WHO WAS MANOOGIAN ANYWAY?

Detroit Free Press
ID=/20080917/NEWS01/80917047/1001
Sept 17 2008
MI

The Manoogian Mansion is named for Alex Manoogian, who donated his
house to the city in 1965.

According to "The Detroit Almanac," the Detroit mayor’s official
residence at 9240 Dwight on the east side was built in 1928 for
$300,000, but the owner lost the home during the Depression.

It stood vacant until auctioned off in 1939 to entrepreneur Alex
Manoogian for $25,000. By 1965 with his family grown, Manoogian gave
the mansion to the City of Detroit. It was the Armenian immigrant’s
way of thanking his adopted hometown.

Born in 1901 the son of a grain merchant from Smyrna, Turkey, Manoogian
came to to the United States in 1920 with two suitcases and $50. In
1924 Manoogian arrived in Detroit to get a job as a machinist in
a screw factory. In late 1928, Manoogian and two partners took the
first initials of their last names and $5,000 and set up Masco Screw
Products in a loft near Greektown.

In 1952, a California man asked Masco Corp. to make some parts for a
novel, single-handled faucet. The parts were sent, but months later,
the engineer told Manoogian the faucet did not work. Manoogian acquired
rights to the design and spent 1 1/2 years perfecting it. The finished
product led to the start of Masco’s boom. The company has sold hundreds
of millions of the devices.

Manoogian became a well-known philanthropist and was an important
figure in the Armenian community. He died in 1996.

The Manoogian Mansion is said to have 4,004 square feet but looks
bigger. The style has been described as both Italian and Spanish. It
has a terra cotta tile roof.

The physical layout is dominated by walls of windows — bowed windows,
arched windows, leaded windows — that let light stream in and open
onto a spectacular view of the grounds and the Detroit River.

The downstairs has three sunrooms facing south and the river. There
are 15 rooms in all, including a large living room, library, kitchen
and two dining rooms — a formal room and a more casual one that
looks toward the river. It has four bedrooms, plus two small bedrooms
for servants.

There are three full baths, a servants’ bath and two half-baths.