Detroit Home Where Ulysses S. Grant Slept Homeless

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Keepers of a house where Ulysses S. Grant once slept think they’ve found a new home for the soon-to-be homeless historic home.

With its historic resume, it wouldn’t seem the home where a future Civil War hero and U.S. president would be that difficult a property to unload.

One of Detroit’s oldest residences with an 1837 construction date, it’s an homage to the time when the city was just an upstart with 21,000 people and the ink was not quite dry on Michigan’s statehood.

It’s the place where the future Union general who would accept the Confederacy’s surrender Appomattox Court House lived with his young bride, Julia Dent Grant, who – in a delicious twist of historic irony – was the daughter of a Missouri slave owner.

Who wouldn’t want a property so steeped in one of the most important chapters in American history?

Greenfield Village, a collection of historic structures at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, for one.

Christian Overland, the museum’s executive director, said in a statement the Grant house doesn’t meet the collecting goals of the museum, which he said lacks the resources to dismantle, move and store a building with no defined purpose.

Preservationists were also turned down by Belle Isle, Historic Fort Wayne and the Department of Natural Resources’ Outdoor Adventure Center.

State Fairgrounds Eviction

So, how did the Grant home end up homeless?

For decades, the period-decorated house was a popular state fair attraction, but the 2010 fairgrounds closed in 2010. It has set vacant and unused since then, but now the state is offering the land for development and the Grant house’s only future is at a new location.

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Years of neglect have left a mark on the property, which Michigan Historic Commission president Jack Dempsey of Plymouth thinks is an affront to the great legacy of Grant, one of only two presidents ever to live in Michigan. (Gerald R. Ford, who grew up in Grand Rapids, is the other.)

“There are a whole number of Grant structures around the country, and Michigan is the only state that has treated one of them like this,” he said.

Educational Tool for Schools and Public

After disappointing pitches to some of the area’s most prominent attractions and museums, the Grant house’s future appears to be settled.

Ralph Bland, the state’s school superintendent, said details are being finalized to move the house to the Detroit Edison Public School Academy’s campus on St. Aubin, near Gratiot, though it’s not quite a done deal.

Tell Us:

• How would you like to see the Grant house used?

Michigan Historical Center Director Sandra Clark, who heads the agency put in charge by the state to oversee the house relocation, said plans for its future use are still in the works, but it won’t just be an edifice to Grant filled with his personal belongings.

Modern-day historical museum planning focuses on developing “an active educational tool for the school and the public, an interactive way to learn about the history of Detroit. … We want to put history to work, if you will,” Clark said.

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