Park Blvd Canyon

[izzyindetroit]

From shorpy, 1916: http://www.shorpy.com/node/11220?size=_original

From google street view, 2011: http://g.co/maps/huysx

Good thing there was something going on downtown, most likely a tiger's game, or else the street view image would look deserted.

[Gsgeorge]

The loss of the Statler and Tuller hotels is a shame, shame, shame.

[Steve bennet]

Tearing down those buildings is the result of the kind of leadership Detroit needs to succeed. Excellent decisions.

[Gistok]

Tearing down those buildings is the result of the kind of leadership Detroit needs to succeed. Excellent decisions.

Yes... those now empty weed strewn lots leave visitors spellbound.....

[Detroitnerd]

I love the little house in between the buildings on the left, with somebody porch sitting. It looks right out of the 19th century, now trapped amid the 20th...

[animatedmartian]

I really like the building that was on the corner of Adams and Parks in the middle of the picture. The Charlevoix building really took a hit when they removed the cornices.

I really have to sigh that some of these buildings became empty lots rather than new buildings. Being isn't any better either.

[EastsideAl]

That's actually a pretty active nightlife area these days.

I love the woman sitting in her rocking chair right where Cliff Bell's is today. And there's that lunch wagon next to the alley [[which may be the same one that shows in an earlier Shorpy picture of the Park/Adams corner under construction). That building on the right with the arched openings looks pretty interesting too. It seems like Detroit once had a lot of that sort of Richardsonian brick buildings.

[detroitbob66]

I really like the building that was on the corner of Adams and Parks in the middle of the picture. The Charlevoix building really took a hit when they removed the cornices.

I really have to sigh that some of these buildings became empty lots rather than new buildings. Being empty isn't any better either.

I was just comparing some of my pictures of the harlevoix with the Shorpy picture, and I noticed they removed those cornices. Why would they have ever done such a thing!

[kathy2trips]

I was just comparing some of my pictures of the harlevoix with the Shorpy picture, and I noticed they removed those cornices. Why would they have ever done such a thing!

Those "greatest generation" types just hated 19th century architecture [[aka monstrosities) and accompanying embellishments...sleek lines and angles were what they were going for. They're the folks that invented mid-century modern. Often, they'd remove the offending artwork and just store them in the basement.

IMHO, I think they belong on the building as the architect intended. Taking them off seems, in retrospect, as dumb as putting them on a 60's suburban ranch. They're part of the livable art that makes so much of our buildings so special.

When I went to Europe I looked around George Street [[I was in Edinburgh) and I it just felt like Europe. I don't want Detroit to end up like another McBuilding-choked wasteland. Brother, when you step into the Guardian Building, there's no mistaking where you are. I don't want want to lose that sense of place we have a tenuous grip on.

[Gistok]

In that image you notice that the building on the NW corner of W. Adams and Park Ave [[next to the Charlevoix Building) has not yet been built. Looks like some kind of high barrier on that corner... perhaps construction had already started on it.

[Steve bennet]

Brother, when you step into the Guardian Building, there's no mistaking where you are. I don't want want to lose that sense of place we have a tenuous grip on.

Too late. Though we do have an amazing collection of parking garages now. That ought to leave visitors in awe.

Downtown was much more interesting when the Lafayette, Statler, and Madison-Lennox were still around.

I'm glad the Hudsons building is gone though. I love that girder and concrete garden, it really adds a lot to a thriving downtown.

[Detroitnerd]

Looks like there's lots of trash on the sidewalk too, and ... old shoes? Debris in the street?

Also, is that an old roach coach over on the left near the house with the woman in the rocker on the porch? Sort of like the old "Night Owl" wagon?

[old guy]

Great photo. I'd love to see the Chop Suey and Charlexoix signs lit up at night.

[gnome]

Most folks have forgotten that LaChoy was founded in Detroit. Started by a couple of Michigan grads in the early 20's. Their first product was canned mung beans.

Anyone know the name of building on the northwest corner of Park and Elizebeth? Looks like one of those old romanesque things.

[Gistok]

I was just comparing some of my pictures of the harlevoix with the Shorpy picture, and I noticed they removed those cornices. Why would they have ever done such a thing!

The removal of cornices in Detroit was due to the fact that some 82 year old woman [[in the wrong place at the wrong time) was whacked on the head by a chunk of cornice from some building in the city in the 1950s and died. So the Detroit Common Council passed an ordinance for buildings to either secure the cornices or remove them. Guess what most building owners preferred?

That was during the "look at all the trouble we went thru so you won't have to look at all that old stuff" 1950s... when the tops of the Broderick Tower, David Whitney Building, and Michigan Mutual Building also got a "lobotomy"... and the first few floors of the United Artists and Lafayette Building also got "modernized". And of course some buildings such as the Boulevard Building [[NE corner of Woodward/Grand Blvd.) got a complete facade-ectomy.

[wolverine]

I get sick looking at this. Even today, very few cities in North America where you could get a view like this. NYC and Pittsburgh off the top of my head, but the angled streets in Detroit really shaped these spectacular vistas. It's a shame these elegant buildings are gone.

[Detroitnerd]

DEGC: Demolishing Everything George Chooses...

[dtowncitylover]

DEGC: Demolishing Everything George Chooses...

haha good one! I'm gonna use it.

[kathy2trips]

The removal of cornices in Detroit was ... So the Detroit Common Council passed an ordinance for buildings to either secure the cornices or remove them. Guess what most building owners preferred?

That was during the "look at all the trouble we went thru so you won't have to look at all that old stuff" 1950s...a complete facade-ectomy.

Gistok: You're amazing. Thanks for the choice information...and for "facade-ectomy".

[kathy2trips]

Most folks have forgotten that LaChoy was founded in Detroit. Started by a couple of Michigan grads in the early 20's. Their first product was canned mung beans.

Anyone know the name of building on the northwest corner of Park and Elizebeth? Looks like one of those old romanesque things.

I'd forgotten about LaChoy. We're the home of Almond Boneless Chicken, too. Love that Americanized Cantonese cuisine!

The R.L. Polk 1929 City Directory lists 2102-06 Park Ave. as "Kanouse, Raymond, ladies furnishings" 2110 is the Women’s City Club.

The Charlevoix is one of the few pre-automobile era hotels left. That's our history. I wish so hard that area can be restored.

[Gistok]

Gistok: You're amazing. Thanks for the choice information...and for "facade-ectomy".

LOL.... you're most welcome....

I've been wondering....

...with a hail of bricks coming down on the Clifford side of the United Artists Building in the 1980s [[wrecking a few cars parked there in the process, and forcing the closure of that stretch of Clifford for quite some time).... and with the stuff that has fallen off of the Broderick Tower.... the sudden collapse of the building next door to it... the bricks falling off the Wurlitzer Building.... and the "dropsy" of other masonry in the city....

... the biggest mystery is that no one has gotten killed or injured in recent years.