1. 22501 Beach St., St. Clair Shores, MI
Price: $499,000
Why it’s here: It’s a one-of-a-kind home with a place in rock history: the former home of Patti and Fred Smith. It also happens to be a fully remodeled beauty perched on a lovely canal-front location.
It was built in 1918, and the current owners have updated and improved the home without sacrificing one iota of its historic charm. It still has the original marble and granite floors throughout the main level, an original bookcase secret passage to a hidden wine cellar, and a rooftop terrace. The boathouse has been turned into a speakeasy entertainment space.
Fred “Sonic” Smith, a guitarist with the MC5, and Patti, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, bought the home in 1980 and raised their two kids there. Patti sold it just after Fred’s death in 1994.
Their son, Jackson Smith, is the listing agent. As he told the Detroit News, “I feel really lucky that I had a chance—the owners were so nice—I had a chance to see them really turn it into something spectacular, because what they put into the home is far nicer physically than it ever was when I lived there.”
He added, “When I walk in there, it still looks like the same house I grew up in, but everything has been lovingly cared for. The house has the same life to it that I remember as a kid.”
