Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: A $500 House in Detroit
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: c. 1987
WEBSITE: http://drewphilp.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/2017/04/08/drew-philp-500-house-book-detroit/100157796/ * http://www.lenconnect.com/news/20170531/adrian-native-finds-inspiration-in-saving-detroit-structure
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2016055550
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2016055550
HEADING: Philp, Drew
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670 __ |a A $500 house in Detroit, 2017: |b ECIP t.p. (Drew Philp)
PERSONAL
Born circa 1987.
EDUCATION:University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, bachelor’s degree; New England Literature Program, graduate.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Essayist, renovator, lecturer, teacher. University of Michigan, teacher.
AWARDS:University of California, Berkeley, 11th Hour Food and Justice fellow, 2016; Stuart D. and Vernice M. Gross Award for Literature, 2017, for A $500 House in Detroit; Kresge Artist Fellow, 2017.
WRITINGS
Contributor of articles to media outlets, including BuzzFeed, Guardian, Detroit Free Press, De Correspondent, Metrotimes, Corp! Magazine, Bakersfield Californian, and Michigan Daily.
SIDELIGHTS
A teacher and essayist, Drew Philp bought a house in Detroit in 2009 for $500 and wrote about renovating it in A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City, which received the 2017 Stuart D. and Vernice M. Gross Award for Literature. Philp has taught classes about racism at the University of Michigan, written essays and profiles for books and anthologies in the United States and Europe and feature-length dramas for the film industry, and produced advertising copy for national and regional campaigns. A graduate of the University of Michigan and the New England Literature Program, he is a 2016 11th Hour Food and Justice fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and a 2017 Kresge Artist Fellow.
From a working-class white Michigan family, Philp was an idealistic recent college graduate who, at age twenty-three, bought a rundown, yet spacious 1903 Queen Anne house on the east side of Detroit in Poletown for $500. The house had a shaky foundation, barely functional roof, and no windows, heat, water, or electricity. Over several years and scrounging materials and money from friends and family, he rebuilt the house room by room. “The grueling process not only reveals his growing maturity, but also becomes a window on the look and feel of present-day Detroit and the neighborly people struggling to achieve satisfying lives there,” noted a Kirkus Reviews contributor.
In an interview with Celeste Headlee online at NPR, Philp explained that after graduating from the University of Michigan, he wanted to stay in his community: “After school, it seemed like all of my friends and contemporaneous people I had worked with were leaving the state. And I didn’t want that to be me. . . . I got this special chance to have this wonderful education, and I wanted to use it here to help my family and my people, in my own state.”
Writing not just about the renovation of his house in A $500 House in Detroit, Philp also turns his attention in the book to the resiliency of people living in Detroit and the work necessary to revitalize such cities. In his small contribution to reviving the city, Philp talks about the city’s bankruptcy, politics, racial tension, drugs and crime, and class warfare and also about the city’s vibrant history, the people’s resiliency and personal connection to their city.
In her review for Booklist, Kathleen McBroom commented: “Philp is a great storyteller, and he has done a good job of documenting his struggles.” Writing in Publishers Weekly, a commentator remarked that Philp “ably captures the frontier feel of Detroit” and found his “homebuilding narrative . . . engrossing.” Laurie Hertzel, contributor to the StarTribune (Minneapolis), called the book an “inspiring” and “passionate read.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 15, 2017, Kathleen McBroom, review of A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City, p. 4.
Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2017, review of A $500 House in Detroit.
Publishers Weekly, January 30, 2017, review of A $500 House in Detroit, p. 189.
ONLINE
NPR, January 21, 2014, http://www.npr.org/, Celeste Headlee, author interview.
StarTribune (Minneapolis), http://www.startribune.com (April 21,2017), Laurie Hertzel, review of A $500 House in Detroit.
Drew Philp, Detroit Author
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A $500 House: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City out from Scribner April 11, 2017!
Drew Philp’s work has been published both nationally and internationally and has appeared in publications including BuzzFeed, The Guardian, The Detroit Free Press, De Correspondent, The Metrotimes, and The Michigan Daily. In 2017 Scribner published his first book of nonfiction, A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an Abandoned House and an American City for which he won the 2017 Stuard D. and Vernice M. Gross Award for Literature. His essays and profiles have appeared in books and collections in the United States and Europe; he is a 2016 11th Hour Food and Justice fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, under the direction of Michael Pollan; and a 2017 Kresge Artist Fellow. He is also a writer in the film industry, having written two feature length dramas on contract, and his advertising copy has been used for national and regional campaigns, including overseeing 40,000 plus word website messaging.
In addition to writing, Drew built his house in Detroit with his own hands; hitchhiked across the United States; taught writing, literature and theater extensively in prisons and juvenile institutions across Michigan; taught a class about racism at the University of Michigan; and is a graduate of the New England Literature Program. Drew graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and is 31 years old. He lives in Detroit with his dog, Gratiot.
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How rehabbing a $500 house launched Detroiter's writing career
Ellen Piligian, Special to the Detroit Free Press Published 11:00 p.m. ET April 8, 2017
636271566330701012-Drew-Philp-author-photo-credit-Garrett-MacLean.jpg
(Photo: Garrett MacLean)
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Drew Philp always wanted to write. But growing in the rural blue-collar town of Adrian, the son of a machinist father and English teacher mother, he says it never even crossed his mind that he could actually do it for a living.
“I didn’t know any professional writers,” says Philp, 30. “It’s not like it wasn’t on the menu. I wasn’t even in the same restaurant.”
Today Philp is preparing for the debut of his first book, “A $500 House: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City,” with a release party Friday at Trinosophes in Detroit.
Read more:
Reclaiming home: Saving father's house brings new hope
Detroit's potential is a focus of 'This Old House'
The book expands on an essay he wrote for Buzzfeed.com in 2014, which detailed his experience of moving to Detroit and buying an abandoned house in Poletown for $500 at auction.
Like the essay, the book delves into the city’s complex history and current issues, his assimilation into a mostly black neighborhood, and how he built his home by hand after removing about 10,000 pounds of trash, including a chopped-up minivan, with just a pitchfork and snow shovel.
Philp learned about journalism in college at the University of Michigan’s student paper, the Michigan Daily. “They literally taught me how to write,” he says. “I had no idea what I was doing.”
"A $500 House in Detroit," by Drew Philp.
"A $500 House in Detroit," by Drew Philp. (Photo: Scribner)
As a student he was also concerned about the state of the world and specifically Michigan, including race relations. So as he saw many of his peers leaving the state, he decided to stay. “I thought Michigan needed people with an education more than anything.”
In fact, he moved to Detroit before graduating. He commuted while working as the lone white guy at an all-black construction company and living in an apartment with no kitchen sink. It was late 2007 or early 2008. As he recalls: “There were still trees growing out of the Book Cadillac.”
Now, sharing his mostly complete Queen Anne-style home with his rescue mutt, Gratiot, Philp is making a living as a writer.
QUESTION: Buzzfeed kind of made you famous.
ANSWER: That essay did make my name. It went incredibly viral. There’s almost two million views. … The average time spent on the article was about the length of a television show. So I was really happy to capture people for a length of a sitcom.
Q: How did friends and family say about your move to Detroit?
A: People thought I was nuts. (They) thought I was throwing my life away. … At the time, the only narrative was that … Detroit is this awful hellhole, and what I found was that was not true. … The people who had stayed here were some of the most wonderful people I’d ever met in the world.
Q: What was it like when you moved to your neighborhood?
A: I wasn't sure how I’d be accepted as a white person in a neighborhood that was largely black. I found that people don’t want revenge. They want equality. They saw me working on the house every day, doing it myself and not hiring contractors or getting any grants. … I think I earned respect, and I love my neighbors.
Q: What have you learned from living there?
A: People have a different relationship with their neighbors here. Other places I’ve lived people don’t say hello to each other in the elevator. People stop by to see how I’m doing. We do barbecues. I’ll fix stuff for them. … There’s kind of radical neighborliness that exists in Detroit that I think is rare.
I know all my neighbors for blocks around, and everybody knows me. We help each other out.
Q: Do you have a favorite part of the house or story behind the restoration?
A: There’s a beam we put up that was taken out of an abandoned factory, a pile of rubble just a couple blocks north of my house that honestly looked like the bombing of Dresden. … A couple of friends and I went there, cut out a part of the beam and put it up in my house. Now it holds my whole house up. It also represents a kind of piece of Detroit's history that has been salvaged and kind of from the ruins.
Q: What do you think about the current revival downtown?
A: (In the book) I talk about Detroit being the most segregated metro area in the United States. To some degree I think segregation is moving back to the city as well. … People are thinking about how to overcome these things. We don’t have a lot of precedent on how to do that because we’ve got walls separating white and black American in Detroit. Literal brick walls, so that’s going to take some time. But I am hopeful.
Q: Any advice for someone who wants to buy a cheap house in Detroit?
A: If you’re coming with honest intentions, to grow your family and make a living, that’s wonderful. If you want to buy an abandoned house next to me and let it sit for 10 years, I’d be pretty pissed. ... You don’t want to make decisions that affect my life and not be around to see the consequences.
Q: What’s next for you?
A: My agent and I are pitching another book. I would like to turn this book into a film. We’re thinking about that. I’m interested in all kinds of stuff. Journalism is what I’m focused on.
'A $500 House: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City'
By Drew Philp
Scribner, 304 pages, $26
Release party: 7 p.m. Fri., at Trinosophes, Detroit
drewphilp.com
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Kresge Arts in DetroitKresge Arts in Detroit
DREW PHILP
2017 Literary Arts Fellow
A narrative journalist and narrative nonfiction author, Drew’s work has been published nationally and internationally in publications such as BuzzFeed, The Guardian, De Correspondent, and the Detroit Free Press. His first book of nonfiction, A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City, was published in 2017 (Scribner). In 2016, Drew was selected by Michael Pollan and the University of California, Berkeley as an 11th Hour Food and Farming Journalism Fellow.
Why I Bought a House in Detroit for $500
I Walked 170 Miles to Cleveland to Talk to Trump Supporters. They Surprised Me.
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Drew Philp and his dog Gratiot sit on the porch of his Detroit home. SUBMITTED PHOTO
By Lonnie Huhman
Daily Telegram Staff Writer
Posted May 31, 2017 at 2:00 PM
ADRIAN — Drew Philp wasn’t just rehabilitating an abandoned home in Detroit.
He also was trying to take a stand for what could be good again.
All of his work and dedication led him to write a book about the experience called, “A $500 House: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City.” It recounts his experience in moving to and buying an abandoned house in Poletown, a Detroit neighborhood bordering Hamtramck. It’s not just about new paint and floors, it’s about a fallen city on the comeback, race relations and taking something left for dead and trying to put new life into it.
He will offer a reading of his book during this month’s First Fridays event in downtown Adrian at 6 p.m. Friday, June 2 at Sass, 108 E. Maumee St.
“I wanted to prove it could be done,” said Philp, 30.
The “it” was both rehabbing an old home in disrepair and staying in Michigan to help reinvigorate the state, while others from his generation and college graduating class left to find careers and lives elsewhere.
Originally from Adrian, Philp has hitchhiked across the country; taught writing, literature and theater in prisons and juvenile institutions; taught a class about racism at the University of Michigan, and is a graduate of the University of Michigan’s New England Literature Program.
Prior to taking on his home project, Philp lived in Detroit and commuted to U of M, sometimes hitchhiking to Ann Arbor. He said he’s always believed Detroit to be the heart beat of America.
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“There were no windows, no plumbing and there was a hole in the roof,” he said of the home, which he bought at an auction in 2009. “On top of that, there was 10,000 pounds of trash piled inside.”
Philp grew up in Adrian in a family of tradesmen and has worked in construction, so rebuilding a home wasn’t foreign to him. He said he was up on a roof doing work when he was 13. His work began more than five years ago with him taking a pitchfork and getting all of the trash out of the home. From there he went to work on the electrical, putting in kitchen counter tops, new support beams and windows.
“Like Johnny Cash said, one piece at a time,” Philp said of the home rehab. He said it’s still a work in progress, but it is a more comfortable and livable now.
At the same the time he was working different jobs to support himself. This included working at construction firm of all African-Americans.
During his time in Detroit, Philp met others with the similar sentiments and made many new friends, including his dog Gratiot, has had his home nearly broken into, has seen others work to bring the city back from ruin, and has seen homes burn to the ground and others rebuilt. He’s seen people take run-down city scapes and turn them into working farms, he’s seen teachers start their own school to address the needs of the city’s youth and he’s seen the daily challenges, from crime to poverty, facing many Detroiters.
In his essay for the website, BuzzFeed, about the experience, he said, “I’m not certain I’ve accomplished anything other than taking one abandoned home off the street, teaching a few kids how to read, or bearing witness to a something larger than myself. I’m not certain I’ve become an example to anyone or necessarily changed a whole lot for the better. But I’m still here. I go to bed and I wake up every day in Detroit, in a house I built with my own hands. Sometimes success means just holding on.”
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Why A 'White Guy' Bought A House In Detroit For $500
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January 21, 201412:00 PM ET
Heard on Tell Me More
When Drew Philp bought a house in Detroit for $500, he thought it would take a lot of work to make it livable. But as he was fixing it up, he learned a lot about Detroit and rebuilding a city. He tells guest host Celeste Headlee about the experience.
Why A 'White Guy' Bought A House In Detroit For $500
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CELESTE HEADLEE, HOST:
Some people may dream of buying their own home for only 500 bucks, but they might not be prepared for the work required to make that house livable. Drew Philp bought a house in Detroit for $500 and in the process of making it his home, he learned a lot about - of course - building and construction, but also about the kind of resiliency that folks in Detroit have, and the kind of work it takes to make Detroit a great American city again.
He wrote about his experience in a piece published by BuzzFeed, "Why I Bought A House In Detroit For $500." And he joined me from Detroit. Drew, welcome.
DREW PHILP: Hello, Celeste. How are you?
HEADLEE: So let's start from the beginning. You're from - not even a suburb of Detroit. Adrian, Mich., is quite a distance away. What brought you to the Motor City?
PHILP: Well, I was going to school at the University of Michigan. And our kind of tagline there is "the leaders in best.' And after - at that time, after school, it seemed like all of my friends and contemporaneous people I had worked with were leaving the state. And I didn't want that to be me. I wanted to - I got this special chance to have this wonderful education, and I wanted to use it here to help my family and my people, in my own state.
HEADLEE: But this began with you working in a construction company where you were the only white guy, right?
PHILP: That's correct. I was hired because it was an all-black construction company, as my boss told me; and I was hired because it was difficult for him to sell his jobs in the suburbs, which were mostly white. And he needed a, quote, "a clean-cut, white boy" to help sell his jobs out in the suburbs because he couldn't do it. So I worked alongside everyone else, sanding floors for - I think - $8.50 an hour. And then I also....
HEADLEE: I've got to stop you 'cause what was that like for you? This is not an experience that many Caucasians have. You were basically - and pardon the phrase - but you were basically the token white in that company. How did that make you feel?
PHILP: In a sense, the people there made me feel very welcome. It was different because I was living in the city; I wasn't living in the suburbs. I lived near the people I worked with. So, you know, there were times when, you know, people would razz me a little bit, and they'd say, you know, cut it out. He lives right around the corner.
HEADLEE: Hmm. All right. So let's go to this house that you bought. You know, it's funny because in your piece, you describe how you were kind of looking for a house to buy. And you settled on this one. And I have to ask why because looking at the pictures, it's a disaster - it was a disaster when you bought it.
PHILP: It certainly was a disaster. It had good bones. I thought it was pretty. I also liked the neighborhood. I had been living in the neighborhood - Poletown, in Detroit - for a couple years. And this house had some space around it so I could, you know, let my dog run and build a shed and those things that I kind of would need to kind of do this homesteading thing. But the neighbors were great. The neighbors were especially kind, friendly. They had these beautiful, nice, well-kept homes. And this home was - it just seemed like a good spot.
HEADLEE: OK. But again, let me go back to how terrible the condition the house was in. I mean, there were car parts inside the house, right?
PHILP: There was a better part of a Dodge Caravan inside, that had been - it looked like it had been cut apart with a Sawzall, and deposited in my house. It took me quite a long time to clean the house up. And I did it with...
HEADLEE: Just to remove the garbage.
PHILP: Just to remove the garbage. I mean, I did it with a pitchfork and a snow shovel.
HEADLEE: So - and yet again, you have put yourself in a neighborhood, which is predominantly black; and you are one of the few white faces on your block. What was that like?
PHILP: You know, it's still interesting. There are other white folks there because it is Poletown. So it is a mixed and diverse neighborhood. The reason kind of my neighbors at first thought I was crazy was because I was the only one moving in. Detroit is still hemorrhaging people, black and white. We're starting to talk about middle-class flight now, instead of white flight. So that was kind of more striking to people - that I was moving in when everyone else was still moving out and to some extent, is still moving out.
So that was kind of where it was. But, you know, eventually I think people saw me cutting my grass and outside banging on my house. And it - you know, it got to the point where people would bring me lemonade; or one of my neighbors last summer cut my lawn and refused payment, when my lawn mower was broken.
So we've been able to help each other out, too. You know, we had that large snowstorm here. And I maybe dug a half-dozen cars out of the streets because they just don't plow them in my neighborhood. So I think that helps a lot, in terms of people seeing this community and working together.
HEADLEE: You know, you were talking about the flight out of Detroit. It's not 100 percent accurate because, in fact, there are a couple neighborhoods - notably downtown, especially - where a large number of young people and older, and retirees are buying very expensive lofts. In fact, most of them are full. I think what makes it different is your decision to move into this very rundown house, rebuild it in a poor neighborhood. I mean, there's no other way to describe Poletown, is there?
PHILP: I don't think so. It's certainly a neighborhood with a long history. But it's also always been a working-class neighborhood.
HEADLEE: Yeah.
PHILP: You know, my house is a clapboard house. It's not a brick house or anything. And in the story, I kind of talk about these kind of two emerging Detroits. There's this Detroit of bankruptcy, obviously. I think everybody's heard about that, which is kind of the rest of the city. And there's also this core that's going on in the middle - in Downtown and Midtown. So we're starting to see a split where a lot of young, white, educated people, like myself, are moving in. But then there's also this rest of the city - the city of bankruptcy and the emergency financial management.
HEADLEE: When you mention young, often highly educated, often from at least middle class if not of affluent backgrounds, white people, that often brings in the specter of gentrification; that there's going to be this white savior that comes in and idealistically, thinks that he or she is going to save the brown people of this urban neighborhood.
That has become such an urban legend, and with some fact behind it; that there's a certain derogatory - that there's a negative aspect to a young, highly educated, white person moving in and rehabbing a house in a poor neighborhood. Were you ever concerned about - that people might question your motives?
PHILP: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think that people are totally right to question my motives. I question my own motives. And I'm not 100 percent sure what I'm doing is right or the best thing for the city and the people. You know, it's such a difficult, hard issue. And, you know, I'm not sure I've solved all those problems. I certainly don't have all those answers. So I can't say that, you know, 100 percent, what I'm doing is great. That's something that weighs on me continually.
HEADLEE: So when you say "what I'm doing," what do you feel like you're doing? Is it just the renovation of this house?
PHILP: I mean, I've written this story for BuzzFeed as well.
HEADLEE: Right.
PHILP: So I'm kind of beginning to...
HEADLEE: Which has gotten a huge number of views and reads.
PHILP: So there's that. So I'm also telling this story as well, which I think is an important story to tell. I'm also looking at who my audience is and trying to speak to some of these young, white people and say, there's probably space in Detroit for all of us, but we need to do this respectfully. One of the things I was thinking about, in terms of the story is that, you know, there are a lot of these like, white savior narratives.
And that's - I hope I'm trying to kind of break that mold a little bit and say, look, there's a long history here with people who have been here for a long time; who are very, very intelligent and very good at doing what they're doing. We need to learn from them and listen from them. We don't really want to change the culture of the city because the culture of the city is wonderful. And the people here are just incredible.
HEADLEE: So give me your elevator pitch before we go. You must get people - some of them may have been family members - who say, what are you thinking? Detroit is a dying city. That city is a hot mess, right? I'm sure you've heard this a million times. Stay as far away from Detroit as you possibly can. Follow your classmates to another state. What reasons do you give them on why that narrative about Detroit is not fully accurate?
PHILP: Well, I think the kind of cultural pendulum is swinging back from kind of irony and snark to people want things that are honest and wholesome. And what I say to those people is that, it's Detroit. We're never going to die. We put the world on wheels.
HEADLEE: Drew Philp wrote about his experience of buying and rehabbing a home in Detroit. He wrote about it in BuzzFeed, in a piece called "Why I Bought A House In Detroit For $500." And he joined us from WDET in Detroit. Drew, thank you so much.
PHILP: You're welcome.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
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UNION LITERARYHome About Authors
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Drew Philp
Drew Philp's work has been published both nationally and internationally, appearing or forthcoming in BuzzFeed, The Detroit Free Press, the Metrotimes, Corp! Magazine, the Bakersfield Californian, the Michigan Daily, and Atavist in a joint venture with Jaunt Magazine. He is also a writer in the film industry, having written two feature length dramas on contract, including a collaboration with an Emmy Award winning producer. In addition to writing, he built his house in Detroit with his own hands; hitchhiked across the United States; and taught writing, literature and theater extensively in prisons and juvenile institutions. Drew graduated from the University of Michigan and lives in Detroit with his dog, Gratiot. Visit his website here.
DrewPhilp_A500House.jpg
A $500 HOUSE IN DETROIT: REBUILDING AN ABANDONED HOME AND AN AMERICAN CITY (APRIL 2017)
Drew Philp, an idealistic college student from a working-class Michigan family, decides to live where he can make a difference. He sets his sights on Detroit, the failed metropolis of abandoned buildings, widespread poverty, and rampant crime. Arriving with no job, no friends, and no money, Philp buys a ramshackle house for five hundred dollars in the east side neighborhood known as Poletown. The roomy Queen Anne he now owns is little more than a clapboard shell on a crumbling brick foundation, missing windows, heat, water, electricity, and a functional roof.
A $500 House in Detroit is Philp’s raw and earnest account of rebuilding everything but the frame of his house, nail by nail and room by room. “Philp is a great storyteller…[and his] engrossing” (Booklist) tale is also of a young man finding his footing in the city, the country, and his own generation. We witness his concept of Detroit shift, expand, and evolve as his plan to save the city gives way to a life forged from political meaning, personal connection, and collective purpose. As he assimilates into the community of Detroiters around him, Philp guides readers through the city’s vibrant history and engages in urgent conversations about gentrification, racial tensions, and class warfare.
Part social history, part brash generational statement, part comeback story, A $500 House in Detroit “shines [in its depiction of] the ‘radical neighborliness’ of ordinary people in desperate circumstances” (Publishers Weekly). This is an unforgettable, intimate account of the tentative revival of an American city and a glimpse at a new way forward for generations to come.
"A young college grad buys a house in Detroit for $500 and attempts to restore it—and his new neighborhood—to its original glory in this “deeply felt, sharply observed personal quest to create meaning and community out of the fallen…A standout”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“In this impassioned memoir, a young man finds a community flourishing in a city so depopulated that houses are worth less than a used Chevy.…Philp ably captures the frontier feel of Detroit as he laboriously rehabs his ruined house from foundation to roof. His homebuilding narrative is engrossing….The book shines [in its depiction of] the ‘radical neighborliness’ of ordinary people in desperate circumstances.”—Publishers Weekly
“[Philp] quickly becomes an involved resident, using creativity, resourcefulness, ingenuity, and positive thinking to create a place for himself in a depressed city…highly recommended for general readers interested in the history and resurgence of Detroit and other U.S. cities.”—Library Journal
“Engrossing…Philp is a great storyteller, and he has done a good job of documenting his struggles to carve out a home. It’s also easy to see why he intends to stay.”—Booklist
“Lots of young bohemian types are fascinated by Detroit—land of the fabled $500 house!—but few take the plunge as headily as Drew Philp did, not only buying his own place but renovating it from the inside out, getting to know the neighbors, and learning about one of America's most fascinating cities as only a true resident can. Philp writes about his experience with sensitivity, humility and humor, and his voice is a necessary addition to the literature of the Motor City.”
—Mark Binelli, author of Detroit City is the Place to Be
“Downright eloquent and deeply moving. Beyond the sheer, compelling force of Philp’s writing, his account is insistently honest and full of insight. No shortcuts. No unrealistic fantasies. No pretenses of the sort that made my nerves twitch before I gave up on the literature of Nightmare Detroit. Philp the 23-year-old kid comes alive convincingly, in all of his confused but determined effort to rebuild a house and sink roots. He captures the city in all of its horrors and hopes, contradictions and blind faith.”
—Frank Viviano, eight-time Pulitzer Prize-nominee, and National Geographic writer since 2001
“An important and powerful memoir that looks at the struggles and great efforts being spent on breathing life into a decayed city, and delves into the complicated and diverse people trying to carve out better futures.”
—New York Journal of Books
“A fascinating inside look….Philp writes with exuberance and sincerity....Inspiring.”
—Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Rights: Scribner, North America
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INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR OF “WHY I BOUGHT A HOUSE IN DETROIT FOR $500”
Photo by Garrett MacLean
Not long after college, Drew Philp, ’09, moved to Detroit, where he’s learning to live in a city far different than the rural area where he grew up. And until he published an article about the experience on BuzzFeed earlier this month, few in the world were talking about it.
That’s all changed now. The article has had more than a million views, and he’s been interviewed about everything from why he did it to what the success of an article like his says about reading long articles on mobile phones.
We asked him: What’s it been like to get all this attention?
Was the BuzzFeed article the first time you went public with this story? If not, what was?
Mostly, yes. I purchased the house in 2009, and of course many people knew what I have been up to since, and I’d written a small amount about it. But I never told the story with any length and I have certainly never done anything on this scale before. BuzzFeed was wonderful to work with and offered me the perfect opportunity to tell my story and that of some of my neighbors and community members.
What sort of response have you been getting from the article?
The response has been almost universally positive, and seems to stretch across many demographics. One of the most interesting things I’ve seen is that people from both the far right and left, politically, seem to like it. My hope is that something like this cuts across political lines and these are stories we can all get behind—not only my own, but the many beautiful, gritty, and ultimately hopeful and very human stories Detroit has to offer.
It seems like this experience began in a way that was both personal and private. As a writer, you eventually make it public. What is that experience like so far?
