9375 Amity St. Detroit 48214

[MidTownMs]

Does anyone know anything about this address [[9375 Amity St.). The building currently serves at a church. Amity St. is a one block long street between McClellan & Pennsylvania and Kercehval and Vernor. It was built in 1910 and was named Amity Temple in 1920. Around 1940 the Knights of Columbus took it over. The church is trying to get the building placed on the Historical Registry. I am not a member but I told a member of the church that I would see if someone here might be able to help. I appreciate any help anyone can provide...Most of the information above was found at the Burton Collection of the Main Library..Thanks..The link is a current picture of the building.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=9375+a...QFZ4Fcf6HGYkwg

[Gannon]

I wish I could help...but in circling that streetview I was struck by that barn.

Maybe you could hook up with the tow-truck owner and double down...that thing looks like it belongs in some registry, too!!

Good luck...

[EastsideAl]

It was built as the Amity Temple of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows [[IOOF), hence the name of that little short street. The Odd Fellows are a fraternal organization [[my grandfather was one), and amity [[friendship, that is) is considered an important value amongst them, so a number of the organization's lodges carry that name to this very day.

[Parkguy]

Does anyone know anything about this address [[9375 Amity St.). The building currently serves at a church. Amity St. is a one block long street between McClellan & Pennsylvania and Kercehval and Vernor. It was built in 1910 and was named Amity Temple in 1920. Around 1940 the Knights of Columbus took it over. The church is trying to get the building placed on the Historical Registry. I am not a member but I told a member of the church that I would see if someone here might be able to help. I appreciate any help anyone can provide...Most of the information above was found at the Burton Collection of the Main Library..Thanks..The link is a current picture of the building.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=9375+a...QFZ4Fcf6HGYkwg

OK... I was doing some family history research for my wife's family. Her great-grandfather was a member of the Amity Temple IOOF for 40 years. In the 1920-21 Polk's Detroit City Directory, they give both the old street address and the new updated address after they standardized address numbering [[the system we use today). The directory gives the location of the Amity Temple as being on Vincennes Street, which doesn't even exist in Detroit now. Her great-grandfather was shown to live at the same address, and the whole building was part of the Vincennes Apartments, and that included Amity Temple. When they changed the addresses, they combined #27 and #33 through #37 into one address: 9361 Vincennes. The way they numbered addresses before the change was to start the numbering wherever the street started, regardless of where the street is on the map grid. The low numbers under the old system tell me that this was the first block or two on Vincennes street. The new-style number DOES show where it is on the grid, and 9361 is right on top of 9375, the current number for the old Amity Lodge building, but only if we assume that Vincennes and Amity Streets are the same street. And Amity is a really short street that would have had only low numbers under the old system. Does anyone know if the street name changed after 1920-21? It could easily be that great-granddad lived in an apartment over his lodge hall.

[Scottathew]

These documents confirm Parkguy's hunch about Vincennes Street being present day Amity Street:

http://books.google.com/books?id=JNV...oit%22&f=false

http://books.google.com/books?id=Edg...oit%22&f=false

[Parkguy]

These documents confirm Parkguy's hunch about Vincennes Street being present day Amity Street:

http://books.google.com/books?id=JNV...oit%22&f=false

http://books.google.com/books?id=Edg...oit%22&f=false

Those boundary sequences certainly show that Vincennes was probably today's Amity Street. Great digging. Trying to sort out old historical records like this makes for a great mystery puzzle, and the personal connection makes the old days seem very real. Thanks for the info!

[EastsideAl]

Confirmation, circa 1915 map:



Also shows original McClellan 5th Precinct police station.

[Parkguy]

It looks like Park View Street was also added to the change to Amity Street.

[Scottathew]

It looks like Park View Street was also added to the change to Amity Street.

In some of the Google Street View pictures, you can still see the Parkview street signs, but in other pictures it's gone.

So I'd guess there was a Parkview street sign in the last decade.

[EastsideAl]

Despite what Google Maps says, that block is still part of Parkview.

