Another Shorpy Gem

[Ray1936]

Griswold and Michigan, 1910.
http://www.shorpy.com/node/16298?size=_original#caption

[drjeff]

Is the Ford Bldg the only thing in that photo still there?

[EastsideAl]

Great photo. The then-brand-new Ford Building is the only remaining structure from this pictures. Of course, there's a good close-up view of the backside of our long-lost City Hall, and the sculpture of, I believe, Pere Marquette [[or is it Gabriel Richard?).

I really love the fascinating mix of automobiles and horses & buggies on the streets [[along with a fair number of bicycles and 4 streetcars). And that little cluster of older buildings at the northwest corner of Griswold and Fort St. is very intriguing.

[DetroitPlanner]

Aww the Penobscot building looked so cute as a baby!

City hall statues now reside at WSU by General Lectures, Mannogian, and the old church that is never open. http://www.cfpca.wayne.edu/ArtWalk.pdf

[esp1986]

Great photo. The then-brand-new Ford Building is the only remaining structure from this pictures. Of course, there's a good close-up view of the backside of our long-lost City Hall, and the sculpture of, I believe, Pere Marquette [[or is it Gabriel Richard?).

I really love the fascinating mix of automobiles and horses & buggies on the streets [[along with a fair number of bicycles and 4 streetcars). And that little cluster of older buildings at the northwest corner of Griswold and Fort St. is very intriguing.

The Penobscot Annex is also in this picture. It still stands as well. It is to the west [[right, behind) the building this side of the Ford Building... where the Penobscot stands today.

[Gistok]

The beautiful building behind Old City Hall is the Hammond Building... which came down for the Chase Tower...

https://www.google.com/search?q=Hamm...&bih=655&dpr=1

[EastsideAl]

The Penobscot Annex is also in this picture. It still stands as well. It is to the west [[right, behind) the building this side of the Ford Building... where the Penobscot stands today.

Ahhh, thank you, I missed that. It would have been about 3 years old at the time this picture was taken.

One of the posters on Shorpy posted a very interesting closeup of the baseball scoreboard on the front of Sharpe's Chop House, which is set up to show the score of every American League game that day. The Tigers were playing the White Sox.

[WPitonya]

Damn I wonder when the Penobscot Annex lost its awesome cornice....

[Gistok]

The cornices went starting in 1958... that was when the 82 year old woman was killed by a falling cornice....

http://news.google.com/newspapers?ni...pg=3678,694109

[EastsideAl]

In the deep background I believe you can see the tall steeple of St. Alphonsus R.C. church in Windsor. The 1871 church is still there, right by the tunnel entrance, but the steeple has been gone since it blew down in a storm in 1919.

[DetroitPlanner]

I find it funny you call the original tower the Annex. I understand it, but it just sounds funny.

[steve from virginia]

Majestic bldg and old City Hall:

http://www.shorpy.com/node/6839?size...=73178#caption

[EastsideAl]

The latest Shorpy Detroit posting is another "circa 1910" shot of the Knights of the Maccabees of the World at Woodward and Putnam.

Built in 1888 as the Edward Smith residence, this building was replaced in 1926 by the Maccabees Building, which was for many years the DPS headquarters and is now part of Wayne State. The house in the left background still stands, wedged between the Maccabees Building and the WSU Welcome Center. You can also see the Woodward streetcar tracks being replaced in the foreground. The Maccabees faded out as a fraternal organization but lived on as a life insurance company until the 1990s.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/16304?size=_original#caption

[detroitbob]

On the City Hall west facade overlooking Griswold, it appears the Melcher statue of Pere Richard stands in its niche.

[Gistok]

Here's another view from near where the first Shorpy image was taken, but looking eastward. This image dates to about 1929... because it mentions that the [[1929 completed) Guardian Building has a different final design than shown in this postcard....

http://www.historicdetroit.org/postcards/downtown/2731/

The Hammond and First National buildings are also in this image.

[Gistok]

Here's another post card image showing lower Woodward towards the Majestic Building [[1001 Woodward today).

One of the greatest loses in smaller Woodward fronting buildings was the loss of the cast iron facade [[c. 1883) B. Siegel Building in the foreground, a Second Empire gem. Tragically it was destroyed by fire in the 1980s.

http://historicdetroit.org/postcards/street-views/1665/

[noenaim]

Is the Ford Bldg the only thing in that photo still there?

Not True I see "Phase 1" of the Penobscot Building

[Jason]

Here's another view from near where the first Shorpy image was taken, but looking eastward. This image dates to about 1929... because it mentions that the [[1929 completed) Guardian Building has a different final design than shown in this postcard....

http://www.historicdetroit.org/postcards/downtown/2731/

The Hammond and First National buildings are also in this image.

Postcards are so unreliable. There's a bunch of them that have the Guardian Building or David Stott Building as being white.

The postcard is from when the Guardian Building would have already been built, because the First National Building in the background is complete. The Bates/Congress side of the First National Building is from 1930.


Look at the lovely courtyard the Dime Building had back then. http://www.historicdetroit.org/postc...et-views/1575/