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.