62 WINTER 2022 | WWW.SHAKER.LIFE
The Jaffes lived in the house until 1985, when they sold
it to Gale and Michael Flament. The Jaffes had made a
few alterations; they enclosed a portion of the children’s
play area to create a family room and breakfast room,
and changed the heating system to baseboard heat. But
otherwise, the house was as Robert Little built it.
The Flaments already lived in Shaker, but were
looking for a larger home. The classified ad for the Jaffe
house mentioned the “park-like setting on South Park
Boulevard,” as Gale Flament recalls. Despite the price
being above their intended budget, they scheduled a
time to visit. The views from the kitchen across South
Park Boulevard to Lower Shaker Lake and the large lot –
nearly an acre – lived up to the ad’s promise.
The ad did not mention that the house had been
designed by Robert Little, and in fact it had been on the
market for some time. But when Gale Flament walked
into the house for the first time, she had a feeling she
was in a Little house. A few years earlier she and Michael
had been invited to a wedding at the Littles’ Pepper
Pike home. They mused with him that someday they’d
have him design a house for them. Clearly everything
was aligning.
The Brown Shoebox