Built in 1907, the Horace H. Rackham House is one of the many beautiful early 20th-century residences in Detroit's Boston-Edison Historic District.
The substantial brick home was built for Rackham (1858–1933), a prominent Detroit attorney, businessman and one of the original investors in the Ford Motor Co. Rackham's early investment in Ford made him one of Detroit's wealthiest citizens and enabled his later philanthropy, including major gifts to the University of Michigan, the Detroit Institute of Arts and numerous charitable organizations.
Designed in a restrained early twentieth-century style, it features a symmetrical brick façade, a broad front veranda, projecting bay and bow windows, a hipped roof with dormers, and twin interior brick chimneys. The spacious home occupies a prominent double lot and reflects the elegance that characterized Boston-Edison during Detroit's period of extraordinary growth.
The two-and-a-half-story residence remained in the Rackham family for many years.