Headline: A GOVERNOR’S PLYMOUTH TWP. HOME IS UP FOR SALE
Published with permission of the Detrout Fre Press
Byline: BY JOEL THURTELL
Pub-Date: 7/23/2006
Memo: PLYMOUTH, CANTON, NORTHVILLE
Correction:
Text: There’s not much action these days in the shady little sub known as Plymouth Colony.
It’s a neighborhood with mostly 1950s ranch houses, gravel roads and big trees where the day’s most exciting occurrence might be someone walking a pair of dogs.
But back when these homes were new, there were real doings. One of the houses was built by the man they called the “boy wonder” of Michigan politics. He was a Canadian-born World War II veteran whose legs were blown off by a German land mine. He went to college and law school and entered politics to become the youngest state senator in Michigan, elected in 1954.
Two years later, he built his elegant ranch house at 44525 Governor Bradford Road and was re-elected to the state senate. In 1958, he was elected lieutenant governor and in 1960, campaigning from that modest house in Plymouth Township, John Swainson was elected governor of Michigan.
It’s a significant thing that Plymouth had a governor and a governor’s home. But the man and his house were unknown to the keepers of Plymouth history.
Elizabeth Kelley Kerstens is a local historian, an archivist and author of two historical books about Plymouth.
“I’ve never heard of him,” Kerstens said. She checked the archives of the Plymouth Historical Society and found one item – a 1962 Free Press article noting that Swainson, a Democrat, had been defeated by Republican George Romney.
There’s no historical marker to tell you a governor once lived there. This reporter heard about it only when he moved to the sub west of Sheldon Road in 1991, and that was thanks to Swainson himself.
Today, the Swainson house, that ranch on Governor Bradford, is for sale.
Husband and wife Bob and Joan Marquard own the home. The asking price is $274,900.
Bob Marquard said he told their real estate agent, “This is a historic house.’ She said, “No one cares.’ “
Other towns with governors’ homes make a big deal of it. Pontiac has the Governor Moses Wisner mansion, and Farmington has the home of another governor, Fred Warner.
There’s something classy about a house that belonged to the state’s chief executive, even if he served so long ago that few remember him.
Consigned to oblivion
So why is Swainson, who died in 1994, unknown to the keepers of history?
Because he was a Democrat in a traditionally Republican township? Because he was convicted of a crime?
In 1975, Swainson was indicted by a federal grand jury in Detroit on bribery and other charges. He thought he was targeted by the Nixon administration because he was considered a likely successor to U.S. Sen. Phil Hart, a Democrat.
Joan Marquard said she’s found people were reluctant to talk about Swainson or the history of the house. “I thought maybe it was because he’s not well-known and didn’t have the purest reputation. It’s not a positive.
“It’s hush-hush,” she said.
Although he was acquitted of bribery charges, Swainson was convicted of perjury. He lost his license to practice law for three years and was forced to resign as a state Supreme Court justice. His political career was ruined, he fell into boozing, was arrested for drunken driving and also for having a marijuana cigarette in 1977. He got sober and made a comeback, serving as a Wayne County Circuit Court mediator. But his political career was ruined.
Laura Ashlee knows the significance of the Swainson house. She grew up a few blocks away, on Hartsough Street in Plymouth. Ashlee is a historian in the State Historic Preservation Office, part of the Michigan Department of History in Lansing. She knew Swainson, because before his death in 1994, he was chairman of the Michigan Historical Commission and the Manchester Historical Society.
“What’s intriguing is that you have the place from which he campaigned for governor, but also it was designed for him to meet his particular physical limitations,” Ashlee said. “That house may be eligible for the national register, I don’t know – or maybe for a state marker.”
Joan Marquard believes Swainson’s wife, Alice, designed many of the home’s special features. The hallway connecting living room to bedrooms is extra-wide, as are all the doorways. They could easily accommodate the governor’s wheelchair. There is a barely visible concrete ramp leading to the front door, and a bigger ramp leading down to the garage floor. All the closets and drawers are built into walls. Beside the fireplace, the stereo and its loudspeakers also are built-in.
“I love the reclaimed bricks,” said Joan Marquard.
Years ago, the Marquards got a sense of the grand times that once took place along this shady lane. G. Mennen (Soapy) Williams, the Democrat who governed Michigan in the years before Swainson, came to a retirement party for a reporter who lived next door, Bob Marquard said.
“I went over and met Soapy,” he said. “He remembered this house.”
The Marquards are selling the house so they can move closer to their children and grandchildren on the East Coast.
Ashlee said she worries about what new owners might do to the house.
Bob Marquard installed six skylights in the roof and put white paint on walnut paneling throughout the house.
All of that could be corrected, said Ashlee. But what happens if a new owner decides to enlarge it or tear it down to make way for a new, bigger place?
“You know, I would be very concerned about the future of that house, because if you’ve noticed, in Plymouth, people are tacking second stories on ranches … Plymouth is just becoming a hodgepodge,” said Ashlee.
Karol O’Connor, the Marquards’ real estate agent, said she didn’t dismiss the home’s history.
The history is okay with her, she said, and it might even help sell the house.
Of Swainson, though, O’Connor admitted, “I’ve never heard of him.”
Contact JOEL THURTELL at 248-351-3296 or thurtell@freepress.com.
Caption: File photo by TOM VENALECK/Detroit Free Press
Gov. John and Alice Swainson posed for this 1960 portrait. While in the U.S. Army, Swainson lost both legs to a World War II land mine. His former home has many special amenities designed for him, including ramps, built-ins and a super-wide hallway. The former Michigan governor died in 1994.
PATRICIA BECK/Detroit Free Press
Joan and Bob Marquard in the living room of their Plymouth Township home. The house was built in 1956 for John Swainson, then a state senator and later governor of Michigan and a state Supreme Court justice. The Marquards have put the house up for sale; the asking price is $274,900.
A newer brick paver patio surrounds a brick grill believed to have been used by Swainson. The house is for sale, but the real estate agents weren’t interested in advertising the home’s historical significance, according to current owners Joan and Bob Marquard.
Photos by PATRICIA BECK/Detroit Free Press
The Plymouth Township home, built in 1956 for then state Sen. John Swainson, is virtually unknown even to Plymouth historians.
Illustration: PHOTO PATRICIA BECK DETROIT FREE PRESS; PHOTO TOM VENALECK DETROIT FREE PRESS
Edition: METRO FINAL
Section: CFP; COMMUNITY FREE PRESS
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