Deeplands
525 Lake Shore Road, Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Completed in 1911, for Henry Dusenbury Shelden (1862-1941) and his wife Caroline Annette Alger (1865-1935). Neighboring Clairview on an estate of 80-acres, this Italianate mansion was one of the first of its kind to be built outside Detroit as a year-round home rather than a summer house or weekend retreat. It was demolished in 1947 and the land redeveloped into what is now referred to as the Deeplands Subdivision of Grosse Pointe.
Deeplands, 525 Lakeshore Road
Harry Shelden had grown up at the Shelden Mansion in Detroit, the only son and heir to a fortune established through dry goods and banking. Educated at finishing schools in France and Switzerland, his wife was the daughter of Russell Alexander Alger (1836-1907), the Civil War General who became U.S. Secretary of War under McKinley, a Senator and Governor of Michigan.
Following in the footsteps of his brother-in-law, Russell Alexander Alger Jr. (1873-1930), Shelden made the decision to quit the city and build a permanent year-round home on a country estate at Grosse Pointe. Influenced by the Italianate style of The Moorings, Shelden hired Arthur Heun (1866-1946), the well-known architect from Chicago who had recently completed the spectacular Mellody Farm in a similar style for J. Ogden Armour (1863-1927) at Lake Forest, Illinois.
The house sat on an estate of 80 acres, with a frontage of 1,100 feet on Lake St. Clair and reaching back into the woods some 3,000 feet - giving rise to it's name, Deeplands. Set back from Lakeshore Road, the house was approached by the rear via a long drive lined with horse chestnut trees. Outbuildings on the estate included the gardener's cottage, a four-car garage and stables.
Built of stone with a distinctive yellow hue and topped with green tiles, the central block gave on to a terrace accessed by French windows and flanked either side by projecting bays. Much of the interior was decorated with furniture, paintings and heirlooms that had once adorned Mrs Shelden's childhood home in Detroit, Governor Alger Mansion. For example, the library displayed a collection of family portraits as well as a number of mounted hunting trophies.
Harry Shelden died at Deeplands in 1941. He'd been predeceased by his only son, Allan Shelden II (1890-1935), whose widow, Elizabeth Buhl Warren (1895-1982), kept a house on Lakeshore Drive as well as the 800-acre Greenhill Farm in Stony Creek Metropark. Therefore, Deeplands was left to his grandsons: Allan Shelden III (1916-1976) and William Warren Shelden (1919-2002).
In 1947, the brothers took the decision to demolish the house and subdivide the property, creating the Shelden Land Company. The 80-acre estate is now referred to as the Deeplands Subdivision on which 80 new houses have been built, mostly on Deeplands Avenue.
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Contributed by Mark Meredith on 26/09/2018 and last updated on 29/09/2018.
The Buildings of Detroit: A History (1980), by W. Hawkins Ferry; Page 8, Detroit Free Press (March 16, 1889); The Dusenbury Family (portvillehistory.org); Matz and Schramm Families - Person Page (Allan Shelden II), from bobrugo.us; Grosse Pointe Historical Society; The Buildings of Detroit: A History (1980), by W. Hawkins Ferry; Estate's Grand Finale (September 21, 1982 - Detroit Free Press), by Marsha Miro; The Village of Grosse Pointe Shores (Arcadia Publishing, 2015), by Arthur M. Woodford; Grosse Pointe, 1880-1930 (Arcadia Publishing, 2001), by Madeleine Socia & Suzy Berschback; http://www.higbiemaxon.com/blog/historical-architecture-of-grosse-pointe-the-lost-estates-525-lakeshore1.html
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