Pioneering “recycled apartment” gets new owner: A two-floor, 2-bedroom, 2.5-bath spread in the Heinrich Building at 111 S. Fourth Ave. changed hands last month for $1.75 million. That it could draw a top-of-the-market price surely would have delighted Estelle Schneider and Bonnie DeLoof, the businesswomen who in the 1970s made it a model for the then-new concept of converting upper floors of declining commercial buildings into residential lofts. They bought and rehabbed 111 and 113 S. Fourth Ave., which date back to the nineteenth century but were “in various stages of collapse,” according to a 1978 piece in the Ann Arbor News. Calling them “recycled apartments” they put in wood-burning fireplaces and modern kitchens, and unearthed and refurbished maple hardwood floors while leaving exposed brick walls and ductwork. A 1977 classified advertisement asked: “Would you like a Manhattan townhouse in Ann Arbor?”
Beating a path off Primrose Ln.: Whenever a particular street pops up more than once on a given map, it’s interesting. That seven condos in Legends Rosewood Village, off Platt Rd. south of Michigan Ave. in Pittsfield Twp., appear on this page is a real head-scratcher. The units on Primrose are handsome twenty-year-old townhouses with one-car garages that went mostly in the high $200,000s. Is it a seasonal thing? Seems not; the first half of 2024 saw the sale of just two condos on Primrose. One possible explanation: a subdivision is going in next door—and the lane, heretofore a quiet cul-de-sac, will be the new residents’ connection to Platt.
This Old House of the Month: By the time Sue and James Kern bought the 1906 Colonial Revival at 318 S. Thayer St. in 1996, it had already won an Historic Preservation Commission award. They did the legacy proud; in 2008, the commission recognized them for preserving the Francis Hamilton House, which was named for the city’s mayor from 1905 to 1907. The 1869 U-M alum built it as a boarding house. The Kerns, who paid $280,000 for the 2,756-square-foot two-story home notable for its many built-in shelves and stained-glass windows, sold it for $2.05 million in April. And, yes, that’s the same Francis Hamilton who gifted the cylindrical bronze drinking fountain, perpetually circled by classical figures in bas relief, at the nearby corner of State St. and North University Ave.