Estate
See: Scripps Mansion
In 1916, he began purchasing large tracts of farmland in Lake Orion, Michigan with an ambition to raise livestock and show animals, including angus cattle, swine, cows, and poultry. The estate, called Wildwood Farms, grew in size to roughly 720 acres (2.9 km2).
In the mid-1920s Scripps hired his brother-in-law, architect Clarence E. Day, to build a new home for his family on the northwest quadrant of the property. Scripps Mansion, a magnificent Norman and Tudor style dwelling, was completed in 1927. It has served as a guest house and retreat center for the Catholic church since the 1950s and is not open to the public, except on scheduled guided tours showcasing the interior design and garden.
Many of the European paintings from the estate were later donated to the Detroit Institute of Arts. William was an active contributor to the DIA, and his father James was an original founder of the permanent collection building.
After his death in 1952, the farm livestock and equipment was auctioned off, and the land was sold or donated for parkland to Orion Township, Oakland County, and the state of Michigan (Bald Mountain Recreation Area). The farm buildings and employee housing were later developed in the Canterbury Village shopping center
In 2007 the estate was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Read more about this topic: William Edmund Scripps
Famous quotes containing the word estate:
“Never let the estate decrease in your hands. It is only by such resolutions as that that English noblemen and English gentlemen can preserve their country. I cannot bear to see property changing hands.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)