1854 Wyandotte Village | Ford City | Glenwood & Mt. Carmel | South Wyandotte
50. Louis Carl Melhose House, Oak 355, Greek Revival/Queen Anne, Built 1890s
Architecturally significant as a Greek Revival house, updated with Late Victorian elements in the 1890s. Historically significance because of association with a family of Wyandotte businessmen.
John F.W. Thon built this home for Louis Carl Mehlhose, an iron puddler with the Eureka Iron Company. The Mehlhose family occupied the home until 1915. Later it was used as a rental property. The most notable tenant was Dr. Fred Frostic, Wyandotte Superintendent of Schools. Frostic’s daughter Gwen was a well known 20th century Michigan conservationist, educator, and artist who grew up here.
Architecturally, the Louis Carl Mehlhose house is an end-gable, two-story, late Greek Revival house. An entrance portico and side portico provide shelter over entrances. Bracketed window hoods are over the front portico and on the front façade.
Victorian scrollwork vergeboard is on the gable of the front portico and the supports of the side portico. Other Victorian features include large turned balusters, spindle decoration under the portico roof, spindle and scroll decorate at its pinnacle. Fish-scale shingles are under the main gable and porch gable, and on the front window hood.
In the 1990s owners rehabilitated the exterior. Work on the interior included stripping paint from the woodwork and radiators, repairing ceilings in several rooms, and refinishing the floors.
Wyandotte Historical Society plaque accepted November 5, 1992
Listed on the State Register of Historic Sites March 17, 1994, marker on May 8, 1997.