Joslyn Castle to Detroit - Thursday, October 10, 2019

Up early and down to breakfast followed by a load up of our luggage onto the bus. We then motored a scant two blocks to the Detroit Institute of Art (DIA) for a relatively short tour. Our guide sped us through the museum, pointing out some highlights and beautiful works of art, culminating with a stop in the huge gallery holding the Diego Rivera frescoed murals. This work is a stunning site in itself, and when coupled with a lecture explanation of all the panels and the various themes that Rivera was communicating, you come away with a much better understanding of this artist and his times. The DIA encompasses over 650,000 square feet with over 100 galleries and a collection of over 65,000 pieces of art. The scope of the institute is mind boggling. The real treat is that, due to non-stop flights from Detroit, one could fly to detroit, take a cab from the airport to the museum, spend a few hours enjoying and tasting its offerings, and then back to the airport and on to your ultimate destination. A great day trip with non-stops to cities all over the world.

We then lunched at the DIA cafeteria and boarded our bus for our last home of the trip - The Edsel and Elaine Ford home, in Gross Pointe, a mere ten miles from the city. This home, set on over 175 acres along the Lake St. Clare waterfront, is a superb example of Alfred Kahn’s Cotswold cottage architecture and the vision of the Fords. This is a true family home with a subdued scale, especially considering the wealth of the owners. The home is designed to be lived in by a family, this one which had 4 lively and engaged children, all of whom went on to some renown. The grounds are particularly stunning, designed by Jens Jensen, the same landscape architect that is reputed to have lent his design hand to parts of our own Joslyn Castle. After a walk of the grounds and a stop in the gift shop, we loaded up the coach for our final stop of the day.

We headed back into downtown Detroit, along the Detroit River to the Pewabic Ceramics studio.

The building built in 1906, is the home of the world famous Pewabic Pottery works. The name Pewabic is from the northern Michigan copper mine area and was picked by its founder, Mary Chase Perry Stratton. Ms. Perry Stratton became a world famous potter and eventual leader of architectural ceramics use throughout the world. We toured the facility, learning of its history, its workings and the way in which the tiles are created, formed, fired and glazed. There was time for shopping in the retail area and a number of pieces are now in Omaha homes.

At 6:00, we left for our drive to the airport, sorting out of the bags, travails with boarding passes and TSA, quick meals, and finally, at 8:45, our flight leaves for Omaha. We arrive home at 9:40 Omaha time and head home, educated about Detroit, our appetites whetted for another trip to this amazing gem of a City with Architecture, Museums and 300 years of history embedded. It was not what we thought it would be and also more than we though it would be. Well worth a future visit.

Joslyn Castle to Detroit, Wednesday, October 9, 2019

We awake today to clear skies and temperatures in the upper 50’s - boding for a great day. Our group meets in the lobby breakfast room for coffee, scrambled eggs, toast, pastries, juices and other goodies. All were well satisfied with the breaking of the fast. Most slept well, although one claimed to have fallen from a great height out of bed! (No witnesses, but she is a credible person!)

We mount our coach at 9:30 for our drive north to Bloomfield Hills and our day’s visit to Cranbrook Art Academy. This 300-acre campus includes elementary, middle and high schools currently enrolling approximately 1,600 students. In addition it enrolls college graduates in its world famous arts disciplines, leading to post-graduate degrees in painting, metal-smithing, fabrics, ceramics, woodworking and architecture. The Cranbrook Institute of Science features exhibitions, planetarium, observatory and native plant garden.

There are also the Cranbrook Art Museum, Christ Church and historic houses and gardens. Easily a multi-day destination which we are going to skim in a mere 8 hours. Cranbrook is the creation of Elaine and George Booth. The Booths were the scions of the Detroit Free Press paper and the Booth Newspaper chain. They were fabulously wealthy and very intent on giving back to their community. They purchased the original 175 acres as a retreat from the city for their family and enlisted architect Alfred Kahn to create the Cranbrook Booth home. Soon they decided to add some schools and asked Kahn to design more structures. Kahn demurred as he was busy designing factories for Henry Ford so he recommended Eliel Saarinen, Finnish architect who was lecturing at Michigan University. Saarinen accepted, moved to the property and began designing, teaching and building. Thus begun one of the great partnerships in art history. Saarinen, together with his wife, Textile Artist Kjola Saarinen began teaching and training. They created a campus of buildings, museums and workshops unmatched in the U.S. We started with a stroll from the peristyle of the Museum building, through the gardens and eventually to the Saarinen House, which he created to serve as the home of he and his wife and, as he served as the President of Cranbrook Academy until his death in 1950, the home also served as the home of the president. You might recall that Eliel and Kiola’s son Aero Saarinen was himself a famous architect, designing the St. Louis Arch and the TWA terminal at LaGuardia airport among other commissions.

