Detroit's University District invites public to see its allure on home tour

They’d been looking for a house in Detroit’s University District for years — and, quite frankly, Dale Moss was tired of looking. So when she left home for work one morning she gave her husband, Rudy, one simple order. “Find us a house today!”

And Rudy Moss did not disappoint. He found a 1938 five-bedroom house with all the features that attracted his wife to the northwest Detroit neighborhood named for its proximity to the University of Detroit: a red-brick Tudor with stained glass windows, crown molding, rich wood floors and doors and plenty of space to raise their two daughters, then ages 9 and 13.

Fast forward to two years ago and a few blocks over. Renato Radu, a single guy, was so sure he didn’t want a big house that initially he refused to look in the University District. But he was captivated by the architectural details of a friend’s house. When one went on the market in 2024, he decided he’d take a look for the heck of it.

The majesty of the castle-like Tudor captivated him.

“It was almost spiritual,” he recalls. “I told my agent to write up an offer as I was walking up to the house.”

The Moss house and the Radu house are among six houses that will welcome visitors for the University District’s 11th semiannual home tour. The houses will be open for viewing 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12.

Ticket sales support the activities and projects of the University District Community Association, a 501c3 nonprofit organization.

Of the six families opening their homes, the Moss family has lived in the area the longest and Radu has lived in the neighborhood the shortest.

But both families were drawn to the neighborhood for similar reasons, though decades apart.

After living most of his life in Portland, Oregon, Radu wanted a complete change. He sought three main things: more diversity in skin tones, language and visual styles of the houses; the energy and excitement of a city, and a place easily accessible to good food and drinks.

“I grew up with this perception of Detroit as an awful place to live,” he admits. “When I visited, I was pleasantly surprised.”

Radu, an interior designer, has spent the two years since moving in restoring the house to its original glory. Among other things, he removed shag carpeting and paint that covered beautiful wood floors and stair railing, he added recessed lighting to highlight intricate crown molding in his living room, and made room for a master bath suite and walk-in closet by turning the house from a five-bedroom to a four-bedroom residence.

A fondness for finding treasures at estate sales and vintage and thrift shops add fixtures and furnishings reminiscent of the late 1920s when the house was built, including a grand fireplace from a Grosse Pointe house that was being demolished.

His favorite room is a spacious inviting living room. “Notice there’s no TV in here,” he says. “I want it to be a place where people are present, engaged, entertained. We’ve had some heart-warming conversations in here and, at times we’ve laughed so much you feel like your stomach will fall out.”

Dale Ross says her home is filled with so many family memories it’s difficult to pick a favorite room. She loves her breakfast nook because that’s where she and her husband of 51 years gather for their morning Hazelnut coffee. She also adores her cherry-wood paneled library with built-in bookshelves and cabinets and a special display case of family photos dating back generations. That’s where the retired Detroit public schools and Michigan State University educator and administrator works and finds tranquility.

But her fondest memory is of the family’s first Christmas at the house in 1991. They didn’t even have furniture. She and her husband and two daughters slept on mattresses in front of the fireplace on the floor of the living room.

“The kids said they didn’t mind not having a tree; the house was their Christmas present,” she recalls.

In fact, their oldest daughter, Erin Moss Ferguson, liked it so much, she bought a house in the neighborhood in 2018 and is raising her two children, 9 and 13, in the same neighborhood where she grew up. Ferguson, an attorney, also serves as president of the University District Community Association.

“I’ve always loved the architecture of the homes, and enjoyed coming back to visit,” she says. The architectural style of the approximately 1,400 houses in the University District, most of which were built between 1925 and 1941, includes Tudors, Colonials, Mediterranean and French Provincial. “It’s the perfect place to live because my children are in walking distance of their grandparents.”

Home tour details

The tour runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12. $30 in advance; $35 day of tour; $5 children; under 3, free. Starting Point: All Saints Episcopal Church, 3837 W. Seven Mile, Road, Detroit.

Get tickets at UDCA.info/hometour

Fun Fact: Famous people who’ve lived in the area: David Ruffin, (a section of Parkside is named for him); Gilda Radner and Jerome Cavanaugh.

Retired Detroit Free Press reporter and freelance writer Cassandra Spratling has lived in the University District for 38 years. She can be reached at spratling.cassandra@gmail.com