Growing up, Francina and Roderica James have always found a way to stay together, even when they are separated by grades at school. Today, the sisters’ unity is a source of comfort for their B&B guests.
The case of Francina and Roderica James – The sisters are separated in just 13 months, but it’s the most enjoyable experience to step out of memory lanes to relive their childhood home on West Outer Drive in the 1980s and 90s.
That joy can be seen by the glow of their eyes, heard in their extended laugh moments, and their smiles evoke special moments, and an era of silence continues when their smiles speak more eloquently than words.
But Francina and Roderica can do more than tell the people they meet about their childhood home. The friendly sisters are also co-owners of the Cochran House Luxury Historic Inn in Detroit’s Brush Park Historic District, allowing them to show to some extent what their home was like.
The exterior of the Cochran House offers a glimpse of what it was like when Brush Park was built around 1870 as a red brick house for Dr. John Terry. However, within the Cochran House, which Francina and Roderica opened as a luxurious bed and break first for adults in May 2018, there is an atmosphere that mimics the sisters’ childhood home.
“When we came here, the first thing they say is that this is a reminder of outer drive,” explained the young 46-year-old Roderica, a young 46-year-old Roderica, about the Cochran House. “The decorations are different, but the feel and comfort we offer at Cochran House is the same as growing up on the outer drive.”
From the living room created from a shared vision, the afternoon of March 11th (nearly two weeks of Women’s History Month, two days away from the 313th in Detroit). Roderica and Francina were proud to explain how the current version of the Cochran House is deeply connected to history. And that connection comes back to life through decorations that blend African Americans with African culture with the rich history of Detroit.
A small sampling of what guests encounter while walking around the Cochran House is accompanied by jazz music playing in the background. It includes colorful African masks and other symbols that reflect the African continent, as well as artwork from African American artists, and African American artists document African American experiences including “Harriet” including “Harriet” with “Harriet” including “Harriet”. Inside the Cochran House is home to many images celebrating the people, institutions and places that have left a lasting mark in Detroit, including Joe Louis, “Little” Stevie Wonder, Dellarrise, The Frame Showbar, Black Bottom and Paradise Valley.
Then there is one precious piece of art at the bottom of the stairs, at the bottom of the stairs, as a painting entitled “Mom’s Girls” by Detroit artist Tab Laslu shows Roderica and Francina sitting on the stairs with their mother, the late Mary Francis James. The sisters say it was Mary James who introduced the world of entrepreneurship. and longtime Detroit Public School teacher Mary James and later entrepreneur, working by her daughter to help with the massive and laborious repairs of Cochrane House.
Additionally, Mary James had put her hands on a freshly prepared breakfast serving guests at Cochran House as Francina and Roderica cooked and demanded that their daughters use their hands early in their lives.
“My mother was taking classes when we were in middle school, when she was working on her master’s degree. And she said: ‘Francina and Roderica, I don’t have time to cook,'” recalls Francina, 47, who, like her sister, Francina graduated from Roderica in 1996, and Martin Luther King High School. We had to get meat from the Eastern Market and cook our own.
“When we were little, we were like this: ‘Do we have to cook?!’ But it’s amazing how all of those experiences have been resolved divinely. And they allowed us to do what we are doing today. ”
Breakfast cooked by Francina and Roderica – described in a review as “better than home cooking,” the breakfast features delicious and comfortable foods such as hand-cut onions, grits, honey, chicken sausages, waffles and fries with homemade jam.
“People told us that it looks like we’re dancing together in the kitchen for a way we move around and predict each other’s next steps,” explained Roderica, who shared Ypsilanti’s apartment with her university sister when she was attending Michigan and Roderica, and attending the University of Michigan. “Mama always said: ‘We’ve got it all.’ She said you and your sister are what you got, no matter what happens outside the door of our house, no matter what circumstances. So, when Sheena and I weren’t together, we can’t remember the points in our lives.
The two best friends say that Cochran House provided the opportunity to meet many new friends among the overnight guests. In fact, as they say, the repeating guests became like the “Rika” or “Sina” families, as they were lovingly called by people who knew them well. But that doesn’t end with the sisters’ fellowship, as they were able to connect with the community in a different way through the Cochrane House nonprofit, also known as Mary Francis Almon James’ youth organization.
“We have provided toys to more than 300 families within the last seven years through our annual Christmas toy giveaway,” reported Francina. “We do that in the honor of our mothers.”
And in everything they do in the name of their business, Francina and Roderica are also the proud daughters of the late Roderic James, a stylish man who served as lawyers for the city of Highland Park.
“We enjoy exposing our guests and other cultures to those who really have black Detroit,” Roderica said as Francina smiled and nodded. “People have awareness, so for my sister and I, one of our goals is to break some of these awareness people have. There are a lot of people in Detroit who have lived the same kind of life that my sister and I have, but others don’t recognize this. So we can peer into our guests into black Detroit and give them a way of looking at what our lives really are.”
Scott Tully is a proud product of Detroit public schools and a lifelong lover of Detroit culture, and a diverse form of Detroit native and Detroit’s. On his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he was excited and humbled to cover many interesting people who define the city’s neighborhood and its various communities. Contact him at stallley @freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @StalleyFreep. Read more about Scott’s story at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/. Help grow community-focused journalism by becoming a subscriber.
