Mini-sub complete behind Courtyard Shops: With the sale of 1858 Upland Dr. for $799,900 last month, the amusingly named Monopoly Real Estate LLC completed its redevelopment of the 0.9-acre plot it bought for $431,800 in 2018. The Northville-based company sold 1878 Upland for $824,586 in April, and both 1868 Upland for $729,900 and 1888 Upland for $720,000 in 2021, bringing the project’s total revenue to more than $3 million.
Ex-U-M provost returns: Martha Pollack, who left in 2017 to become president of Cornell University, stepped down from that post on June 30. In apparent preparation, she and husband Kenneth Gottschlich bought 2573 Laurentide Dr. in May. They paid a shade over $1 million for the four-bedroom, two-bath, 2,737-square-foot abode on one acre in Scio Twp.
Barton Hills sees unusual sales action: The $1.125 million sale of 1155 Country Club Rd., $2 million sale of 855 Country Club Rd., and $2.2 million sale of 530 Barton Shore Dr. represent a flurry of activity for the wealthy enclave that had seen just two other homes sell since July 2023. The village, population 316 according to the 2020 Census, was established as an exclusive subdivision more than a century ago by then–Detroit Edison president Alex Dow on the north bank of Barton Pond. Dow brought in the Olmsted brothers, who designed New York’s Central Park, to lay out its winding streets.
This Old House of the Month: 615 Miner isn’t fancy or, at $399,000, even expensive by Ann Arbor standards. But this two-bedroom, one-bath cottage built in 1901 evidently suited the legendary Ann Arbor potter J.T. Abernathy, who is now 101 and had owned it with wife Teri since 2002. And the buyers—Martin and Molly Tinkerhess—hail from a family of equally illustrious local figures. Martin’s father, Paul, and his siblings were involved in a landmark 1969 Supreme Court case that affirmed the First Amendment right of high schoolers to protest. Paul and wife Claire have owned Fourth Ave. Birkenstock for more than thirty years. In the 1990s, they moved a house threatened by demolition to 625 Miner, raising Martin and his two brothers there. Now Martin and Molly are living next door.
Related: The Metamorphosis of 212 S. State
