Cranbrook House with Stair

James Scripps Booth was the oldest child of George Gough Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth. Born in Detroit and raised in their home on Trumbull Avenue, James was already twenty years old in 1908 when his parents moved into Cranbrook House. Throughout his life, James Booth divided his time between his twin passions for art and engineering. As a designer and engineer for the Scripps-Booth automobile company, James Booth spearheaded work on innovative vehicles from 1913 to 1923, when he left the company to pursue an independent career as a mechanical engineer and professional artist. From June to September of 1917, James Booth produced a series of sixteen pastel drawings of the grounds and gardens of his parents’ home, Cranbrook House, for his father, George Booth.

One of the largest pastels in the series, this work shows the north face of Cranbrook House, viewed from the terraced garden at its back. This drawing shows the porch that extended out onto the lawn from the house, prior to its enclosure and transformation into a sun room, part of the sequence of extensions and alterations to the house carried out from 1918-1920. The tall cypresses planted close to the house are no longer present, but in other respects the north terrace today is remarkable similar to its appearance in James Booth's 1917 drawing.

Mariam Hale
2023-2025 Collections Fellow
Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research
August 2024