30 July 11 • 2019
jn

at home
arts&life

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: A Saturday night 

soiree for the Palmer Woods Home and 

Garden Tour will be held at this home. A 

fountain in the garden of Jodee Fishman 

Raines’
 home. The Turkel home was 

planned by Frank Lloyd Wright, the only one 

in Detroit proper. An antique sconce at the 

home once owned by the Gershenson family.

Details
The Palmer Woods Home and 
Garden Tour runs 5-10 p.m. 
Saturday, July 13, and 10 a.m.-5 
p.m. Sunday, July 14. $125 for 
Saturday with Sunday activities 
included. Tickets for Sunday alone 
are $35 in advance and $40 on 
event day; $15 for those ages 13-18 
and free for those 12 and younger. 
(313) 891-2514. Palmerwoods.org/
home-and-garden-tour.

H

omes holding history and gardens 
holding fresh blooms go hand in 
hand at the Palmer Woods Home 
& Garden Tour set for Saturday and Sunday, 
July 13-14.
The Saturday evening soirée — with live 
music, strolling dinner, introduction to the 
tour and dessert reception after visits — 
kicks off the weekend showcasing renovated 
residences and updated landscaping, some 
properties originally planned by area execu-
tives and designed by prestigious architects.
The event will be held at a 6,300-foot 
Tudor home surrounded by land that fea-
tures a greenhouse, pools, fountains and 
raised garden beds designed by Deborah 
Silver of Detroit Garden Works. 
A shuttle will provide transportation to 
all the other homes and gardens throughout 
the evening, and soirée guests will have free 
entry to the Sunday tour, which also can 
be accessed by walking from place to place. 
Some neighborhood homes, built in the 
1920s, combine the old with the new as spe-
cifically planned by current owners.
Jodee Fishman Raines, who moved to the 
area eight years ago and is active in the Isaac 
Agree Downtown Synagogue, will show 
the first floor of her remodeled 1928 Tudor 
home and its environment-friendly garden.
“We’
ve done renovations to make our 
home more historically accurate,
” Raines 
says. “We discovered a hidden carved plaster 
ceiling with flowers and scroll work that had 

been covered by a dropped ceiling.
“
Our garden is a modern interpretation 
of European gardens with fountains, gravel 
walkways and lots of flowers. We manage 
the rainwater on site so that storm water 
stays out of the sewer system. We also have 
native plants — pink coneflowers, blue lobe-
lia and cardinal flowers — that contribute to 
a healthy ecosystem.
” 
Barbara Weinberg Barefield, who is on 
the committee planning the tour, explains 
that 10 sites will be visited, some where both 
the home and garden will be open and oth-
ers where one or the other will be shown. 
Not showing her own home or garden, 
Barefield is an enthusiastic area resident 
who arranged to feature residences she has 
admired over many years in the area near 
Woodward and Seven Mile. They are in a 
range of styles that include Dutch Colonial 
and New England Colonial.
One special Palmer Woods home, 
Barefield points out, was planned by Frank 
Lloyd Wright and owned by Dorothy 
Turkel. The home’
s native/prairie-inspired 
gardens were designed by landscape archi-
tect Richard Hass. The residence, built 
around 1955, is Wright’
s only home in 
Detroit itself.
Another special residence, a renovated 
French chateau-styled manse, belonged to 
the Gershenson family, long active in the 
Jewish community. ■

Take a Peek

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER PHOTOS BY BARBARA BAREFIELD

Home and garden tour showcases 
historic Palmer Woods homes. 

