Crowley Building

[Detroit Stylin]

Question forumers. Does anyone know who owns the Crowley building on the se corner of John R and Woodward and what's the status of it?

[rb336]

I thought the Crowley building was where the parking lot behind Harry The Hatter's is [[Gratiot & Library)

[EastsideAl]

You mean the building where Oslo was located? As far as I know that building never had any relationship to Crowley's [[which was located where the Compuware garage is today). I think the official name of that building is the Kaiser-Blair Building, although I and a lot of other old Detroiters would think of it as the Rose or Zales Jewelry building, since those are the stores that used to be located there.

[Danny]

There was a Downtown Detroit Crowley's Dept Store Building. On Gratiot, Farmer St and facing Monroe St. That is right next to Old Kern's Dept Store Building. Now its part of the parking garage structure to Compuware Building.

[canuck]

Just go to edit post and select all the pictures and delete them, except the warship, DetroitStylin.

[p69rrh51]

Its actually on the southwest corner. Its the Kaiser-Blair Building. Designed by Richard Raseman and built in 1916 with a 1923 addition. According the history of the building Crowley's never had a store there. Looks like at one time the building was lofts. Included is the Final Report for the Lower Woodward Historic District which includes a good description of the building.

[EastsideAl]

OK, I see a little confusion needs to be cleared up here.

The Lower Woodward report posted by p69rrh51 misstates the location of the Kaiser-Blair building. It is on the southeast corner of John R and Woodward. There is no southwest corner of John R and Woodward, because Clifford begins on the west side of Woodward.

The building in the picture posted by the original poster, Detroit Stylin', is, in fact, on the southwest corner of Woodward and Clifford. That building is properly known as the Woodward Building, and is an Albert Kahn design completed in 1915. It also has no known connection to Crowley's. I believe it was most recently occupied by Tall-Eez Shoes, as shown in the picture.

In answer to Stylin's question though, I have no idea what is being done with that building right now.

[p69rrh51]

OK, I see a little confusion needs to be cleared up here.

The Lower Woodward report posted by p69rrh51 misstates the location of the Kaiser-Blair building. It is on the southeast corner of John R and Woodward. There is no southwest corner of John R and Woodward, because Clifford begins on the west side of Woodward.

The building in the picture posted by the original poster, Detroit Stylin', is, in fact, on the southwest corner of Woodward and Clifford. That building is properly known as the Woodward Building, and is an Albert Kahn design completed in 1915. It also has no known connection to Crowley's. I believe it was most recently occupied by Tall-Eez Shoes, as shown in the picture.

In answer to Stylin's question though, I have no idea what is being done with that building right now.

You are right the Kaiser-Blair is on the se corner. The Woodward Building was built for Jacob Siegel.

[gumby]

the Tall EEz building in the picture would be the southwest corner not southeast. Not sure if it was ever a Crowleys or who owns it but I believe there is a for lease sign in the window or at least there was one when the Google streetview was taken. Call them and they might be able to help.

[Hamtragedy]

Someone please post a picture of the Crowley's Department store with arched walkway over the street.

[Wheels]

http://historicdetroit.org/galleries...re-old-photos/

[DetroitPlanner]

That building was ripped down years ago for the parking structure for the woodward lofts project. Moosejaw is now in the retail space.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=detroi...12,223.14,,0,0

[DetroitPlanner]

Edit: brain fart totally wrong corner.

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

That building was ripped down years ago for the parking structure for the woodward lofts project. Moosejaw is now in the retail space.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=detroi...12,223.14,,0,0

No, the building is still there. The corner on the link is a block away; Grand River not Clifford/John R.

[Knightmessenger]

so the Crowley store was where the compuware parking structure is now? I had never seen pictures of it before.
I know where Hudson's stood but what was where the Compuware building is now? The more I think about it, the more I wonder how they had the space to expand woodward to form a circle [[with Campus Martius inside) when it was previously a straight line.

[Gistok]

There was the old Detroit Opera House, with the Merrill Fountain in front. Campus Martius was [[and is once again) a rectangular block pointing NE & SW, with curved corners to handle the traffic circle traffic.

Here's an old night time image of the Opera House with the fountain in front, when it was still working! I doubt that Merrill Fountain was ever working once they moved it to Palmer Park...

http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/de...0/4a09042v.jpg

[ccal]

the Tall EEz building in the picture would be the southwest corner not southeast. Not sure if it was ever a Crowleys or who owns it but I believe there is a for lease sign in the window or at least there was one when the Google streetview was taken. Call them and they might be able to help.

The building is owned by the same people who own the building across the street where Oslo used to be, the Tatarians. I was told that 7-11 is supposed to be going to be there[[Tall EEz)

[EastsideAl]

so the Crowley store was where the compuware parking structure is now? I had never seen pictures of it before.
I know where Hudson's stood but what was where the Compuware building is now? The more I think about it, the more I wonder how they had the space to expand woodward to form a circle [[with Campus Martius inside) when it was previously a straight line.

