Downtown – Detroit, Michigan
The English surrendered the region that Detroit is in to the U.S. on July 11, 1796. Major General Anthony Wayne was general in command at the time. Later Wayne County was named in his honor on August 15, 1796. The county embraced nearly all of the present state of Michigan and portions of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin – including the sites of Milwaukee and Chicago and parts of Fort Wayne and Cleveland.
The Statler Hotel demolition is underway by July 2005. Ever gradually this building would give way until all that remained was a vacant lot.
Muccioli Studio Gallery is in a rare building that has survived from an earlier era of Detroit’s development. All around it are large scale buildings like the Millender Center and the Renaissance Center across the street.
Architect Albert Kahn designed the Capitol Theater. Despite its impressive facade not much remained inside making a preservation project impossible.
The Skillman branch of the Detroit Public Library is located downtown near the People Mover and several attractions in the immediate area.
Merchants Row renovated multiple buildings as part of a single development. Ground level spaces were repurposed for use by restaurants and retailers. For a short time the Detroit Breakfast Company was a high end breakfast place located in one of these storefronts.
The Kern’s Clock was reinstalled on Woodward Ave near where the famous department store was located. While the store is long gone the clock remains there as a reminder.
The University of Detroit Mercy has a downtown campus. Saints Peter and Paul Jesuit Church anchors the block.
The Old Wayne County Courthouse a few blocks away was receiving some preservation.
The Fine Arts Building on Capitol Park was one of several buildings awaiting rehabilitation.
Another building awaiting rehabilitation was the Grand Army of the Republic building on Grand River.
Not too far from this was the Loyal Order of the Moose hall with its impressive arcaded vaults on multiple sides of the building.
Insignificant architecturally, though important culturally is the Chin Tiki. Eminem referred to it in the movie 8 Mile. This remains a hold over from an earlier time when such offbeat destinations were more common.
C.C. Bar is a one-story building in the Cass corridor. On the outside are notices to “Do Not Demolish” by court order. Such a positing is important because so many other buildings in this section of Detroit had been or soon were to be demolished.
Cass Tech High School produced many distinguished graduates through the years. This was not enough to ensure that its historic home on Cass Ave was left standing. Unfortunately, it is one of many historic buildings to fall to the wrecking ball.
The Masonic Temple in Detroit is a remarkable building. Within its walls are numerous theaters and meeting rooms. At one time Henry Ford was a member of the Masonic order and attending functions here. Today they are best known for concerts and shows in one of their many theaters.
A number of historic buildings nearby include the Kresge Company headquarters, Masonic Temple, insurance company building, and the Metropolitan Center for High Technology. Their common building materials and styling gives this section of Detroit a coherence that few other neighborhoods have.
Behind the Masonic Temple are some three and four story apartment buildings. One of these has the name Manhattan carved in stone over the door.
This apartment building near the Masonic Temple clearly had seen better days.
Looking up the Cass corridor one can see Old Main on the campus of Wayne State University and even the spire of the Fisher Building faintly in the distance beyond that.
The Art Center Music Stool was in this handsome stone clad building with round arch windows and doors on the ground floor and casement windows on the upper floor.
Old Main on the campus of Wayne State University has distinctive detailing in the tower.
The Mackenzie House is 1895 Queen Anne style designed by Malcomson & Higginbotham. David Mackenzie, an educator, scholar, and humanitarian lived there. He fostered support for higher education for Detroit students. While principle of Central High School, the housed in what is now “Old Main,” he established the Detroit Junior College in 1917. Six years later that institution expanded to become the College of the City of Detroit with Mackenzie as its first dean. This was the nucleus from which Wayne State University grew.
One last vernacular residential building has intersecting gables that are flared. A distinctive sawtooth detailing marks the transition between horizontal clapboard on the lower levels and vertical clapboard above.
A little further towards New Center is the American Beauty Iron. While most of the letters were gone those left are a reminder of an iconic building and sign that inspired people far beyond Detroit.
The day we were visiting some repair was being done to the terra cotta and masonry of this handsome Art Deco inspired building.
The Golden Tower of the Fisher Building is where WJR broadcast from. The detailing on this Albert Kahn building is sublime.
