The Ring Home

Charles Adams Platt designed the Ring family house and gardens with an Italian villa in mind in the Georgian Revival style. The plain symmetrical exterior of the house with its predominance of red bricks and white pillars and pediments, contrasts the richly decorated interior. Platt carried the same symmetrical geometric structure from the foundation of the house through the facades and into the formal garden. By doing this, the design achieved unity in that each section reflects the other sections in composition and style.

Platt designed the house with both public and private spaces for the Rings as well as secluded spaces for the domestic staff who lived and worked in the home. He accomplished this design by including several regular and blind doors to close off and obscure certain areas of the house. Platt also included three staircases so that the domestic staff could have access to all of the levels without being noticed and Thomas Ring could ascend to his suite of rooms on the third floor without using the servant's staircase.

The domestic staff worked in rooms on the first floor, such as the large kitchen, as well as in the basement where the laundry room, wine closet, fruit closet and other work spaces were located. There was also a Butler's Hall on the first floor which the staff could use as their drawing room.

Platt was attentive to all the details of his design. He created floors with decorative patterns, designed moldings for each public room and selected most of the original decorations, fixtures and furnishings for the home. Most of these originals now belong to the Ring family descendants.

The Ring children lived in the house until they married and began lives of their own. The parents lived in the house until their deaths (Lizzie in 1912 and Clark in 1933). The Virgil Kirkham family purchased the home from the Ring estate and lived there until 1946. The home was later purchased by Jessie (Ring) Garrett and Elizabeth (Ring) Mather who intended to donate the house and gardens as a museum to the citizens of Saginaw. Sadly, Mrs. Garrett died before the museum opened its doors. Mrs. Mather generously donated money, artwork and leadership to the fledgling museum until her death in 1957.

In 1948, the doors of the Saginaw Museum were opened to the public. The Saginaw Museum provided cultural and educational opportunities in the areas of art, music, history and natural history. When the Historical Society of Saginaw established the History Museum in 1967, the Saginaw Museum deaccessioned their historical items to them. Henceforth, the Saginaw Museum was called the Saginaw Art Museum.