From Sept. 2013:


Parkview used to run straight through to Jefferson from Amity, but the blocks between Kercheval and Pontiac were taken out in the early 80s for a shopping center that was never built.

[EastsideAl]

Also at the dead end of Amity St. you can see in Street View a pretty rare surviving Detroit barn standing behind a house on Pennsylvania.

[Scottathew]

Also at the dead end of Amity St. you can see in Street View a pretty rare surviving Detroit barn standing behind a house on Pennsylvania.

I saw that too. I hope it continues to survive. It's amazing to think when that was probably built.

[Honky Tonk]

Also at the dead end of Amity St. you can see in Street View a pretty rare surviving Detroit barn standing behind a house on Pennsylvania.

Do you think it's a real barn, or one of those barn-like looking homes that has now fallen into disarray? There used to be quite a few of those built around the City.

[EastsideAl]

Do you think it's a real barn, or one of those barn-like looking homes that has now fallen into disarray? There used to be quite a few of those built around the City.

It can be seen here. I vote real barn.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3643...nhmmuZX64g!2e0

There appear to be hayloft doors under the dormer on the top. It looks something like the pictures I've seen of the 1870s-era barn that was behind my mother's [[long-gone) childhood home on Brooklyn.

[jackie5275]

I say barn too. You don't see anything like a chimney or electrical wiring to it like the house next to it.

[Honky Tonk]

It can be seen here. I vote real barn.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3643...nhmmuZX64g!2e0

There appear to be hayloft doors under the dormer on the top. It looks something like the pictures I've seen of the 1870s-era barn that was behind my mother's [[long-gone) childhood home on Brooklyn.

The Google Streetview says 2011. I wonder if it's still standing. Maybe I'll do a field trip. Thanx.

[p69rrh51]

Looks like the temple was built sometime in the mid to late 1920's. The 1911 City directory shows the group meeting at Lemay & E. Jefferson. 1912 shows them meeting at Kercheval & Crane. 1913 shows them meeting at Leland and Moran. 1914 shows them meeting at Parkview and Kercheval. That address continues until the mid 1920's when 9375 Amity is listed. Also included in a Detroit Free Press article from 10/10/09 featuring a Bernard C. Wetzel design for the temple that was never built.

[downtownguy]

It was built as the Amity Temple of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows [[IOOF), hence the name of that little short street. The Odd Fellows are a fraternal organization [[my grandfather was one), and amity [[friendship, that is) is considered an important value amongst them, so a number of the organization's lodges carry that name to this very day.

EastsideAl, I always suspected you came from a long line of Odd Fellows.

[EastsideAl]

Looks like the temple was built sometime in the mid to late 1920's. The 1911 City directory shows the group meeting at Lemay & E. Jefferson. 1912 shows them meeting at Kercheval & Crane. 1913 shows them meeting at Leland and Moran. 1914 shows them meeting at Parkview and Kercheval. That address continues until the mid 1920's when 9375 Amity is listed. Also included in a Detroit Free Press article from 10/10/09 featuring a Bernard C. Wetzel design for the temple that was never built.

I think it's quite likely that the Kercheval and Parkview location is actually the same as the Vincennes/Amity St. one, since that corner is only a very short block away. The piece of the 1915 Sanborn map I posted above shows the IOOF Amity Temple already located on Vincennes/Amity [[that building is not there on the 1910 map). There is no evidence though of any IOOF presence at the nearby Kercheval and Parkview corner.

Now, it is quite possible that the building in the 1915 map was replaced at some point by a newer temple. However, looking at the shape and orientation of the building as shown on the 1915 map, and looking at the Google aerial and street views of what's there today, I think it's likely that the earlier building was just expanded significantly across the adjacent lot to the west.

[Parkguy]

That is definitely a barn with a hayloft door. I bet it was a hay and feed business originally. There were plenty of businesses like that around town to supply all of the horses. I was just at the main library yesterday checking old city directories for addresses-- I wish I had seen this post earlier... I could have checked the listings. Next time.