The concourse inside has impressive murals and tiles. The Fisher Theater, while modernized from the original Mayan movie palace design is still a premier destination for the performing arts and theater in Detroit.
The Albert Kahn building brings similar historic building to the Fisher Building but makes it observable closer to ground level. All of the buildings are connected together by skywalk and/or underground tunnels.
The General Motors building was renamed Cadillac Place after GM moved to the Renaissance Center. Their original building here was symbolic of the hierarchical arrangement of the corporate structure at the time it was built, with senior management at the top, and workers in divisions below.
This building is a modernized version of an earlier more historic building for the Ford Motor Company.
A fire resulted in the loss of one of Detroit’s old earlier brick factory buildings.
The Scarab Club by the Detroit Institute of Arts is a favorite gathering place for artists.
This handsome brick building with inset tiles is on Woodward Ave near the campus of Wayne State.
This is one of the earlier large buildings in Midtown converted into lofts for those seeking city living. The distinctive concrete and steel frame construction is visible from the side wall. This structural system is a Detroit innovation especially associated with the many factories built in Detroit.
Looking up towards New Center along Woodward Ave, the red sandstone First Congregational Church with an impressive belltower is to the right. A little further down is the Episcopal Cathedral. And the Park Shelton Hotel that is today residences is in the distance.
This block along Woodward Avenue near Orchestra Hall was still awaiting rehabilitation in 2005.
One final multi-story building was renovated with a restaurant on ground floor and housing above. The brick detailing on this building and extensive windows make it stand out from other buildings in the area.
Lastly we should note the lampposts. An earlier historic version is alongside a modern replacement. Getting consistent lighting to streets and blocks throughout Detroit has proven to be a herculean task.
Visit in August 2005
In 2005, the Statler Hotel was being demolished and the future of the Book Tower (in the background) was undetermined. In between, the Trolley Plaza apartments showed the erasure of historic fabric was well underway.
No matter the angle viewed from the Statler Hotel was a notable loss, especially given the fact that so many other historic buildings had recently been rehabilitated or were in the process of being saved.
Another site with significant historic interest is the Michigan Theater. Converted for use as a parking garage, today it is a source of fascination for architecture enthusiasts. One can walk in and still get a sense of the contours of the movie place that it once held. Even fragments of the curtain remain hanging over the stage.
Visit in September 2005
St. Anne’s Church has wonderfully brick corbelled details and distinctive pointed windows with stone trim. The towers with pinnacles to either side of the entrance lend further dignity to this building.
Next we headed to the Midtown neighborhood between Downtown and New Center to take a look at projects in varying stages of completion.
Years prior the architectural firm of McIntosh Poris came up for plans for this building to convert it into a mixed use complex with housing.
Nearby the Stuber Stone & Co. building also was under conversion for lofts.
A third building nearby for Willy’s Overland Lofts was announced for completion the following year in 2006.
Here the former Wayne State Mortuary Science building had signs that claimed it too was being converted for lofts.
55 West Canfield was yet one more iconic Detroit building with loft conversion planned.
With all of this development in the pipeline, this led one street artist to share what they had on their mind “money.”
The Henry A. Cleland House at 702 West Canfield is the last house, on the north side of Canfield Avenue West nearest Third Avenue, still standing. The home was built by Dr. Henry A. Cleland, in 1880. Dr. Cleland was a physician, connected with St. Mary’s and Harper Hospitals for many years. He had his offices in his own Cleland Building on State Street. His father-in-law, William Cowie, President of the Detroit Dry Dock Company, lived next door (now razed) on the northeast corner of Canfield Avenue West and Third Avenue. Dr. Henry A. Cleland died in 1911. Dr. George Duffield, a physician who was married to Clara W. Cowie, owned and occupied this home from 1913, and after Dr. Duffield passed away, his widow continued to live here until the early 1920’s.
West Canfield Historic District is home to a number of additional historic homes. In 1813, Territorial Governor Lewis Cass purchased the Macomb farm. By 1818 he had quired additional land extending almost three miles inland from the Detroit River in the form of a narrow French ribbon farm. Cass died in 1866. In 1869 his daughters Matilda Cass Ledyard and Mary Cass Canfield subdivided block 98 and donated 100 feet for an avenue which they named Canfield in memory of Mary’s husband Captain Augustus Canfield. Lewis Cass, Jr. subdivided block 100 on the north side of Canfield in 1871. Many of Detroit’s most prominent attorneys, physicians, dentists, and architects owned homes on West Canfield. In the 1880s the area became commonly known as Piety Hill because of the alleged social and moral character of its residents.
This bowed bay front townhouse has room for multiple apartments on each of the four floors inside. Likely other buildings were to either side at one point, meaning that the exterior porches and doors would not be quite so visible.
On the Cass Corridor a vacant house with boarded up windows, and a brick house with pyramid roof over the entrance tower are both excellent examples of residential architecture from the 19th century.
Over on 2nd Street, Mario’s Restaurant has been a longtime dining destination for those looking for excellent Italian food. Next to it is a handsome three story brick apartment building with masonry veneer on the base and masonry details on upper floors. Two modestly projecting oriel windows give the upper floors some architectural character of their own.
The multiunit building at 4120 Cass Ave has been converted to apartments.
This building on West Willis St was converted for use as a private home.
Retruning downtown the Penobscot looms above other buildings nearby, the Guardian Building is peeking through in the distance with its distinctive orange hued brick, and the Dime Building with two identical towers is in the foreground.
Second Visit in September 2005
We started this visit near the Renaissance Center on the river front.
Heading towards Greektown we were intrigued by similarity of the mass and even details of the historic building in the parking deck next door. While not perfect symmetry, it clearly is an attempt.
A modern insertion between two historic buildings adds little to the block from a design perspective. Functionally, it leaves additional overhead space unused.
The Detroit Opera House parking garage replaced an earlier Hudson’s parking garage on this site. Built at significant cost, it also gives a nod to the historic architecture in the surrounding area. The new YMCA is also going up just outside of the photo frame to the right and across the street.
Simmons and Clark Jewelers is a longtime business. Their distinctive neon sign with an operable clock on it reinforces that this jeweler also sells watches.
Two photos show the Statler Hotel demolition progressing.
Midtown along Woodward Ave is still undergoing reinvention in 2005. This is before the Little Caesars Arena came in across the street. Churches along this thoroughfare were shortened when Woodward Ave is widened. This is unfortunate because just a few decades after that Woodward was not needed to accommodate the same traffic volumes due to flight from the city and increasing reliance on the Interstate highways crisscrossing Detroit.
One last detail that we admired was the name of Architect C. Howard Crane stamped in a distinctive font on one of the terra cotta blocks for a building he designed on Woodward Ave. This simple understated feature identifies a singular force in the design and building up in Detroit – particularly the many fine movie palaces here.
Looking down Woodward Ave towards the Detroit River just out of view, the tall buildings of Detroit are all lined up for inspection.
The Fox Theater is the largest and most iconic of Detroit’s downtown movie palaces. Nearby are the State Theater and the Detroit Opera House.
Immediately to the right is a portion of the State Theater building.
Another block away is the Detroit Athletic Club. This handsome building is visible from many seats while sitting inside Comerica Park next door.
The David Broderick Tower is just beginning to be prepared for its renovation and on the other side of Woodward is the David Whitney Building.
Statler Hotel demolition is underway.
A few blocks north of this on Woodward Avenue is the former Motown Records building. This was demolished a few years after this photo was taken.
The lobby inside the Guardian Building with the Wirt Rowland Cafe provided a convivial spot for people to gather in one of the finest designed interiors in Michigan.
Visit in October 2005
Here the Madison Theater, though obscured by the People Mover is undergoing a reinvention. This work was happening alongside the renovation of the David Broderick Tower, showing that rehabilitation and preservation were possible.
Meanwhile the Statler Hotel continued to be reduced to nearly nothing.
Woodward Avenue was still waiting for attention. Here work is being done to demolish and prepare for the rehab of a building at the corner of Woodward and Grand River.
This reinforced concrete and steel frame building just behind Woodward Avenue lacked a champion committed to its preservation. For that reason, just a few years later it was demolished like so many other buildings in downtown Detroit.