Tucked at the end of a private drive in Detroit’s Palmer Woods neighborhood, a house stands as a testament to resilience. Nearly lost to time, the 1927 Tudor revival known as the Rose Estate now holds court revived and blooming with the stories of artist and feminist Patricia Hill Burnett and music legend Aretha Franklin, the trailblazing women who once called it home.
Upon entry, light pours through windows at both ends of the home’s great hall.
“The light is nothing short of extraordinary in the house when you go down the stairway as it was originally intended by the architect,” says homeowner Trevor Thomas, who purchased the home for $500,000 in 2023 with his partner, Brandon Lynum. “But particularly in the morning, with where the home sits, it’s just breathtaking. We see why it’s been admired, and it’s something not lost on us for any second.”
Portraits of Burnett — whose father-in-law, Difco Laboratories co-founder Harry Burnett Sr., built the home in 1927 — and Franklin, who bought it from Burnett in 1993, hang in that stairway and watch over the hall, and memorabilia from both women are mixed in with the décor. Paperwork on the home left by both the Burnett family and Franklin is tucked away in the home’s library.
Thomas’s and Lynum’s determination to restore the 5,700-square-foot property rather than renovate it has launched them on a journey beyond ordinary repair. They have become archivists, historians, and even society hosts, activating the space for nonprofits and fundraisers.
As the work to restore the home to its original splendor continues, the pair have also become unlikely stewards, pushing forward to a new generation the legacy of the two iconic previous owners, women whose lives were intertwined with art, activism, and an unyielding fight for justice.
It’s this continued fight for justice that connects Thomas, who leads diversity and inclusion at Domino’s Pizza, to the very history he’s preserving. His early-career legislative work in civil and equal rights supported the 2009 Hate Crimes Prevention Act signed into law by President Barack Obama and the 2010 repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
And it’s this work, which Thomas says is about ensuring everyone has dignity, that most moved New York-based sculptor Hillary Hill Burnett, daughter of Patricia, about the purchase and restoration. “My heart filled with joy when I thought, ‘This is the man who’s bought this house,’” she says. “It’s just so moving to have the door answered by him and to feel his brightness when you walk in.”
Growing up in the home, Hillary recalls her socialite mother painting portraits in the kitchen, firing glass in the kiln installed in the basement, and hosting. There were many lavish society parties and ladies’ luncheons she chaired.
These were no ordinary lunch meetings.
Burnett — a staunch Republican who co-founded (with Betty Friedan) Michigan’s chapter of the National Organization for Women and was appointed chair of the National Association of Commissions for Women by President Jimmy Carter — used the home to organize for women’s rights. And the portraits she painted, some in her home and some at
the Scarab Club, where she was the first woman to have a studio, featured the likes of Rosa Parks, Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, and the then-newly appointed Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Burnett chose to stay in Detroit through the early ’90s and even lived alone in the home for a time but listed the home for sale in 1993 when she remarried and the pair decided to have a fresh start together elsewhere. Hillary remembers the sale being swift and that her mother — who died at the age of 94 in 2014 — was thrilled it was to Franklin, a comrade in arms in the fight for civil rights.
Outside of the transaction, which was commemorated with a photograph at the piano in the home, Burnett and Franklin were socially aware of each other and were best described as mutual admirers. Photojournalist Linda Solomon, who chronicled Franklin for The Detroit News and authored 2019’s The Queen Next Door: Aretha Franklin, an Intimate Portrait, was friends with both women and describes their similarities as what connects them now.
“Both Patricia Hill Burnett and Aretha Franklin were strong advocates for women. Not only was Aretha a civil rights advocate, but she was a woman’s advocate,” Solomon says. “And Patricia Hill Burnett was not only one of the most accomplished portrait painters, but it’s what she did for other women. And she was so much fun!”
Just as both women were known for their many firsts and for the glass ceilings they shattered throughout their careers, they were also known for their joie de vivre and their love of celebrating in the home. “Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t give myself parties,” Solomon says. “But both Patricia and Aretha every year would host a birthday party, and those birthday parties were so incredible.”
Hillary, in thinking about the parties her mother would host, remembers the home as an “absolute gathering place socially for everybody in Detroit.” Most notably, she recalls how there was a diverse mix of attendees from all backgrounds and how you could meet anybody.
Solomon reminisces on a Burnett who remained lively even later in life and lived by the motto “Have a party a day to keep death away.”
Franklin picked up the mantle and held, as Solomon recalls, yearly holiday, summer, and birthday parties. While Franklin kept hosting and preserved many of the home’s original details, she transformed the primary bedroom into a dressing suite, complete with a tub installed across from the fireplace and discreetly looking out over the sixth hole of the adjacent golf course.
Perhaps drawing inspiration from the roses in the home’s original plastered vestibule or the rosettes in the molding, Franklin christened the home the “Rose Estate” and worked with interior designer Barbara Kopitz on bringing more rose flourishes to the home, like a custom rose-red Kohler soaking tub, rose wallpaper, Sherle Wagner rose door pulls, and white carpet in the great hall that featured one single red rose at its center. Years later, in 1998, Franklin would release the Grammy-nominated and certified gold album A Rose Is Still a Rose.
Possibly due to Franklin’s schedule or declining health, she spent little time in the home toward her latter years of ownership. As the home sat empty and changed ownership, it began to decline. Stray golf balls would occasionally launch through the windows and create openings for the elements to creep in. A few bitter Michigan winters would freeze the pipes, causing them to burst and flood the property. Urban explorers would barge into the home to create content while leaving the home open to vandalism.
It was at the height of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic that the home’s current owners, Thomas and Lynum, would drive leisurely around Detroit, drinking in the architecture of the city. On one such excursion, Lynum drove through Palmer Park, turning past the Detroit Golf Club and cruising alongside the stately mansions of Hamilton Road.
Thomas was immediately taken with the house at the end of the street. He had already restored the Tudor-style home where he resided in Detroit’s Sherwood Forest neighborhood, so he was intrigued and pulled the home up on Zillow to see the interior.
“The numbers didn’t make sense for us, so we patiently waited a number of years,” says Thomas, who eventually closed on the home in 2023 and unveiled it to the public at a June 2024 dinner party on the home’s back patio.
Since then, Thomas and Lynum have opened their home for private concerts, nonprofit fundraisers, and even the women’s meetings Burnett was known for.
“We hosted an event for the International Women’s Forum, and it was fascinating because in this unique moment, everyone had known Patricia, who was an early founder of that group, and everyone had known Ms. Franklin, and it was terrific to have them here because individuals are referring to it as the ‘Burnett home’ and individuals referring to it as the ‘Franklin home.’ And for us, we’ve just been committed to keeping it as close to how we found it as possible.”
Solomon, who also attended the meeting, recalls the poignancy and emotion of the moment, especially since she, much like the other attendees, thought she would never set foot in the home again.
“The respect that they have given to these two women is so remarkable and so special,” she says. “And it’s important because they are preserving their history and legacy forever.”
This story originally appeared in the March 2025 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Our digital edition will be available on March. 10.
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