Park Shelton Find

[Trumpeteer]

Pretty cool story!

http://detnews.com/article/20110923/...d-Park-Shelton

[Pam]

Wow, wonder why that got covered up in the first place?

[Richard]

Very nice ,kudos to the ones that preserved instead of removing in the past so it could be discovered in the future.

[Detroitej72]

Wow, wonder why that got covered up in the first place?

Probably some ill-attempt at "renovation", in the tradition of the Fisher Theater hatchet job.

[Gistok]

Probably some ill-attempt at "renovation", in the tradition of the Fisher Theater hatchet job.

... or the drop ceiling in the elevator alcoves at the Guardian Building... or the [[recently dismissively destroyed) gilded ornate plaster work above the drop ceiling of the lobby of the Book Cadlillac before restoration...

[kryptonite]

Wasn't the barrel-vaulted ceiling of Forans/Grand Trunk hidden for many years by a drop ceiling? I think I remember the bartender at Shannon's [[prior to Foran's) telling me once that when they starting removing the drop ceiling that the barrel vaulting was discovered.

Also, the Penobscot Bldg. once had a three-story atrium similar to the Fisher Bldg before two more floors were added. Sometimes at night if you look in the eastern entrance to the Penobscot you can see the old 3rd level ceiling still.

I can remember distinctly in the 1960's when older architecture, particularly Victorian and Art Deco, were considered ugly and often were demolished for 'modern' structures. Where I lilved in Ohio many Victorian homes were demolished and in St. Louis block after block of Victorians were bulldozed to make room for university parking lots. An architect friend of mine had purchased the last one standing and it was completely surrounded by paved/unpaved parking lots.

[EastsideAl]

Yes, exactly. It's hard to remember, or even imagine now just how old and hopelessly out of style this sort of ornate decoration looked to people in the post-WWII world. It was considered embarrassingly ugly and tasteless. Something from a better-forgotten past to be eliminated, or at the very least covered up. I remember reading an urban planning book on San Francisco from the late 1950s that was all about how the city could be made more "beautiful" once they got rid of all those hideous and ugly Victorian houses.

This very sentiment was part of what cost Detroit its City Hall. People looking at pictures today wonder what the hell possessed folks to tear down City Hall in 1961. But there had been an active campaign for many years to tear down what many saw as a humiliatingly outdated structure and replace it with something more wonderfully modern. Here's how the Detroit News described it: "It is an architectural monstrosity. It belongs back in the twilight zone of American development. … It belongs to the era of the whatnot and the putty vase and the ship carved in a bottle ... a lumpy, gloomy, ugly pile of curlicued stone. No lover of beauty has ever found a single line of grace or dignity in it."

[kryptonite]

True, there is also an area south of downtown Nashville, TN where only two or three Victorian homes remain. Although a fire was partly to blame, from what I was told the majority of the houses were demolished as part of 1960's urban renewal.

For some reason Victorian design became considered ugly and archaic while Art Deco became considered tasteless and somewhat offensive.

Detroit is far from alone in having destroyed so much historic architecture. Even smaller cities and towns fell into step with the mentality. I remember seeing one victorian home after another torn down in my city in NE Ohio. And people were happy to see them demolished. They were considered eyesores.