The historic stone Loeb School house in Charlevoix has functioned as a schoolhouse, a woodworking studio and an artist studio, but its next life depends on who steps forward to buy it.
The schoolhouse, built in 1917, was a gift to the rural children of Charlevoix from Albert Loeb, a Sears, Roebuck executive from Chicago who spent summers in the area with his family. The Loeb family also built an estate known as Castle Farms down the road in 1918.
“It could be a great office. It could be an art gallery. It could be a bakery. It can serve a number of different purposes,” said Christopher Edwards, associate broker with Hall Hunter in Birmingham. “What makes it noteworthy is that when it was built, it was considered to be the largest and most modernized country school in the nation. It had four classrooms and four bathrooms — indoor, I might add. It is very much original with the original bell tower, basement auditorium and hardwood flooring.”
Edwards listed the house for its owner in January for $298,000, but a recent price reduction has the price now at $268,000 for the schoolhouse, carriage house, which is used as an owner’s apartment, and a 1-acre parcel with 1,100 square feet of finished workshop space.
The parcel is zoned agricultural, while the schoolhouse and carriage house parcel are zoned commercial, he said. The school is about 5,000 square feet on two levels, and the carriage house has 2,500 square feet.
The owner is open to selling the three areas separately, he said, but that might require zoning changes. The property is about 270 miles northwest of Detroit.
“It’s now zoned commercial, which makes it a really interesting opportunity, especially for those from out of town, wishing to open up a business up here. The new buyer could buy the schoolhouse separately, but it would be subject to county approval to subdivide the parcel,” Edwards said. “We are still waiting for the perfect buyer for this parcel.”
The owner, Cathie Terrill, has owned the schoolhouse for more than 20 years. She built the carriage house in 1988 and operated her company, CT Designs, from the school. She said she’s been trying to sell it for the past 10 years after two major changes in her life. One was the adoption of her daughter in 1999. Then her retail sales declined after 9/11.
CT Designs produced home accessories and specialty items for the gift market from the schoolhouse. She did some work with an acrylic-like material to make vases, cases and other items, and also supplied fabric arts such as Christmas tree skirts to retailers such as Jacobson’s, which ended up going out of business, and Bergdorf Goodman.
“Sometimes our lives are just supposed to change,” she said.
Terrill, who now lives in Traverse City, said that she was moved to buy the schoolhouse because she loved stone structures.
“It’s a fabulous-looking building. It worked real well for my studio. It had everything I needed. It was a great building. The old stones are amazing. The Loeb family brought German artisans over to do the stone work,” she said.
Loeb’s son, Richard, and his friend Nathan Leopold, became famous in 1924 after being sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping and murdering a Chicago millionaire’s son. The crime was featured in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 film “Rope.”
Albert Loeb also used stone to build Castle Farms in Charlevoix around the same time. The castle was used to demonstrate Sears products such as farm equipment. The farm also featured livestock and was closed in 1927. The building was restored in 2005 by its current owner and is a popular site for weddings and other events.
Terrill said the schoolhouse building was used as a school until 1950 and then turned to other uses. It has a large main room with the original hardwood floors and some smaller rooms on the first floor. The basement is deep.
While the schoolhouse could be converted to a single-family residence with zoning changes, Terrill said the property would work best for someone who wants to operate a business at the site. She said it could work for an organic farmer, a summer compound for a large family or even a dance studio.
Contact Greta Guest: 313-223-4192 or gguest@freepress.com