Annual Indian Village Home Tour this Saturday

Ever drive through Indian Village and wonder what its historic, lavish homes really look like on the inside? Do some of them really have maid's quarters? Are there really a few homes that have Thomas Jefferson's dumbwaiter, an invention designed to carry food from the kitchen to the dining room? Now is your chance to explore these homes firsthand and find out.

This Saturday from 10 am-5 pm, many of the historic neighborhood's homeowners will open their doors to the public for tours. Tickets are $13 in advance, and $18 at the event. Groups of 10+ can get a discounted rate of $11 per ticket. (A cool plus: Detroit Race for the Cure team members that purchase an $18 ticket on the day of the tour can have $5 donated to their Cure team by visiting Indian Village's website and printing out the Race for the Cure coupon.) Ticket sales benefit the Indian Village Association - an organization made up of neighborhood residents - that was established in 1937 to protect the Village from replacement by high-rise apartments, which were in high demand after World War II.

Indian Village, composed of the streets Burns, Seminole, and Iroquois, is one of Detroit's most well-known, most prominent neighborhoods. Designed by some of the city's finest architects, Indian Village's homes were created for some of its most famous residents. Edsel Ford - Henry Ford's only son, Arthur and Clara Buhl - who later constructed the Buhl Building downtown, and Louis Kamper - the architect of both the Book Building and Book-Cadillac Hotel, all had homes built for them in Indian Village.

This article, from the Detroit News' "Rearview Mirror" project, is a great resource for additional information on Indian Village. Check the Indian Village website for more information on tickets and the tour this Saturday. The website also has pictures from the tour booklets given out during the previous 31 years, which are also pretty cool.