Comerica Park / Ford Field

[animatedmartian]

Attachment 11465Detroit Council of Churches Headquarters

Current location is the corner across the street from the Tiger Stadium entrance. Check the fire hydrant for reference.

According to DTE aerial archives, it looks like it was demo'd during the 90s.

[downtownguy]

Attachment 11465

Detroit Council of Churches Headquarters

Current location is the corner across the street from the Tiger Stadium entrance. Check the fire hydrant for reference.

According to DTE aerial archives, it looks like it was demo'd during the 90s.

With all due respect martian, the Tiger Stadium entrance was at Michigan and Trumbull. To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen: I knew Tiger Stadium, Tiger Stadium was a friend of mine. Martian, that's no Tiger Stadium.

IIRC, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference occupied that building in the 80s.

[downtownguy]

^^Gistok, I would say it was only a few years ahead of it's time. The young law student who opened the On Stage believed in Forbes' vision of a revived theatre district. When the Elwood reopened, Forbes opted to make it more of an upscale restaurant instead of a bar. They took great pains to restore it and showcase its deco design. Now, there was an alternative to Jolly Jim's a block away and across the street from the Fox. The newspapers covered it incessantly, but gave little attention to the senior restaurant around the corner. I often felt if the On Stage had closed for a little while and reopened with a new grand opening and get the press that would go along with such an event, people would "discover" it and flock to the On Stage as well. It's really a shame, because the Elwood is rather small and yet people would line up for tables with little chance of being served by showtime, while the On Stage had tables sitting empty.

[animatedmartian]

With all due respect martian, the Tiger Stadium entrance was at Michigan and Trumbull. To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen: I knew Tiger Stadium, Tiger Stadium was a friend of mine. Martian, that's no Tiger Stadium.

IIRC, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference occupied that building in the 80s.

DOH!

I've done that many times before....oi. I'm the sad product of someone not having actually experienced Tiger Stadium. I've experienced Comerica Park. But TS is before my time.

[Gistok]

^^Gistok, I would say it was only a few years ahead of it's time. The young law student who opened the On Stage believed in Forbes' vision of a revived theatre district.

The reason I said 20 years is due to the fact that west GCP still is mostly a dead zone. With the refurbishing of the Whitney and Broderick Towers, and the venues on Park Ave., the stretch along W. Adams would make a nice tie in between Woodward and Park. None of he streets between Woodward and Park north of W. Adams is exactly pedestrian friendly..

Also the Ilitch's long ago discussed putting in an "Agora" [[Greek/Macedionian for "covered marketplace") on closed off Columbia... but they never came to terms with Hard Rock Cafe, which was going to anchor the project.

One of the reasons I feel that the Ilitch's really do want to locate their new arena behind the Fox [[west of Park), is because of their lack of any further development in the Foxtown area. I think in their mindset that if they make the area too nice, then holdout landowners will raise the price on the remaining parcels they need. However, it looks like the holdouts just may not sell.

[DetroitPlanner]

The renovated Fox reopened in October, 1988. Next up after the special grand opening performance was a Vegas-type show featuring Sammy Davis, Frank Sinatra and Liza Minnelli. The renovated Elwood hadn't opened yet, and the only real dining choice in the area was the On Stage Restaurant on Adams. Even though it was a great restaurant with a broadway show theme, the fact that it was 2 blocks south and around a corner kept most folks from knowing about it. So, ladies in their elegant evening gowns and men in their finest tuxes bellied up to the counter or crowded around the few tables at Jolly Jim's to chow down. It was quite a sight!

Sorry Charlie, the opening concert under Olympia Arenas ownership featured Hall and Oats, Smokey Robinson, and Count Basie. The Sinatra/Minelli/Davis concert happened shortly afterwards. I was still in college and working there @ the time.

[downtownguy]

Sorry Charlie, the opening concert under Olympia Arenas ownership featured Hall and Oats, Smokey Robinson, and Count Basie. The Sinatra/Minelli/Davis concert happened shortly afterwards. I was still in college and working there @ the time.

As I said, "next up." I was at the opening. The place was teeming with limos. Sean Harrington's [[of Town Pump fame) sister was operating a horse drawn carriage service at the time downtown. My girlfriend and I hired her to deliver us to the Fox. We came from the south and made a U-Turn in front of the Fox so we could get out at the door. Cops had to stop traffic for us. Even the folks getting out the limos stopped to watch.

[downtownguy]

DOH!


I've done that many times before....oi. I'm the sad product of someone not having actually experienced Tiger Stadium. I've experienced Comerica Park. But TS is before my time.

Haha. You're forgiven. That is like calling Joe Louis Arena, Olympia Stadium. Apples and oranges. But I suppose you never experienced Olympia, either.

[DetroitPlanner]

As I said, "next up." I was at the opening.

Doop! Thats what you meant by next up? I stand corrected. That was an exciting time downtown thats for sure.

[Bluenote132003]

I believe someone in the Fox building has a collection of historic photographs from the area, I remember reading somewhere it was by appointment only? Maybe one of the Forbes family? Anyone ever heard of or seen this?

