Michigan Connections
Freer House - The First “Freer Gallery”
The Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. is known for it outstanding collection of Asian art. The gallery was founded by Detroit industrialist, Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919). His rail car manufacturing company became the second largest in Detroit, and Lang became very wealthy. With his fortune he amassed the largest private art collection in the country, at that time – with most of the art coming from Asia. Since Freer never married and had no heirs he decided he would donate his collection to the people of the United States, and paid the entire cost of constructing the Freer Gallery in Washington D.C. Upon his death the greatest part of his collection was left to the federal government, and moved from Detroit to the gallery.
Charles Freer’s home, on Ferry Avenue in Detroit, was designed and built to house his extensive collection. Freer contracted Wilson Eyre, Jr. to design his Detroit home after the cottages he admired in New England, and is still Michgan’s finest example of shingle style architecture. Extensive Pewabic works are found throughout the interior. James McNeil Whislter’s famous Peacock Room was installed in the house after being sold to Freer, and is now on permanent display in Washington D.C. The Ferry Avenue house is a major work of art. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings, and is a Detroit monument. Currenlty the house is the home of the Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute.