FOXLEY - THE AMBERY-ISAACS HOUSE

811 DEVONSHIRE ROAD AT CATARAQUI STREET

ARCHITECT - Albert Kahn, Detroit,

Built: 1906-07

Clayton J. Ambery was private secretary to William Robins of Hiram Walker & Sons when his house was built. He died at an early age, and the property was acquired by a former office boy, William Isaacs, in 1915. By that time, Isaacs had become Assistant Treasurer of the firm and, shortly thereafter, a director.

National attention focused on Walkerville in 1910 when Foxley was featured in The American Architect & Building News. The design, while Tudoresque in particular, is generally in the Arts & Crafts mode which drew much of its inspiration from a variety of early picturesque styles, adapting them to modern construction methods. The half-timbered upper storey and gable, and the entrance portico blend Medieval and early 20 th Century in a harmonious manner.

The name of the house - Foxley - was carved over the entrance as much to give an antique air to the house as to provide the postman with a means of determining the mail’s destination at a time before street numbers. Few houses in Walkerville can match the architectural merits of Foxley in detail, proportion, site and workmanship.

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