Sisters Bring Family, Hospitality to Historic Brush Park Bed-and-Breakfast
Sisters Francina and Roderica James love being able to reflect on their childhood growing up on West Outer Drive during the 1980s and 1990s. Today, the pair are giving guests a taste of home as the co-owners of the historic Cochrane House Luxury Historic Inn located in Detroit’s Brush Park Historic District.
The home itself dates back to 1870 when it was originally built as a red brick home for Dr. John Terry and purchased by Lyman Cochrane, a former Michigan Superior Court judge and state senator. Today, the Cochrane House reflects the ambiance of Francina and Roderica’s childhood home.
“People that we grew up with, when they come in here, the first thing that they say is that this reminds them of Outer Drive,” explained 46-year-old Roderica, the younger of the two sisters, in an interview with the Detroit Free Press.
Roderica and Francina have taken care with the decor to blend African American and African culture with Detroit’s rich history. If you’re lucky enough to be a guest at the Cochrane House, you might hear jazz music playing in the background and see colorful African masks and other artwork from the African continent displayed throughout the home.
Images throughout the interior of The Cochrane House commemorate the people, institutions, and places that have impacted Detroit’s legacy, including Black Bottom, Joe Louis, Paradise Valley, Della Reese, The Flame Show Bar, and “Little” Stevie Wonder.
The sisters attribute their entrepreneurial spirit to their late mother, Mary Frances James. James, a longtime Detroit Public Schools teacher and later an entrepreneur, worked beside her daughters — even while she battled colon cancer — to help with the restoration of The Cochrane House. This restoration took several years to complete after Roderica and Francina purchased the property in 2010.
“We enjoy exposing our guests and other cultures to who Black Detroiters really are,” Roderica said. “We are able to give our guests a peek into Black Detroit and a view of what our lives are really all about.”
