and his staff have been fully supportive and are working closely with Simon, Rebecca, and the Freer House team to devise strategies to resolve the current maintenance challenges.  WSU President M. Roy Wilson has also responded and will be visiting the house to review its condition with WSU CFO Dave Massaron, Rob Davenport, MPSI Director Peter Lichtenberg, and me in early April.  We look forward to working together to establish a new era of quality maintenance and preservation for the Freer House. We extend our appreciation to all the individuals above for their dedication and support of this treasured landmark of Detroit.

Freer & Egypt Virtual Event Reaches Far and Wide

Over 110 people from North America, Europe and Australia joined with Freer House members for the February online program Freer and Egypt. The event featured guest speaker Gretchen Welch and was co-sponsored by the Freer Gallery of Art's, National Museum of Asian Art (NMAA) Docent Program.

Ms. Welch, an accomplished docent at the museum and a retired State Department official once assigned to posts in Egypt and the Middle East, gave a fascinating 'tour' of Egypt following in Freer's footsteps.  Ms. Welch wove together the extraordinary Egyptian art Freer collected with his travels to Egypt in the early 1900's and the many connections of his art collecting, research and scholarship with his Michigan friends and colleagues, such as archeologist and professor William Kelsey from the University of Michigan.  We look forward to future online programs bringing together the Freer House in Detroit with the amazing docent program at the Freer Gallery of Art, NMAA, in Washington, D.C.

Chinese Dragon Lamp Replica Installed

Thanks to a generous donation by Freer House supporter, Dr. David Weinberg, and the skills of master artisans James Viste, Edgewise Forge, and John Rizzo, College for Creative Studies, an exact replica of Freer's bronze Chinese dragon lantern has been expertly crafted and installed in its original location above the side door porch entrance of the Freer House, overlooking the revitalized courtyard garden. We are excited to add this unique decorative element as a new addition to the Freer house and garden, which is open to the public.

Thomas Brunk's Pewabic Book Wins 'Michigan Notable Book' Award

The Library of the State of Michigan has selected, Pewabic Pottery: the American Arts and Crafts Movement Expressed in Clay, by the late Dr. Thomas W. Brunk, Freer House Scholar, as one of twenty "Most Notable Michigan Books of 2020."   The Freer House, under the leadership of board member John Douglas Peters, played a key role in securing this posthumous publication by Michigan State Press of Dr. Brunk's authoritative manuscript on the history of Detroit's Pewabic Pottery. The book includes a chapter on Charles Lang's Freer important role as an early patron and supporter of Mary Chase Perry, co-founder of Pewabic Pottery.

BACK TO SPRING 2022 IMPRINTS NEWSLETTER