This house was not only the home of famed Detroit historian Clarence Monroe Burton, but also the first home of the Burton Historical Collection. Appropriately, HistoricDetroit.org had to consult the collection's files in order to determine what happened to its former building and find a picture of it.
It is unclear at this time when this home was built or who the original architect was. The house was already there when Burton moved his family into it in 1884. A Charles Gardiner lived at the address before him, but it is unclear whether it was the same house or not. There were a variety of other folks calling what was then-27 Brainard St. home before him, though because it hasn't been determined when this exact house was built on the property, it hasn't been possible to confirm these details. However, it is a safe bet the answer lies buried somewhere in the Burton Historical Collection, just waiting to be unearthed.
What is clear, however, is that in February 1894, Burton hired the architectural firm Varney & Co. to build a fireproof addition onto the home in order to house his collection of books, manuscripts and papers - all of which would form the backbone of the Burton Historical Collection. Even with the addition, the house on Brainard was packed to the rafters with some 30,000 books, 40,000 pamphlets and 500,000 unpublished papers, as well as priceless documents central to the city's history and founding.
What made Burton's collection so important was not just its shear size or rarity of the documents within, but its scope. Burton began compiling land records in 1865, 25 years before any other company in Michigan. Its records had the complete history of every piece of land in Wayne County as far back as 1783, and that's not counting all the other documents and papers Burton had compiled over his life. He even had records of every tax payment on every piece of land in the entire county going back to 1827 - said to be 20 years further back than any of its competitors.
In 1913, Burton hired the firm Rogers, Bonnah & Chaffee to design him a larger house in the city's prestigious Boston-Edison neighborhood, at 121 W. Boston Blvd. Now he had to decide what to do with his old home. His decision would become one of the most generous and important gifts to the city in its history.
At a Jan. 7, 1914, meeting of the Detroit Library Commission, Burton officially offered to donate not only his collection but his home on Brainard Street to the Detroit Public Library, thus establishing the historical collection that bears his name. In a resolution dated March 16, 1914, the commission acknowledged Burton’s gift as a “rare instance of patriotism, unselfish devotion of scholarship and unprecedented private generosity to the Public Library of Detroit.”
“Burton’s collection, and his contributions to the preservation of Detroit history, cannot be quantified," the library wrote in its book “Burton Historical Collection,” released to mark 100 years of the archives being available to the public. “Here, the word ‘priceless’ appropriately applies. … His near obsession with collecting all manner of historical evidence of these times - especially from Detroit, Michigan, and the Northwest Territory - would translate in 1915 to a repository of immense value, both in sheer volume and in importance.”
The Burton Historical Collection would open in the house in September 1915 following a remodeling effort that saw the first floor turned into a reading room and administrative offices, a room on the second set aside as a historical museum, and stacks throughout along with adjacent study rooms. This was a reference and research library, meaning that the books and manuscripts could be viewed by the public, but could not be checked out.
"This is a library of historical works the like of which no other American city possesses," the Detroit Free Press wrote July 23, 1922. "It is said that no writer on Americana would approach his subject without consulting the Burton library.
But even as the library prepared to open the new Burton branch, it was already known that it would not stay there for long. Ground had been broken for a massive new main branch on Woodward Avenue in January 1915, eight months before the Burton first opened on Brainard. But the library would be a slow-go, and would not be formally dedicated until June 3, 1921.
The Burton Collection closed on Brainard in late 1920 or early 1921, and on Feb. 7, 1921, the Detroit Public Library began to pack up the collection to prepare for the move. Each book and manuscript was said to be carefully packed and given a number to protect it and ensure they made it to their new home.
In 1921, Burton gave the collection a $50,000 endowment, the equivalent of about $870,000 in 2026 valuation, when adjusted for inflation, to continue acquiring documents. That same year, Burton helped organize the Detroit Historical Society on Dec. 15, 1921, and became its first president.
After the collection moved to the main library, the house apparently wound up back in Burton's ownership. On Sept. 6, 1932, Burton pulled a permit to turn it into a rooming house. He died a month later. It's unclear whether his family continued to lease the home or sold it following his passing, but in 1934, the house was turned into the Green Gardens, a beer garden that offered "choice beer" and "good food," as well as dancing.
In the 1940s and '50s, the house went back to being used as a house, with a Dec. 16, 1957, permit issued to turn it into nine apartments.
On June 6, 1961, a demolition permit was pulled for the house, and another one followed on Nov. 5, 1962, to raze a "storage facility" on the property, which was most likely Burton's library addition. It is unclear why the building was demolished.
The Burton Abstract & Title Co. donated the former site of the Burton library for a community park in 1969.
The site of the Burton house - 473 Brainard St. - was combined with 469 Brainard at some point, and as of March 2017, the land was a well-maintained green space owned by Simply Well Communities LLC.
More on this building coming soon.