About Us

In the summer of 1908, George Gough Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth - perhaps among the greatest yet least known of metro-Detroit’s philanthropists in the first half of the 20th Century - took up residence in their newly constructed Cranbrook House, and became the first family of means to live year-round in Bloomfield Hills.

Their English-Tudor estate, a true Arts & Crafts style masterpiece designed by renowned Detroit architect, Albert Kahn, served as the active home for their family of seven for 40 years. At their manor, the Booths raised their children - homeschooling their two youngest - and conducted business on their 174-acre farm. From its onset, Cranbrook House also quickly became the hub from which the Booths created what would eventually become the Cranbrook Educational Community.

We invite you to learn more about Cranbrook and its founders through pages below and by scheduling a guided tour of Cranbrook House, offered today by Cranbrook House & Gardens Auxiliary, a non-profit volunteer group.  

History of Cranbrook House & Gardens

in 1904, Detroit newspaper publisher and philanthropist George Gough Booth and his wife, Ellen Scripps Booth purchased a 174-acre run down farm in Bloomfield Hills, and named it Cranbrook after the English town that the Booth family hailed from.

Cranbrook House & Gardens Auxiliary

In 1966, as trustees deliberated demolishing the house, former Foundation executive director Henry Scripps Booth moved his office into Cranbrook House; the first step in what would ultimately result in the formation of the Auxiliary. 

Cranbrook Educational Community

Cranbrook is one of the world's leading centers of education, science and art - comprising a graduate Academy of Art, contemporary Art Museum, historic House & Gardens, natural history museum and independent college preparatory schools.