It’s strange to have nearly a million people see the abridged version of your life story in about 48 hours. On the other hand, journalists, both amateur and professional, often attempt to tell this story and stories similar to it. There has been a lot of attention surrounding Detroit lately and I think it’s important that people are able to tell their own stories. There are many brilliant and hopeful organizations in the city, such as the Grace Lee Boggs Center and the Allied Media Projects, that are currently doing great work around this issue and helping people tell their own stories. If I can use a cliché, I’m standing on the shoulders of giants.
What do hope will happen as a result of telling this story? And what price will you pay for telling it?
I hope this will open up avenues for more people within the city to be able to tell their own stories, and I hope people will begin to see these houses and neighborhoods, and the communities within them, as assets, not just problems to overcome. If I can keep one person from being pushed out of their home and community in the name of “progress,” the story has been a success.
What is your long-term plan for where you will live? And for what work you will do?
I love where I live. The neighbors are great, and my house is coming along, slowly, but it’s coming. I plan to finish my house, and then possibly tackle one of the other three abandoned homes on my block, potentially with other members of the community, together. Ideally I will be writing a book about my experience shortly.
Nice dog. Can Gratiot do any tricks?
Thank you, Gratiot is great. We do this trick where I hold up my leg, Rockettes style, and Gratiot jumps over it. We call it “circus dog.”
Photo by Garrett MacLean
Photos by Garrett MacLean
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Print Marked Items
Philp, Drew: A $500 HOUSE IN DETROIT
Kirkus Reviews.
(Mar. 1, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Philp, Drew A $500 HOUSE IN DETROIT Scribner (Adult Nonfiction) $26.00 4, 11 ISBN: 978-1-4767-9798-4
A young man finds joy in a "place they said no one could love."In 2009, at age 23, Philp bought a house for $500 in
Detroit: an abandoned 1903 Queen Anne with a wraparound porch. One of many such bargains available in the
bankrupt city, the house and the story of its yearslong rehabilitation are the focus of this fresh, honest, often stirring
debut, which began as a BuzzFeed feature. A shy, idealistic working-class white kid from rural Michigan, the author
arrived in the 80 percent black city with no friends, job, or money. Fixing the house "would be a protest of sorts," he
reasoned, an expression of his contempt for the wealthy suburban lifestyle of Ann Arbor, where he had just attended
the University of Michigan. Working odd jobs, he found himself in a frightening city of wild dogs, frequent shootings,
suspicious fires, and near-daily offers of drugs or sex. One new neighbor, Zeno, a crack dealer, asked him, "are you
wearing a wire, motherfucker?" Another told Philp about a county auction of thousands of abandoned houses, an event
that kicks off this deeply felt, sharply observed personal quest to create meaning and community out of the fallen city's
"cinders of racism and consumerism and escape." Often hungry and scared, the author had help from his parents and
new friends (most wild spirits sharing in the adventure of a revitalizing city) in working with abandoned materials to
cobble his broken-down home, from chimney and stairs to foundation. The grueling process not only reveals his
growing maturity, but also becomes a window on the look and feel of present-day Detroit and the neighborly people
struggling to achieve satisfying lives there. Philp ably outlines the broad issues of race and class in the city, but it is the
warmth and liveliness of his storytelling that will win many readers. "It is your sacred duty to find hope somewhere,"
he reminds us. A standout in the Detroit rehab genre.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Philp, Drew: A $500 HOUSE IN DETROIT." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2017. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA482911559&it=r&asid=8c5512b64b5b95111aaac914879ed2ed.
Accessed 10 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A482911559
10/10/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1507668709094 2/3
A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an
Abandoned Home and an American City
Kathleen McBroom
Booklist.
113.14 (Mar. 15, 2017): p4.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City.
By Drew Philp.
Apr. 2017. 304p. Scribner, $26 (9781476797984). 307.3.
This memoir--the story of a white kid, a new college graduate, who wandered into Detroit and bought a ruined hulk of
a once-grand house for $500 in an attempt at urban homesteading--is part coming-of-age tale, part history lesson, and
part social commentary. Philp chronicles his growing self-awareness as he navigates inner-city communities, meets
unique and inspirational individuals, and documents his seemingly Sisyphean struggles to make his house suitable for
habitation. Chronically broke and achingly exhausted, he movingly talks about family members and neighbors who
provide help and keep him moving forward. The engrossing narrative doesn't shy away from controversial areas:
underlying motives, the morality of taking advantage of other peoples disadvantages, industrial pollution, the
shortcomings of political entities, urban real-estate speculation, race relations, the effects of gentrification--all these
real-world problems and their direct impact on Detroit residents, as well as future urban dwellers in general, are
explored. Philp is a great storyteller, and he has done a good job of documenting his struggles to carve out a home. It's
also easy to see why he intends to stay.--Kathleen McBroom
McBroom, Kathleen
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
McBroom, Kathleen. "A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City." Booklist, 15
Mar. 2017, p. 4. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA490998335&it=r&asid=34ca79f39f29257a930d6ba3b83bb1de.