[Gistok]

That would be the VAST Manning Brothers historic photos collection... purchased by Chuck Forbes. It is located next door in the 12 story Francis Palms Building [[site of the Fillmore/State theatre). Not sure of appointment schedule/procedures.

[animatedmartian]

Haha. You're forgiven. That is like calling Joe Louis Arena, Olympia Stadium. Apples and oranges. But I suppose you never experienced Olympia, either.

Heh, I've never known what Olympia was until I visited this forum. Missed it by a couple of years even though I grew up quite close to the area.

[EastsideAl]

I have great memories of that area. My mother worked at the Downtown YWCA for many years. It was at the corner of Witherell and Montcalm, a big solid Albert Kahn building with lots of dark woodwork and some Pewabic tile detailing. It had a beautiful pool on the 4th floor with a big sweeping view of downtown. Many downtown business people, male and female, preferred it to the much less scenic YMCA pool down the street, so it was pretty well used.

I took a lot of classes, etc. at the YW as a kid, including swimming in that great pool. My sister went to their girl's summer camp up in Sanilac County for several summers in a row. Sometimes we just hung around and shot baskets in the gym or bothered the staff.

Given the above-mentioned dearth of restaurants in the area, and the awfulness [[and non-alcoholic-ness) of the cafeteria then in the YWCA, my mother would sometimes get the taste for a beer [[and maybe a burger) and drag us kids over to the pre-gentrification Elwood Bar. The bar was very dark and primarily patronized in those days by residents of the nearby Wolverine Hotel, which had been turned into a senior citizens' residence. Our presence in the bar did sometimes occasion some shock from the elderly folks holding up the bar. I remember well one very pleasant and well-dressed old guy who came over to talk to us and tell us some stories, but as we were leaving he looked at my mother and said "Seriously though ma'am, children in a beer garden? No, no, no."

When I was a teenager in high school in the '70s I would usually transfer buses downtown every day. However, if I was running late, or wanted to hang around downtown for a while, or just felt like getting a ride home rather than taking the bus, I would walk over to the YW and wait for mom to finish her work. While I was waiting I often walked around the surrounding area, which I found fascinating with its mix of older institutional buildings, wholesale businesses, and leftover very old homes, including Ernie Roger's house, aka the RAPA House, on the Fisher Fwy. service drive, aka Vernor Hwy. My Dad also dragged me in there a few times to see some jazz, etc., which was a whole different experience.

[MikeM]

Here's a directory listing from 1967 of all the streets encompassed by the stadium complex:

Adams:






Elizabeth:





Columbia:

[MikeM]

Sorry about the quality; the directory was too large to place on a scanner, and the forum is resizing the images to odd sizes. Con't:


Montcalm:






Vernor:

[MikeM]

Witherel:






John R:

[MikeM]

Brush:







Beaubien:

[MikeM]

1950's era map of the area:





1-F= Fairbairn Hotel
1-S = St John's Episcopal Church
1-Y = Y.M.C.A.
2-Y = Y.W.C.A.
3-I = Insurance Exchage Building
4-C = Central Methodist Church
4-W = Wolverine Hotel
5-W = Woman's Exchange Building
6-D = Detroit Institute of Technology
7-S = State Theater

[Bluenote132003]

Hey, great stuff Mike! Pure curiosity, what/where was that list from? Odd that it's printed on tape like that, but probably just something I'm not familiar with...

[EastsideAl]

Really an epic post by Mike. I remember some of those places still being there by the mid-'70s, but the building of the Fisher Fwy. down Vernor at the end of the '60s really isolated the residential parts of that neighborhood, and cut off the small businesses that served it from much of their community.

That, along with the aging and out-migration of that area's long-time African-American residents, the destruction of the then-densely populated black neighborhood directly to the north [[Paradise Valley/Brush Park - people are still arguing about just what happened there), and the wider integration that spelled an end to the use of the segregated institutions [[black hospitals, black Ys, etc.) that once graced the neighborhood, meant that that area was increasingly emptying out during the '70s.

[Bluenote132003]

Was the stadium area the "slums" or broken down housing where the people lived who were moved later to the Sojourner Truth area? I see the old pictures that show what looks like alleys, and city dumps & garbage heaps, but they're usually not identified by street. I imagine closer to Wodward was nicer, but then housing deteriorated as you went farther east or west...

[Gistok]

Was the stadium area the "slums" or broken down housing where the people lived who were moved later to the Sojourner Truth area? I see the old pictures that show what looks like alleys, and city dumps & garbage heaps, but they're usually not identified by street. I imagine closer to Wodward was nicer, but then housing deteriorated as you went farther east or west...

By the time the Stadia were built, there were only about 3 houses left... on the EB Fisher Fwy. Service Dr.

[Bluenote132003]

Yes, but I'm thinking well before that, 20's, 30's, and 40's. Was it a nieghborhood back then, even if a very poor one? Or was the area a little more well to do? Or commercial?

[MSUguy]

1950's view

[313WX]

1950's view

It's a shame all of that is long gone now.