Aretha Franklin's estate sells last Detroit property for $300,000

Detroit — The last property owned in Detroit by Aretha Franklin, a historic mansion next to the Detroit Golf Club, has been sold by the legendary entertainer's estate.

The 5,600-square-foot brick home on Hamilton Road was bought for $300,000 in late October by a Northville resident, public records show. An empty half-acre lot next to the home was also part of the deal. 

"There are no other Detroit properties" that were owned by Franklin, said Sabrina Garrett-Owens, the personal representative of Franklin's estate, in a Friday email to The Detroit News. "There is no link with (the) new owner," Garrett-Owens added. 

Franklin's former residence in Bloomfield Township is still on the market listed at $800,000. The singer known as the Queen of Soul died Aug. 16 of pancreatic cancer in her Detroit Riverfront apartment, according to her death certificate. She was 76 years old. 

The Hamilton Road property that just sold is a slate-roofed brick mansion built in 1927. The property is just south of 7 Mile Road.

The mansion has five bedrooms, six bathrooms and three fireplaces, according to public records. It also boasts of leaded glass windows, a three-car garage and a back yard adjacent to the north course of the Detroit Golf Club.

Franklin bought the property in 1993 for an undisclosed price. In 2008, she almost lost the home to tax collectors.

Franklin said at the time an attorney's mistake allowed the property to slip into foreclosure due to $19,192 in unpaid property taxes. She paid the back taxes and recovered the property, public records show. 

Franklin, the daughter of a prominent minister, was born in Memphis but grew up mainly in Detroit, where she began her legendary career singing gospel in her father's church. Through the years she owned various Detroit properties that she eventually sold.

In the early  1980s she returned to the Detroit area and called it home for the rest of her life. 

Freelance writer Susan Whitall contributed  

laguilar@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @LouisAguilar_DN