Accessed 10 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A490998335
10/10/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1507668709094 3/3
A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an
American Home and an American City
Publishers Weekly.
264.5 (Jan. 30, 2017): p189.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an American Home and an American City
Drew Philp. Scribner, $26 (304p)
ISBN 978-1-4767-9798-4
In this impassioned memoir, a young man finds a community flourishing in a city so depopulated that houses are worth
less than a used Chevy. Journalist Philp moved to Detroit fresh out of college in 2008 and bought a derelict house in
Poletown, a once bustling but now desolate neighborhood going to prairie and ruin. He finds that deep poverty, scant
city services, and little police protection have birthed a culture of do-it-yourself improvisation and mutual aid among its
denizens: artists, scavengers, hipsters, and longtime homeowners hanging on by their fingernails. Philp ably captures
the frontier feel of Detroit--he gets attacked by wild dogs, fends off a home invader with his shotgun, and is forever
gazing at burning buildings--as he laboriously rehabs his ruined house from foundation to roof. His homebuilding
narrative is engrossing, but his city-building prescriptions are less so: he serves up overwrought anticapitalist
soapboxing against "the calculating men in suits trying to squeeze every last little bit of profit from all I find holy" and
extols tired urban farming nostrums that would only further the hollowing-out of Detroit. The book shines when he
sticks to the "radical neighborliness" of ordinary people in desperate circumstances. Photos. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an American Home and an American City." Publishers Weekly, 30 Jan. 2017, p.
189. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA480195218&it=r&asid=be330dd4ab2d527db59f2331f5540341.
Accessed 10 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A480195218
http://www.kresgeartsindetroit.org/portfolio-posts/drew-philp
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Updated: MAY 12, 2017 — 3:01 AM EDT
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Drew Philip, author of "A $500 House in Detroit"
A $500 House in Detroit
Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City
By Drew Philp
Scribner. 289 pp. $26
Reviewed by Laurie Hertzel
In 2009, a skinny white kid named Drew Philp bought a decrepit house in inner-city Detroit for $500. He came from a long line of workingmen ("I'm the oldest male member of my family with all of my fingers intact," he says), and despite Detroit's poverty, abandoned houses, and lack of city services, he felt more himself there than he did in rich Ann Arbor, where he had gone to college.
In A $500 House in Detroit, Philp writes about the six years he spent rehabbing his house, getting to know his neighbors, and becoming part of an unusual community. It is a fascinating inside look at a city that was so bombed out, so thoroughly abandoned by white flight, that police and fire personnel didn't always bother to respond to calls. Vacant lots were home to coyotes and deer.
But it was also a city with steadfast, entrepreneurial citizens - primarily African Americans - who had lived there for decades, as well as hippies and punks such as Philp who showed up to make a difference.
Philp's Queen Anne house needed just about everything fixed - the plumbing, the roof, the walls, the floors, the windows, the electrical, the foundation. No furnace, no running water. The ductwork had been ripped out and stolen. The yard was full of trash and broken glass. Next door was a boarded-up crack house. Across the street lived a black family who (until he made the effort to meet them) seemed wary.
Philp's book is more than an inner-city A Year in Provence. He writes about the rehab, yes, but he also writes about the people who are "rebuilding this broken city," resourceful, self-sufficient characters who scrounge and scrape and work hard.
Things changed: Detroit became cool in certain hipster circles. Europeans came to sketch the ruins, and tours of gawkers motored through looking for "ruin porn." The worst happened: The city started to pay attention again. Some of Philp's friends lost their rehabbed houses through eminent domain; the black family across the street nearly lost to speculators the house they'd lived in for 30 years.
"The rich men always called it progress," Philp writes bitterly. "But it was their progress. It never seemed to benefit anyone except them."
This book might not be the best-written thing you read all year, but it might be the most inspiring. "What I've gained nobody can take away from me and money cannot buy," Philp writes. "No fire or billionaire can crush it into the ground."
This review originally appeared in the
Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Published: May 12, 2017 — 3:01 AM EDT The Philadelphia Inquirer
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