What are they? [The old convention hall.]

[Detroitnerd]

The portal is dim in that shot, but still visible...

[Gistok]

It could be! Somebody have a link to the "Detroit vortex" thread where it as officially "discovered"?

Probably the funniest DYES thread of all time....

[animatedmartian]

It always baffled me how they widened Woodward without completely demolishing any buildings, but I think I see what they did.

Comparing the building above the date stamp in the OP photo to where it is in the photo old guy posted, you can see they just sliced the buildings on the west side of Woodward, including the old convention hall. You can also see the building across the street from the old convention hall now faces down the center of Woodward rather than parallel to its side before it was widened. Is there any info about other roads in Detroit that were widened / realigned and the process they went through?

Btw, here's the higher res version of the photo old guy posted. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_mOAMYPzmjq...troit_1942.jpg

[Gistok]

From GCP to the Garfield Building the buildings east of Woodward were "truncated". But since the Garfield Building was where the 1930s planners who did the Woodward widening had their offices, the building "cropping" switched over to the west side of Woodward.

So you had some buildings like Central Methodist, which lost one "bay" of their nave, and had the tower pushed back [[must have been interesting), to St. John's, which had the facade dismantled, also a bay of the nave removed, and the facade rebuilt farther back. The Crystal lofts building had the front taken off, and a newer Art Moderne one rebuilt farther back. The Bonstelle Theatre lost part of its' approach to the former temple. Several of the other churches lost parts of their front porch and steps... the Majestic Theatre lost its' lobby and Venetian Gothic facade, with a new Art Deco front added farther back... and so forth...

[Lowell]

Lowell, what's going on in that picture you drew? I see cows and a semi-truck with its back doors open.

It was one of the studies for what became a 4' x 5' painting "Gridlock" which is owned by WDIV 4.

http://atdetroit.net/archive/data/im...47_gridock.jpg

[wolverine]

An old DY post read: "Convention Hall was in the middle of the large block between Canfield and Forest, just north of the Whitney Mansion [[the Whitney Restaurant today). It ran all the way through from Woodward to Cass."

Also, according to DetroitYES legend, it's also the structure that caused the Detroit vortex to form.

Oh not that again, lol

[EastsideAl]

Also worth noting that it was originally the grounds of an athletic club, one of the few large greenfield parcels ready for development in the early 20th century.

Not just any club, that was the original site of the DAC, back when it really was an athletic club.




Here is their cricket team standing in the doorway, circa 1890:



Rough looking characters to be sure...

[EastsideAl]

In the early 1950s most of downtown south of Jefferson was slated for demolition for the building of the new Civic Center. This included Vernors longtime bottling plant at Woodward and Woodbridge [[where Hart Plaza is today). Since the Civic Center would include the new Cobo Hall convention center, which would render old Convention Hall redundant, a deal was arranged for Vernors to move to the Convention Hall site, which they did in 1954.

Vernors new building only occupied the Woodward half of the site though. The Cass side of Convention Hall remained and, with its large skylit spaces, was used as artist studios and commercial art facilities. It stood into the 1970s.

[Bluenote132003]

Back in the original photo, lower right quadrant, the building directly across Woodward from the church. There is a structure on the roof, four square legs holding what appears to be a round [[octagonal) wooden catwalk with a railing. Possibly a plank floor in the middle. Almost looks like a short observation tower, or a platform to hold a water tank that's not there...any ideas?

[DetroitPlanner]

Back in the original photo, lower right quadrant, the building directly across Woodward from the church. There is a structure on the roof, four square legs holding what appears to be a round [[octagonal) wooden catwalk with a railing. Possibly a plank floor in the middle. Almost looks like a short observation tower, or a platform to hold a water tank that's not there...any ideas?

This could have been an old water tower. Individual buildings used to have these to augment the pressure in the water lines. These became less prevelant as waterpressure was ramped up to provide service to a larger area.

[Detroitnerd]

Yes, that's an old stand for a water tank that was taken down. There are still several of those structures, sans tank, in Detroit.

Here's one:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=google...8.83,,0,-31.34

[Bluenote132003]

Thanks again...Love going back in these old pics and seeing what used to be...so much lost, but so much interesting stuff back then!