Click above images to enlarge Lancaster and Waumbek Apartments 237-239Palmer Avenue, Detroit - Wayne County 227-229Palmer Avenue, Detroit - Wayne County Property Type apartment building Historic Use DOMESTIC/multiple dwelling Current Use DOMESTIC/multiple dwelling Style Tudor Revival Architect/Builder Almon Clother Varney Significant Person Sarah A. Sampson Narrative Description The Lancaster and Waumbek Apartments are two side-by-side three-story brick and stone-trimmed apartment buildings of English Revival design that are similar in scale and massing with slightly different facade detailing. Each building is basically rectangular in plan with projecting bays on the front facade and a small light well in the middle. The flat roof above a parapet wall cannot be seen from the street. On the interior, the two spacious apartments on each floor are similar in layout and feature decorative plaster and woodwork. Statement of Significance Constructed probably in 1904, the Lancaster and Waumbek Apartments are well-preserved apartment buildings representing the early, turn-of-the-century generation of apartment house development in Detroit. They possess architectural significance as well-designed examples of their type by the prolific Detroit architect Almon Clother Varney, the pioneer apartment building architect in Detroit. The buildings were owned by one of Michigan's first suffragists, Sarah A. Sampson, who resided in the Lancaster with her husband from 1906 to 1919. Period of Significance 1906-1919 Significant Date(s) 1904 Registry Type(s) 08/21/1997 National Register listed Site ID# P21429