63 Alfred Street: Where Capitalism Failed: The Life and Times of a Venetian Gothic Mansion in Downtown Detroit

by John Kossik

In downtown Detroit there exists a grand residence built in the Venetian Gothic style some 130 years ago. It stands now in ruins seemingly more comfortable in the company of a lonely castle in the Scottish Highlands than in the shadow of Ford Field (Detroit Lions), Comerica Park (Detroit Tigers), and Joe Louis Arena (Detroit Red Wings). Though its only occupants for the last 40 years have been crack dealers and the local homeless population, its history reflects the length and breadth of the American Experience. This is its Story

Genres: Nonfiction, History

172 pages, Paperback

First published June 13, 2010

About the author

John Kossik was born and raised in the Downriver Detroit suburb of Trenton. He graduated from Michigan State University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering in 1983 and has lived and worked in the Pacific Northwest since then. He has written numerous articles in publications such as Chemical Engineering, Chemical Engineering Progress, Genetic Engineering News, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, Filtration+Separation, and Bioprocess International. He is co-patent holder of Disposable rotary drum filter, US Patent No. 6,336,561. A life-long Tiger fan until that venerable structure was abandoned in 1999, he subsequently gave up watching the game. He lives with his wife and two grown children in suburban Seattle.

An amateur photographer, historian, and marine reef-keeper, this is his first book.

Reviews

[Dan]

63 Alfred Street is an amateur history of the Ransom Gillis House in Detroit's Brush Park neighborhood. The house is probably best known as the birthplace of Pewabic Pottery. In 2013, it has served as a set for AMC's "Low Winter Sun" television show. Author John Kossik was born in Trenton (a downriver suburb of Detroit), left the area after college in 1983, became enamored with Brush Park in 2004, and returned for four months in 2009.

The scholarship is uneven (note, for example, the numerous citations to Wikipedia). In particular, the larger themes of the book are not substantiated by convincing research. Most egregious is the provocative second half of the title, "Where Capitalism Failed." Whatever the truth of that declaration, it is tenuously proven; Kossik's single, short closing chapter addressing the issue is too lacking in hard analysis to be even remotely persuasive.

Kossik does a much better job with local research, contacting former residents and utilizing primary sources. Frustratingly, there are no photographs of the house, despite being mentioned throughout the narrative and in the notes. Still, for those interested in Detroit history, there is enough good information to warrant reading the book.

Chapter 1: Author's experience of discovering the house in 2004
Chapter 2: Biography of Henry T. Brush, architect
Chapter 3: Biography of Alanson J. Fox, lumber baron and prominent owner
Chapter 4: Brush Park's transition from wealthy enclave to boarding house neighborhood (early 20th century)
Chapter 5: The Essa family and storefront addition; racial tension in Detroit (mid 20th century)
Chapter 6: Detroit's decline (mid to late 20th century); failure of the Woodward East Project (1960s-1970s); failed attempts at rehabilitation (1980s-1990s); "urban spelunking" and mothballing (2000s)
Chapter 7: Author's assessment of Detroit after returning from Seattle for four months in 2009

[Ida]

total bummer. I am, like many others, fascinated with urban decay and found this book interesting in the way it approached the subject through just one house, but my main problem with the book is that i am, like many others a visual thinker and there are no pictures. he goes into great detail about tile work, turrets and the building and the loss of stores and at the end even TELLS the reader that he has a pile of pictures, but for some reason he doesn't include them. Totally frustrating rookie move.

[Ellen]

I signed up for the First Reads on this book because I thought it would be an interesting topic. And it is very interesting. The author brings in a whole bunch of peripheral material that is unexpected. For instance, there is a section on the Turkish persecution of the Armenians. Obviously the author has done lots of research. There are also many ideas he explores relating to America's development of cities and the ability of residents to move on to the wide open spaces in our large land. I liked the concept and enjoyed the facts.
However, I am sorry to say that the writing style and grammar was absolutely wretched. There were rambling sentences with either misplaced commas or lack of needed commas. There were weird capitalizations of various nouns. The author has no idea how to use an apostrophe s, misusing it many times for a plural (also using it's as a possessive.) And horrible mistakes like then instead of than, there for their, except for accept and pasted for passed (this latter mistake made 3 times so I doubt it was a typo.)
My first thought was to look to see who edited the book. Then I realized that the book is self published and obviously had no editor. Too bad because the mistakes spoiled my reading of the book.

[Ellenkaymi]

I really enjoyed this book. It is the history of Detroit told from the eyes of one house. Readers learn about the architect of the house and the many families who lived there during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They also learn how the occupants of the house, and the surrounding areas evolve over time. If you are interested in the history of Detroit, this book is for you!