OUR HISTORY

Frederick and Sophia Schroeder emigrated from Meklenburg, Germany in the early 1850’s at the ages of 31 and 20 respectively, buying 80 acres of land on Two-Cow Path (Little Mack Avenue) between Labadie Road (10 Mile Road) and Town Hall Road (11 Mile Road) in Erin Township, Michigan (today the City of St. Clair Shores). Of these 80 acres, 15 acres were pastures and orchards with 100 apple trees and 10 peach trees. Another 60 acres were tilled farmland containing Indian corn, oats, wheat, Irish potatoes, and a vineyard. The farm also had several horses, cows, sheep, swine, and chickens, generating approximately $1,000 in income for the Schroeders in 1880 (or almost $41,000 today).

The family raised twelve children in the original log cabin they built in the mid 1850’s. In the 1870’s, the cabin was replaced with one of the first Victorian style houses in the area. Frederick built the home to last, using over 300,000 bricks in its construction. In 1880, the farm, land, fences, and buildings were valued at $6,000. The house was built with 18-inch solid brick exterior walls and 24-inch-thick basement walls, all of which remain in excellent condition today.

When Fredrick passed away on April 16, 1895, his wife Sophia inherited the house and farmland where she and her family lived until the 1920’s. Sophia then moved with her family to a smaller house and rented the property to Renny Tesoriere who established the first commercial entity in the house’s history. “Renny’s Lodge” was a place where patrons could dine on roadhouse meals for 50 cents and dance to the Big Band sound.

During the prohibition era, the house was turned into a gambling house, blind pig, and bordello with secret passwords required for entry. Once inside, patrons enjoyed music and table dancers and could purchase bottled beer for 5 cents. The second and third floors were reserved for the “professional ladies of the night”. And each day, someone would stand watch on the third floor for the police and would warn the patrons below of their approach. Once warned, the patrons would then scramble out hidden passages to the woods behind the house to avoid being caught.

After the prohibition in 1937, business was going so well that Renny added a large ballroom to the south side of the house. Five years later in 1942, the Schroeders outright sold the house and land to Mr. Tesoriere.

In 1953, Eugene Clinton White, a co-founder of Gardner-White Furniture (or “E. C.” as he was known), purchased the house for his daughter Ruth and her husband Danny DiSanti as a wedding present. It eventually became E. C. White’s Furniture Store and remained so until the early 1980’s. The DiSantises sold the house to Ray Domke and Larry Berdasono in 1986, and the two of them opened a new business known as the Victoria Place House of Shoppes. The Victoria Place remained until 2000 when a restoration project began.

The building reopened as Ardmore Park Place in 2008 with an intimate café. A few years later, on October 27, 2012, the City of St. Clair Shores declared the house an official historical landmark, awarding it with a brass plaque that remains affixed to the front of the building.

In 2023, the property was sold to Wesley Jablonski and Dwaine Byrd, only the fifth owners in the house’s 150-year-plus history. The café, which by this time had grown into an elegant restaurant, was rebranded as simply “The Ardmore”, and Emily Johnson joined The Ardmore family as its Executive Chef.

Today, the house stands proud as one of St. Clair Shores' most prestigious historical landmarks.