Following Saarinen House, we traveled further to the Booth Cranbrook House and Garden. This original home of the Booth family is modeled on a Cotswold Tudor style home. Booth ancestors were from England, and originally from a small village called Cranbrook, which means field of the crane. Hence the name of the estate. Our group toured the house and then sat down in the huge dining area (formerly the library) for an afternoon “high tea” of sandwiches, scones, clotted cream, jam and petit-four desert treats. Following lunch we strolled the gardens of the home and took a quick look at the gift shop (underwhelming.)

We then headed to the Inn on Ferry Street and back to our rooms for a slight rest before reconvening in the lounge for a cocktail and then onto the bus for a drive to our evening restaurant, Rock City Eatery, only a short drive away. We were joined at dinner by our son and daughterin-law, Jake and Audrey Covert, who live in the Detroit suburb of Pleasant Ridge. We enjoyed our hamburgers, mac & cheese, salads and other typical pub fair. Plus conversation and review of the days sites and activities. We were back in our beds, safely tucked in by 10:00, preparing for our final day tomorrow.

JCT Detroit October 8, 2019

Our group of 15 friends and acquaintances, all supporters of Joslyn Castle Trust of Omaha, gather at 8:30 AM at Omaha Eppley Airfield for their Delta Airlines flight to Detroit. Bags are checked or not, boarding passes are distributed and we depart at 10:30 for Detroit. The flight is smooth with clear skies. We arrive about 5 minutes ahead of schedule, collect our 16th member arriving from Houston 3 minutes after our arrival and head to the carousel to pick up the checked bags. All bags arrive intact and we traipse out to the parking area to meet our bus.

We motor into downtown Detroit and stop at Jimmy John’s to pick up our preordered sandwiches and collect our Detroit City Tour Guide, Karen, and proceed on a tour of the city while we wolf down our sandwiches, chips, cookies and bottles of water.

Our first stop is at GM Renaissance Center and riding the elevator to the top of a garage where we viewed a rooftop garden and beekeeping facility. This gave us an overview of this 300 year old city and a glimpse of the buildings that populate this area. We stared across the Detroit River to the City of Windsor, Ontario, looking directly south to our Northern neighbor Canada.

Leaving the interior and winter garden courtyard (right) of the Renaissance Center, we head for a unique structure, The Z Garage, one of a number of buildings owned by Dan Gilbert, the CEO of Quicken Loans and the initial driver of the current Detroit Renaissance. This garage has artwork on every floor, and from the the 10 floor level, we could see all around the area, including a recent painting of Stevie Wonder on the side of one of the buildings.

We leave the garage and walk through an adjoining pedestrian alley whose adjoining walls are covered in art and graffiti. The area is lined by small shops, bars and restaurants. At the end we reboard our motor coach.

Next we head towards the Guardian Building, constructed in 1928 as the headquarters of the Guardian Bank. This phenomenal structure has the entire former first floor retail banking floor now converted to shops and stores. The 5 story tall lobby area is topped by a faux tile ceiling actually made of canvas and horsehair padding to reduce sound. There is no echo here.

On next to the Fisher Building. This 28 storey building was built by the Fisher Brothers, as headquarters for the Fisher Coachworks corporation. It is across the street from the former GM headquarters, now the Cadillac Place building, housing government offices. The Fisher Building is a work of art, designed by the architect Alfred Kahn. The lower exterior of the structure is granite, and then the upper storeys are marble. Inside, the lobby is polished brass, marble and art work everywhere.

From here we drive to MoTown for a look at the houses that formed the original Motown record label founded here in Detroit by Barry Gordy. We did not tour the museum, but did step out to listen to the music being played and for photo ops on the front porch.

From here we headed to our hotel for the rest of the trip, the Inn on Ferry Street. This collection of early 20th century mansions located a block from the Detroit Institute of Art. We take over one entire mansion and its adjoining arraign house. After a quick curt case drop, we convene in the lobby of the mansion which serves as the restaurant and office for a cocktail. We then walk a block to our restaurant, Chartreuse Kitchen & Cocktails. Meals included Scallops, Merguez Sausge hors d’oevres, potato dumplings, chopped salad, twice cooked egg salad, basil ricotta tortellini with shrimp, short rib and Babette Steak. A few desserts followed.

We walked back to our mansions to rest and recuperate from our busy first day in Detroit, retiring around 10:00 and looking for an exciting second day.