Here's what others are saying about the Symphony Show House!
Where I've been: If you love gorgeous home tours, check out this mansion
in East Grand Rapids
by Susan Smith
EAST GRAND RAPIDS - Last night I walked back in time and went to a party that kicked off the Grand Rapids' Symphony Show house in the old Wilcox estate that opens May 1 for pubic viewing.
The party was fun—drinks, music, good food—but best of all it gave over 200 Symphony supporters the chance to tour the structure that a few of the more mature guests remember hanging out in as children.
The building was the recreation center for a compound of five homes built in the 1920s for the widow of a wealthy businessman's family. Originally housing nine cars, chauffeur’s quarters, gardener’s apartment, a pool, a squash court, billiards room and conservatory, it is now a substantial home for a local attorney and his children.
Decorated by a team of Grand Rapids based designers it is an opportunity to look back in time at a grand old life style and to view some flat out fabulousness first hand.
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Restored Wilcox Community House benefits GR Symphony
Excerpts by Jan Holst
The Grand Rapids Symphony Women’s Committee ... present[ed] the home, which
has been transformed by 22 top Grand Rapids interior designers,
builders, architects, and retailers. Local businesses ... showcase[d]
their talents while giving the public an opportunity to both support the
GR Symphony and its education programs as well as visit the famed
structure
The Showhouse, located at 701 Laurel Circle, is a classic Mediterranean-style villa, designed by Grand Rapids architect Kenneth W. Welch. It was originally built as a community house in 1923 for Caroline Hill Wilcox, widow of real-estate developer Frederick Potter Wilcox.
The Wilcox family estate was over 30 acres between Lake Drive to the north and San Lu Rae Drive, which was named for Caroline Hill Wilcox’s three oldest children, Sanford, Louise and Raymond, to the south. Wilcox commissioned the project, which would serve as a recreational building for her five children, who were constructing family homes on estate property. It featured a conservatory, indoor swimming pool, squash court, billiard room, as well as living quarters for the head gardener and his family.
According to an October 1923 Grand Rapids Herald article touting the massive construction project at 1940 Lake Drive, much of the brick was from the "old Stocking school, used in such a way to give it a variegated appearance." The article also described the swimming pool as 50 by 15 feet, complete with showers and dressing rooms, a large heating plant with coal bins in the basement, and a nine-car garage.
Current owners have turned the structure into a single-family residence.
*all Symphony Show House photos by photographer David Leale