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Mona Ross has a strong sentimental attachment to the Brush Park area, and it shows in the 135-year-old mansion that she's rehabbed into the 234 Winder Street Inn, a fetching bed and breakfast just across the Fisher Freeway from Ford Field.
The 9,000-square-foot, three-story mansion built by merchant Emanuel Schloss in 1872 was vacant but not abandoned when Ross found it for sale in the early 1990s.
The French architectural style includes a mansard roof with dormer windows and projecting bays on the front with decorative stone hoods and keystones. It was listed on the State Registry of Historic Sites in 1988.
Ross said she envisioned a bed and breakfast for her refurbished property from the start, even though there was little else redeveloped yet in the area.
Groundbreaking for Woodward Place at Brush Park condominiums occurred shortly after she bought the property. Planning for several other Brush Park developments was in the works, but few were under way.
"Comerica Park or Ford Field weren't there when I bought the house, and at first I didn't like (the stadiums) because I like quiet. But it's really turned out to be an added plus for business," she said.
The old mansion was in disrepair, Ross said, but many of the finer features were intact, including mostly original chandeliers and five functioning marble fireplaces, most with Pewabic tile decorations. Assisted by her family, Ross worked for nearly a...