Alger is a name very familiar to Grosse Pointe residents and local history buffs. The 1910 Russell A. Alger Jr. house, originally known as “The Moorings,” is better known today as the waterfront Grosse Pointe War Memorial on Lake Shore Drive.
Fred M. Alger III, founder of New York-based Fred Alger Management, grew up on an adjacent property when it was part of a larger family estate. Years later, the house was demolished and parts of the land were sold and parceled off into different homes, most built in the late 1960s.
One of them is the 4,200-square-foot waterfront house Fred and his wife, Veronica, purchased in 2022. “The area is very nostalgic to my husband,” Veronica Alger explains of the residence’s appeal. The house, however, needed renovating, which the couple undertook with local designer Paige Loperfido of Grosse Pointe-based Decor and More Design Studio.
“While we purchased the home because the street and its location have meaning for us, we wanted to make it our own,” Alger says. “We loved the setting on the water at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac but felt the house needed a refresh.” She discovered Loperfido and her work at the 2022 Junior League of Detroit Designers’ Show House. “The bedroom she designed was the star of that home,” she raves. “I knew I wanted to work with her based on her designs and personality.”
Loperfido says the couple’s original plan was to use the house for guests. “At the time, they had another house on Lake Shore,” the designer explains. To say the house needed a refresh is an understatement, she says. “Every single inch was beige.”
Adding color was always part of the plan. “I absolutely loved the green botanical room she did in the show house and told her I wanted my home to have a similar aesthetic,” Alger says. “My favorite color is blue, and I love birds, and she incorporated both of those elements with style.”
Most of the floor plan was unchanged, although the designer rearranged spaces to allow for a roomier first-floor primary bath and gutted and redesigned the area that now houses a bar. She divided the living room, which looks out over Lake St. Clair, into two zones, adding handsome new molding and French doors and drawing design inspiration from the waves and colors seen outside. A central table unites the two areas. “I love symmetry in a space,” Loperfido says.
Inspired by Veronica Alger’s native South Africa, the designer added juju hats in the powder room, kudu horns on the coffee tables, and bronze spur fowl sculptures by a South African artist in the living room.
In the dining room, she added murallike wallpaper, a chandelier inspired by waves, and a light-blue ceiling, another nod to the nearby water. Vintage family photos on the sideboard evoke the property’s past. “I wanted something a little dramatic while ensuring that the view stays the most important part,” the designer says of her priorities.
The kitchen and primary bath provided the largest challenges, Loperfido says. The once “basic” kitchen is now elegant, with extra-deep cabinets, a relocated sink, a new custom leaded-glass window, and a 60-inch restaurant-grade range. “Veronica said, ‘Make it your dream kitchen,’ so I did,” she explains. The first-floor primary suite, which like all the bedrooms has lake views, boasts a new coved ceiling, bird-related art, and a redesigned bathroom with a steam shower, heated floors, and a new windowed tub.
Over the stairway, a vintage Murano glass chandelier found on 1stDibs leads to a second-floor hallway featuring sepia-toned family photos and two guest rooms.
Once it was done, plans for the home changed, the designer says. Though it was originally planned as a guest house, the Algers liked the results so much that they decided to move in. They also hired the designer to work on their property in the Hamptons. “It’s the ultimate compliment,” Loperfido says.
This story originally appeared in the November 2024 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 Nov. 6.
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