History

The Wright's New Mansion

For a number of months, the Wrights had lived in rooms at the Wright House. While convenient for meals and for entertaining, the hotel was lacking the comforts and conveniences of a home. Finally, the millionaire began construction of a mansion worthy of his wealth and station. His house would be located directly south of the Sanitarium on State Street at the foot of Hulbert [Downie] Street. To make room for the new dwelling, the house currently occupying the site was purchased from J. O. Lumsden and moved across the street and half a block south on State Street.

In June 1886, as foundations for the Normal School buildings were being laid, wagonloads of building material were brought to the State Street site for construction of the new house. A large brick carriage house was to be built behind the house, and the foundations for that building were laid in July. In September workmen started excavating the basement of the mansion. The walls went up, and the roof went on in the fall. While Alma College was being formed, the interior work on the house was being completed. It took all of 1886 and part of 1887 to install and finish the beautiful woodwork.

Spiers and Hohn, a Detroit architectural firm, drew up plans for the house that would dwarf all others in Alma. The 67' by 36' house was a three-story structure designed in a Richardsonian Romanesque architecture. Built of brownish-gray lonia sandstone, the immense edifice presented a foreboding appearance only intensified by its stone porch and wooden porte cochere. Leaded windows, some with colored and stained glass, completed the house's expansive appearance. It reflected Wright's spartan tendencies and yankee conservatism.

A Look Inside the Mansion

The Wrights moved into their mansion in January 1888. Those fortunate enough to visit the home found a spacious, well-furnished house with a tinge of warmth in its vast interior. The editor of the Alma Record was given a tour.

Visitors entered through massive double doors into a small vestibule with an ornately tiled floor. From the spacious main hall, the heavy oak open stairway rose to the balcony on the second floor. Off the downstairs hall, doors opened into the parlor, the sitting room, Wright's large bedroom, and the dining room. Wright's bedroom on the ground floor was a departure from the typical design of a large house of the time. Sleeping rooms generally were all on the second floor. Each downstairs room, as well as several upstairs rooms, possessed a fireplace with a mantle of wood carved in a variety of exquisite designs. Pillars, pilasters, birds and flowers predominated in the seven mantels, each contrived around a mirror. The facings around the fireplaces were colored tiles. The fireplaces were for ostentation and evidently were all "designer" fireplaces, having been selected from a fireplace catalog. The house was heated by steam from a 40-flue Stephen Pratt boiler. Seven beating grates were distributed throughout the floors.

The 18-foot window in the main hall was a mixture of plate and stained glass. The lower windows throughout the house were supplied with inside shutters. Upstairs were found three large bedrooms. The rear of the house contained the kitchen on the ground floor and servants' quarters upstairs. Many of the rooms were finished in different woods. The parlor was done in mahogany, the sitting room in cherry, the dining room in oak, the front upstairs bedroom in birch, the south bedroom in maple, and the north bedroom in sycamore. Several rooms, including Mr. Wright's bedroom and the dining room, were laid with parquet floors. Adjoining Wright's bedroom was a spacious bathroom finished in curly maple. The dining room in particular was elegantly paneled with four-foot oak wain-scotting. A fireplace flanked by a beautifully designed built-in china cabinet filled the end of the dining room. The fireplace was decorated by an oak mantel of Tuscan design and contained heavy plate mirrors. Most of the interior woodwork came from the Alma woodworking mill of Tinker and Lancashire, one of son-in-law Henry's businesses funded by Wright. The kitchen area held china closets, pan closets, linen closets, the cook's pantry and the butler's pantry. The basement of the home held the boiler room and the root, fruit, and wine cellars. The Wrights were connoisseurs of fine wines and always kept the wine cellar well-stocked. The third floor supported water tanks for the homes modern water system, the first in a private home in Alma. A heating grate in one tank provided hot water to the sinks and baths below. Maids and a cook tended to the personal needs of the Wrights. When a small party was to be entertained, the new house was exactly suited, but the frequent larger groups hosted by the Wrights were treated royally in the more spacious dining room of the hotel.