The William Livingstone House, commonly called Slumpy, was a house constructed in 1894[1] and located in the Brush Park district of Detroit, Michigan.
William Livingstone Jr. (1844–1925), publisher of the Detroit Evening Journal,[2] was the second president of the Dime Savings Bank.[3] He hired a young Albert Kahn, who was working for the architectural firm of Mason & Rice, to design his residence on Eliot Street. When he obtained this commission – presumably with Mason's help – Kahn was only 22 or 23 years old and had just returned from spending 1891 in Europe, studying the classical architecture of the Old World: his decision to design the home in the French Renaissance Revival style reflected the time he spent sketching the best Gallic architecture.[4]
In 1987, the Red Cross intended to demolish the mansion, originally located west of John R. Street, to make way for their new building.[5] Preservationists succeeded in moving the Livingstone House about one block to the east,[6] but the building languished for many years on its final resting place before partially collapsing[7] and being demolished on September 15, 2007. The William Livingstone House was commemorated in a painting by Lowell Boileau entitled Open House, which was unveiled the day of its demolition.[8]
The cover of the 2019 studio album Hiding Places by Billy Woods and Kenny Segal is a photograph of the William Livingstone House.[9]