Detroit’s ‘second-oldest’ home gets second life

William and Nsombi Aro are not home rehab TV stars . They’re definitely not billionaires looking to burnish their image by rescuing high-profile historic properties . They’re two General Motors retirees with a passion for fixing up humble historic Detroit homes — including a tiny, unassuming cabin near the Lodge and Davison freeways.

William says he bought his first house in Detroit in 1989 to try and save what he could of the city’s historic housing stock .

“It was horrifying to see everything falling apart, to see the destruction on Devil’s Night,” he said. “I wanted to do something about it.”

He married Nsombi in 2000. She came to share his passion and joined him in the work.

“Demolition is so wasteful,” Nsombi said. “Why, when there’s a housing shortage, would you tear something down?”

The couple did well as engineers at General Motors and spent their spare time and money fixing up old homes. William does almost all the rehab work himself, aside from specialized tasks.

He said they eventually renovated 14 properties, most of which they rent out. The two have since left their day jobs and divorced, but they continue to share the business and responsibilities of property management.

They love unpretentious homes that are four and even five generations old, like one they restored in North Corktown that dates back to the 1890s. But their most recent project is older — and different — from everything else they’ve done.

It’s not known exactly when James Smith built his farmhouse. Smith bought the land in 1829, and records show there was a house on the plot by 1850. That could make it Detroit’s second-oldest home and one of just two known log cabins remaining in the city.

Despite its historical significance, the house was in a sorry state by the 2010s. The home’s last residents passed away around 2006, and just six years later it was in foreclosure. By 2016, the home had extensive water damage , peeling paint, dog feces on the floor and graffiti inside and out, according to a story from Detroit Free Press columnist John Carlisle.

Nsombi read the story and immediately became interested.

“It’s incredible that this house, which was so old, was still there,” she said. “I thought it had to be saved.”

The Aros purchased the James Smith House from the Detroit Land Bank Authority in 2019 for $25,000 and got to work restoring it.

Many of Detroit’s older homes are stately and filled with craftsman details. The Smith House, on the other hand, is small and unassuming. But it has several distinctive features that indicate its age.

For starters, it’s set at an odd angle from the sidewalk. Detroit annexed the land where the house sits in 1916 then cleared and replatted the neighborhood. The house and its original orientation remained.

It’s got a misshapen chimney, which William says was constructed out of sticks glued together with mud and weeds. There’s no basement, and the original foundation is just logs and sand. There are also the hallmark logs that the walls are made of, but those were buried under layers of drywall and paneling.

The Aros have tried to showcase as much of the original construction as possible. They removed sections of drywall to reveal some of the original logs. They installed a hinged panel in the bathroom so people can see the foundation. They bricked over the chimney on the outside to waterproof it, but uncovered the fireplace.

They’ve also documented what’s available about the cabin’s history, highlighting interesting details in displays around the house.

The Aros finished the vast majority of the work by the end of 2020 and have steadily made the home more available to the public.

It’s a stop on Log Cabin Day every year in June, along with the Palmer Park log cabin . It also hosts a pop-up sandwich shop five days a week. The Aros have made an upstairs loft available to guests on occasion. Nsombi hopes to eventually pay homage to the home’s farming days by putting a garden in the backyard with educational programming.

The Aros view their work nowadays as community-driven. They live comfortably and have everything they need. They said that they set rents in all their units under market rate so they don’t price nearby residents out of the neighborhood.

“At this stage in my life, I’ve transitioned into a kind of service to my community,” Nsombi said.

This passion project, which hardly earns them any money, is an expression of that ethos.

“I feel so fortunate that (William and I) were able to come together to do something that has a chance to be a blessing to others,” Nsombi said.

Detroit’s ‘second-oldest’ home gets second life · Outlier Media