Shorpy again!

[Jimaz]

Interesting observation... hats seem to have fallen from favor in America in the last 60 or so years....

I've heard the hatless trend attributed to President John F. Kennedy. He didn't wear hats so hatless became the fashion and it stuck.

[EastsideAl]

Well there's one building on the right side... the 12 story United Way Building, which was built in the mid 1890s, but it's been remodeled quite a bit since...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_...vices_Building

You're right that that building would have been standing at that time, but I think it's actually just out of view in the Shorpy photo.

I had pretty much forgotten about that building though, until you brought it up. I had occasion to be in there several times when I worked for the city back in the '80s. It was really a beautiful building, inside and outside, before it was "remodeled" and butchered with those hideous glass fill-ins. Talk about an insensitive renovation!

[EastsideAl]

The other building -

http://www.shorpy.com/node/14918

3 pre-war buildings currently stand at the corner of Griswold and Congress [[can you name them?). Here is the other building that once stood at that corner, complete with its pre-AC awnings.

This building was replaced in 1959 by one of downtown's most prominent post-war buildings. One that was known for years by the names of the financial institutions that owned it, but is now named for its shape.

As always, click on the picture for the beautiful full-size print where you can see up-close brick streets, streetcar tracks and wires, a little girl in a period dress, horses, coaches, and, of course, horse by-products.

[rutlev]

Shoot, everyone I see is either wearing one of those peruvian knit head covers with the ear flaps, or the Edge knit hat or a baseball cap or a hoodie, It's just a different style of hat and I guess it beats combing your hair.

[Detroitdave]

It's amazing how busy Downtown Detroit was in 1910 ? even EVERY side street was packed with businesses and people.
the one shot of griswold [[sp) kind of threw me the part closest is Michigan Ave looking down to capital park , looking down that same street today it's a ghost town, hopefully this will change soon ?
simply amazing .

[Detroitdave]

EVERY TIME I see an older picture of downtown and city hall I ALWAYS get turned around and it take me a while to get my bareing[[sp) . city hall was to the EAST of woodward where ernst and young's green building is and the building where the central savings bank is in the picture, is where the 60's building that Gilbert just bought? 1001 Woodward I think . it's all so weird to me , for the longest time I thought city hall was where compuware is today , but I was wrong , that was where the Opera house was , it was such a strange layout to me ,but I guess it worked , it was very busy.
I think because the churches seem too close and there was no Hudsons
What a different time ?

[EastsideAl]

City Hall was west of Woodward. You are correct though that it was where the Ernst & Young [[aka One Kennedy Square) building is today.

[EastsideAl]

A nice Shorpy picture today of yet another old Victorian pile long gone from our downtown landscape.

The old main post office:


Link:
http://www.shorpy.com/node/15198

As always, click on the pic for highly detailed full size.

[Ray1936]

I sure love those 1912 vintage autos. Wouldn't mind having that old streetcar, either.

[EastsideAl]

It's a 14th St. streetcar!

[Wintersmommy]

Makes me a little more careful in my own aesthetic judgements about what is and is not dated or ugly.

?

I couldn’t agree more...i loathed midcentury modern homes. I grew up in a 1956 home in Warren and thought it hideous! but....i have decided to embrace it, because really the 1950's-60's houses of today are viewed the same now as turn of the century structures were seen at the beginning of the "modern" era ...outdated and ugly

[marshamusic]

A nice Shorpy picture today of yet another old Victorian pile long gone from our downtown landscape.

The old main post office:


Link:
http://www.shorpy.com/node/15198

As always, click on the pic for highly detailed full size.

What an amazing photo, especially in full size. Are any of the buildings in the photo still in existence?

Paris of the Midwest.

[EastsideAl]

Are any of the buildings in the photo still in existence?

Not many. As far as I can see, the only buildings that are still standing are the Detroit Club [[the back of which can be seen in the middle left), and that church visible way out just to the left of the post office building, which I believe is Most Holy Trinity.