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George Gough Booth
1864–1949 · newspaper publisher, arts patron
Detroit News publisher who, with his wife Ellen Scripps Booth, founded Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills and championed the Arts and Crafts movement in Detroit.
- Born
Toronto, Ontario, Canada- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 84- Also known as
- George G. Booth
- Detroit years
- 1888–1949
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Booth, a Canadian-born craftsman's son, married Ellen Scripps, daughter of Detroit News founder James E. Scripps, in 1887 and joined the family paper, rising to lead the Evening News Association. With his brothers he also built Booth Newspapers, a chain of Michigan dailies. A devotee of the Arts and Crafts movement, he helped found the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts in 1906, the ancestor of today's College for Creative Studies, and was a major benefactor of the Detroit Institute of Arts. In 1904 he bought farmland in Bloomfield Hills, where Albert Kahn designed Cranbrook House for the family in 1908. From the 1920s George and Ellen turned the estate into the Cranbrook Educational Community: Christ Church, boys' and girls' schools, a science institute and the Academy of Art, designed largely by Eliel Saarinen and adorned by Carl Milles. Cranbrook remains his lasting gift to the region.
Highlights
- Led the Evening News Association, publisher of the Detroit News
- Co-founded Booth Newspapers, a chain of Michigan dailies
- Founding figure of the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts (1906)
- Founded the Cranbrook Educational Community with Ellen Scripps Booth
- Brought Eliel Saarinen and Carl Milles to Michigan
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Lived here · 1908–1949
Cranbrook House and Gardens
The Albert Kahn–designed family manor at the heart of Cranbrook; the house and its gardens are open for tours.
Founded · 1928
Christ Church Cranbrook
The Episcopal church the Booths built and endowed as part of Cranbrook, rich in Arts and Crafts decoration.
Founded · 1906–
College for Creative Studies (successor of the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts)
Art and design college descended from the Arts and Crafts society he helped found in 1906.