Metcalf, Robert C. and Bettie J. (Sponseller), House

About this property

The Robert C. and Bettie J. (Sponseller) Metcalf House is a single-family home located at 1052 Arlington Boulevard in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The International Style house, designed, constructed, and occupied for decades by Robert and Bettie Metcalf, is the first example of Robert Metcalf's designs in the broader mid-century modern style. The Metcalf House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016, and is currently a private residence. Robert Clarence Metcalf was born in Nashville, Ohio in 1923. His family moved to Canton, Ohio and then the nearby North Industry, where Metcalf graduated from high school. Determined to be an architect, he went on to the University of Michigan, starting classes in 1941. World War II interrupted, however, and Metcalf enlisted in the United States Army in 1943. He was promoted to Staff Sergeant and eventually commissioned in 1945, receiving a Silver Star the same year. After returning home in 1946, Metcalf resumed his studies and began working for his mentor, George B. Brigham. Bettie Jane Sponseller was born in Canton, Ohio in 1921. Sponseller met Metcalf in high school, and later studied at the Aultman Hospital School of Nursing, graduating in 1942. Sponseller and Metcalf married in May 1943. Following the conclusion of Robert's studies in 1950, the couple decided to stay in Ann Arbor, and Robert set out to open his own architecture practice. To establish his architecture practice, Robert Metcalf decided to design and build his own house. His outlook for the architecture practice was positive, as his mentor's designs were popular with university faculty. Postwar population growth in Ann Arbor had resulted in a shortage of housing, and financing for experimental projects was readily available from a local savings and loan association, which in Metcalf's words was "willing to loan money on what many people considered chicken coops." Metcalf's practice, based in the house's garage, won its first commission while their residence was still under construction, and was soon busy enough that he hired assistants. Bettie left her nursing career to manage the firm, which in 1967 moved from a rented office to a building designed by Metcalf on Medford Road. Robert Metcalf joined the University of Michigan's department of architecture in 1955, became chair of the department in 1968, and dean of the new College of Architecture and Urban Planning in 1974. The firm's work totaled over 150 projects in Michigan and Ohio, including 68 houses in Ann Arbor, from its first commission in 1953 to its closure in 2008. Bettie J. Metcalf died in February 2008, and Robert died in January 2017.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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