500 Lone Pine Road
Bloomfield Hills, Oakland County

Designation and Designation Date

• National Historic Landmark, listed June 29, 1989
• National Register, listed March 7, 1973
• State Register, listed February 11, 1972

Architect, Builder, or Designer(s)

• Eliel Saarinen, architect
• Albert Kahn, architect
• Bertram G. Goodhue Associates, architect
• O. C. Simonds, landscape architect

Associated Person(s)

• George Gough Booth
• Ellen Scripps Booth

Significant Date(s), Notes

• 1926-1943, the major components of Cranbrook were designed and built during these years

Significance Statement

Cranbrook had its beginnings in 1904, when George Gough Booth, publisher of the Detroit News, and his wife, Ellen Warren Scripps Booth, bought a large farm in the rolling countryside of Bloomfield Hills and named it after the English village of Cranbrook, the Booth family ancestral home. Taking up residence in 1907, the Booths gradually transformed their farm estate into a remarkable cultural and educational complex consisting of their home, Cranbrook House; the Meeting House, which was expanded into the elementary Brookside School; Christ Church, Cranbrook; Cranbrook School for boys; Cranbrook Academy of Art; Kingswood School for girls; and Cranbrook Institute of Science.

A superb integration of architectural and landscape design elements, the Cranbrook complex represents a unique masterpiece in the history of American architecture. It embodies the belief shared by its founder, George G. Booth, and its principal architect, Eliel Saarinen, that art should permeate every aspect of life.

For information about any of the programs described on this site, write the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office, Michigan Historical Center, P.O. Box 30740, 702 W. Kalamazoo St., Lansing, MI 48909-8240, or call us at (517) 373-1630.

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