The largest building on the Compuware Building site was Kern's Department Store - which sat directly across Gratiot from Hudson's. That's why the site was always referred to as "the Kern block" during the 34 years it sat empty [[from 1966 to 2000) before Compuware was built.

Here are Kern's and the old Opera House [[by then occupied by Sam's Cut Rate) in 1950's. The fountain mentioned by Gistok was removed from Campus Martius and moved to Palmer Park in 1926 to facilitate automobile traffic.




This is towards the end of demolition of the block in 1966 [[with the also soon-to-be demolished Cadillac Square Building in the foreground). Hudson's towering to the north, Crowley's directly to the east.



The empty Kern block, as Detroiters knew it throughout the '70s, '80s, and '90s. Or nearly empty - anyone else remember the metal and canvas "tents" that sat out in the middle for several years?

[Gistok]

Nice image in that last pic of B. Siegal's... the 2nd Empire cast iron beautiful white building, which sadly burned [[and warped melting the facade)... in the 1980s, requiring it to be demolished....

[buildingsofdetroit]

Crowley's photos and history at HistoricDetroit.org:

http://historicdetroit.org/building/...artment-store/

[Whitehouse]

The empty Kern block, as Detroiters knew it throughout the '70s, '80s, and '90s. Or nearly empty - anyone else remember the metal and canvas "tents" that sat out in the middle for several years?

These?

[EastsideAl]

These?

That's them!

We used to go hang out under those after school. There would be different groups of students under different tents.

That picture looks like the Kern Block circa the late '70s. After it became completely apparent that the original Cadillac Center Mall plan was not going to be carried out, the city finally planted trees on what had been just a big open area for over a decade, and put out some picnic tables, in an effort to make the area a bit more hospitable. Many of the trees though couldn't handle the poor soil conditions, the lack of light, or the harsh winter weather and died.

Before the trees, tables, and tents went in, they held a big carnival there with amusement rides for several years as part of Downtown Detroit Days. I remember riding the Zipper and making sure the change didn't fall out of my pockets, to be scooped up by the groups of kids who smartly waited below.

[downtownguy]

Nice image in that last pic of B. Siegal's... the 2nd Empire cast iron beautiful white building, which sadly burned [[and warped melting the facade)... in the 1980s, requiring it to be demolished....

I stood across the street that night and watched it burn. Made me cry...

[Knightmessenger]

So in the photo of the Kern demolition from 1966, you say that the building on the right up close was also demolished? Wouldn't that be in the same block as the building that had Barry Sanders on it for many years, a block that is currently a parking lot but was proposed to have some movie theater complex before the scandal with Kwame broke?

Why was that building along with the Kern block buildings demolished in the first place? Back in the 60's, they wouldn't have been abandoned, right?

And the Cadillac Center Mall plan mentioned, I mentioned this in the thread "Original People Mover proposal" that someone was quoted in the Free Press the day after Hudson's was imploded as saying "something spectacular was supposed to go up after they demolished the Kern block but nothing happened." That must have been it and that must be why the People Mover station by the library has that name.

But I never realized Detroit had a big open field in downtown for so many years. I guess by the time I was around, Hudson's had long been closed so there was no point going near there. The few times I remember my parents driving past on Woodward [[mid 90's), everything looked completely dead.

[EastsideAl]

So in the photo of the Kern demolition from 1966, you say that the building on the right up close was also demolished? Wouldn't that be in the same block as the building that had Barry Sanders on it for many years, a block that is currently a parking lot but was proposed to have some movie theater complex before the scandal with Kwame broke?

Why was that building along with the Kern block buildings demolished in the first place? Back in the 60's, they wouldn't have been abandoned, right?

Actually, Kern's closed at the end of 1959, and the building was empty for more than 6 years before it was demolished. The Cadillac Square Building, which was primarily occupied by state offices for many years, got caught up in a political struggle and sat nearly empty for a long time.

But the main reason that all of those buildings in the heart of downtown were torn down - beginning with City Hall in 1961, up to the controversial destruction of the Civil War-era Monroe Block in 1990 - is just that the buildings were old, had become perceived as ugly and outmoded, and were felt to be standing in the way of modernity and 'progress.' And the progress envisioned for that area was ever bigger versions of the Cadillac Center plan, none of which would ever come to fruition.

Of course, that sort of destruction of the old was a normal part of the post-war world of urban planning, and Detroit tore down thousands of buildings, indeed whole neighborhoods, for a wide variety of projects built and unbuilt.

Here is the story of the Cadillac Square Building:
http://historicdetroit.org/building/...uare-building/

And more about the adjacent Monroe Block:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_...cial_Buildings

Here is one of the more ambitious plans for the Kern Block, by "visionary" architect Glen Small: