Temple Hotel is no more.

[EastsideAl]

Milner/Ashley and the old porn theater have some value aesthetically speaking.

Anyone who bitches about the demise of the Temple are simply doing a knee-jerk "demolition bad" reaction, and for some, throw in "especially if it benefits Ilitch."

It was actually a big beautiful old Victorian home under the hotel add-ons. And, well, I've been inside that building a few times, and there was still a fair amount of extant detail inside, including a beautiful staircase with carved detail work.

I, for one, am sad to see it go every bit as much as I was sad to see so many other once-beautiful and irreplaceable Victorian houses go in the Corridor and Brush Park, no matter what they were more recently used for. A real waste in my view. A crime against our local history and our considerable architectural heritage, and yet another sadly missed opportunity to keep something special rather than replacing it with either more emptiness or something generic.

[rb336]

It was actually a big beautiful old Victorian home under the hotel add-ons. And, well, I've been inside that building a few times, and there was still a fair amount of extant detail inside, including a beautiful staircase with carved detail work.

I, for one, am sad to see it go every bit as much as I was sad to see so many other once-beautiful and irreplaceable Victorian houses go in the Corridor and Brush Park, no matter what they were more recently used for. A real waste in my view. A crime against our local history and our considerable architectural heritage, and yet another sadly missed opportunity to keep something special rather than replacing it with either more emptiness or something generic.

Compared to the city's other, exceptional Victorians, it was nothing special. "but it was old...detail...blah blah blah. Sorry, even at its best I doubt it was a stunning example of the style. I'd be willing to rethink my position if someone could post historic pictures of it. Hell, you could tell what a beauty Slumpy was

[SDCC]

A pic from its heyday would be perfect...

[KJ5]

The Hotel Ansonia has had a very debauched history as well and I'd like to see that saved. Would not even mind having an apartment in that former house of ill repute.
And The Blackstone is all remodelled and gentrified now. Does anybody remember what that place used to be like?
Some of the posters on here must use hand sanitizer every five minutes, I swear...

[EastsideAl]

The house at 72 Temple that became the Temple Hotel was originally 44 Bagg St. It was the longtime residence of Albert G. Boynton, who was, successively, a lawyer, city attorney, judge, and for 25 years the co-owner, vice-president, and political editor of the Detroit Free Press. He was also a trustee of First Unitarian Church and was in charge of the building of their church at Woodward and Edmund Pl. His wife, Frances G. Boynton, was very active in civic and educational affairs. The Boynton school on the southwest side was named for her - a name that subsequently came to be attached to the surrounding neighborhood.

The building date I usually saw given for that house was 1887, but that could have been a renovation or expansion date and the main part of the house may have been much older. City directories show the Boyntons residing at that address as early as 1865.

[Django]

The Hotel Ansonia has had a very debauched history as well and I'd like to see that saved. Would not even mind having an apartment in that former house of ill repute.
And The Blackstone is all remodelled and gentrified now. Does anybody remember what that place used to be like?
Some of the posters on here must use hand sanitizer every five minutes, I swear...

Yup, I lived in the anonia in the 90s during the days of "short stays" and after hours beers and pints of whiskey being sold after hours. Harry the desk clerk was killed about 7 feet below me and robbed of probably $50.
I have a nostalgic feel for the Temple, I only entered a few times but living in that area you had to know someone who lived there.
Theres no big revolt against it being torn down but it is a little sad. I had no idea it was being torn down Monday and happened to roll by on my bike and take a pic of it right before being torn down apparently. Ill try and post the pic but Ive been having trouble posting pics straight up and down.
I was pretty bummed when they painted over the cool old BECKS BEER sign on the side of the Ansonia with a poop brown.

[Django]

Uggh, no matter what I do I cannot get this pic to stand up straight. It's not like I haven't done this before. It's straight up in my files.

[nain rouge]

I wrote an article once about 56 Temple. Cool street. Shame to see another building there go down. Who cares if it was once a haven for prostitution and drug use? It's not like it was the building itself is prostitute or drug user, or that it has magic voodoo powers that will turn any future inhabitants into degenerates. At the end of the day, it's just another old building - another piece of Detroit's heritage - destroyed.

Of course, one demolition is no big deal. But it feels like Detroit is at a tipping point. If a concerted effort isn't made to save what's left now, enough won't remain for later generations to have an idea of the magic and importance of Old Detroit.

[Hermod]

Of course, one demolition is no big deal. But it feels like Detroit is at a tipping point. If a concerted effort isn't made to save what's left now, enough won't remain for later generations to have an idea of the magic and importance of Old Detroit.

And how much of Old, Old Detroit was razed to build Old Detroit?

[emu steve]

I wrote an article once about 56 Temple. Cool street. Shame to see another building there go down. Who cares if it was once a haven for prostitution and drug use? It's not like it was the building itself is prostitute or drug user, or that it has magic voodoo powers that will turn any future inhabitants into degenerates. At the end of the day, it's just another old building - another piece of Detroit's heritage - destroyed.

Of course, one demolition is no big deal. But it feels like Detroit is at a tipping point. If a concerted effort isn't made to save what's left now, enough won't remain for later generations to have an idea of the magic and importance of Old Detroit.

[I moved out of southeast MI, a few decades ago [[for D.C.) but I'm in Detroit a couple times per year.]

Lest I be wrong, there are PLENTY of nice shells east of Woodward which can or should be saved if the demand develops.

I don't see the blocks between Woodward/Fisher/Cass/MLKjr as being single family residential. I see the blocks EAST of Woodward as being single family residential.

I don't see this as 'one size fits all.' West of Woodward will be more commercial. East of Woodward will be more residential.

Residential West of Woodward [[and South of MLKjr) is more likely to be multi-family or hotels rather than restored single family structures.

What's the problem with that????

[nain rouge]

And how much of Old, Old Detroit was razed to build Old Detroit?

"Old Detroit" was built when the area was booming, with boatloads of money and hundreds of thousands people pouring in by the decade. Though some buildings were thrown up with little thought, most of what was built displays a level of craftsmanship and a quality of materials that you almost can't find today.

You and I both know "New Detroit" doesn't match those standards. The prefabricated, cheap synthetic materials used now are bland as all get up and won't last. Look at that building on the northwest corner of Warren and Woodward. In thirty years it'll look the Professional Plaza on 3800 Woodward [[the "Hammer building") that you're all clamoring to see torn down.

Now, I get that Detroit shouldn't be a museum. The old must make way for the new. Still, the best cities have a tight integration of old and new, with many blocks that go for almost 100 years or more with nary a disturbance. And, that's a great thing. You want to tear down, tear down, tear down, and for what? So the Temple Hotel plot can be the site of a CVS one day?

People, we have a relentlessly depressing situation in Detroit. We need to stop making lemonade out of rotten lemons. It doesn't go down any easier that way. You think Ilitch's magic arena is going to change everything in the lower Cass Corridor, simply by moving where the Red Wings play up a mile or whatever [[I'm going on a tangent now, but stick with me)? We already have a ballpark and stadium up there, and what do we have to show for it? Rub Pub BBQ, Hockeytown Cafe, and Cheli's Chili? There's almost no new development in Brush Park.

Believe it or not, urban cities can gentrify without pro sport venues. Hard to believe, but it's really happened. Ask yourself: how did Portland become a new urban mecca when it only has ONE sports team? When Seattle lost its basketball team, how did the city survive? What's keeping cities like Richmond, VA or Greensboro, SC afloat and gentrifying? Where's Austin's pro sports team?

Detroit is nuts, nuts I tell you. Some of you really think the Temple Hotel demolition is part of a magic Ilitch scheme to save Greater Downtown, don't you?

[EastsideAl]

Thank you for posting those photos Django, no matter how cockeyed they came out. With some of the hotel accretions gone, from the angle you took that photo we can really see much better what was lost.

The big round Richardsonian doorway - so characteristic of Detroit buildings of that period - and the rather gothic detailing of the roofline, lead me to re-examine what I stated in my post above. The facade, at least, looks pretty clearly like a Detroit house of the 1880s. Right down to the damaged, but still visible, restrained decorative brickwork. I wonder if Donaldson and Meier may have had a hand in here, since Judge Boynton hired them to design First Unitarian just a few years later. In any event, it's certain that they don't build them like that anymore.

The house may have been expanded forward, with a new facade, from its Civil War-era configuration. Or perhaps there was previously a frame house on that lot that was totally replaced by a new brick one while the Boyntons temporarily stayed elsewhere. The similarities and differences between the house as shown below from the 1884 Sanborn map and the 1897 one could give some credence to the remodeled and "expanded forward" thesis though. Which would mean that we just tore down a rare Detroit surviving 1860s structure [[like the 1864 Munro house at 56 Temple just next door that Nain Rouge wrote about, which also sits vacant, mouldering, and awaiting its date with hockey fan parking lot destiny).

1884


1897


R.I.P.

[EastsideAl]

And how much of Old, Old Detroit was razed to build Old Detroit?

Not a lot, actually, since Detroit was a boomtown that grew out over previously mostly empty land in successive waves. Other than right downtown, and the "slum clearance" project areas of the 40s and 50s, much of the 19th and early 20th century city was quite intact into the 1960s and 70s.

[rex]

it was a neat looking building.
What was it like inside. For better or worse [[probably better) I never stepped foot inside there. No reason.
Again. Probably good.
I would have rescued that owl picture.

[rex]

Can't take credit for the pic

[drpoundsign]

Not many old Victorians around the D anymore, except the few saved in Brush Park, Woodbridge and Corktown. And yes, there are a few in Midtown that are well preserved. The question in My mind, is whether the physical plant of the building could have been saved. If there aren't Too many rats chewing out the walls, if the plumbing hasn't leaked, maybe it could have been saved? Even if it WAS bad, it could have been gut-renovated. The Addison, Eddystone etc., and an 1890 former hourly Hotel on Second Ave, have all been saved/gentrified so why not THIS place? It has architectural significance. See my old post on the 1883 house on 3rd ave. Ilitch and the City only want to make Big Bucks on a new arena that the City does not Need. The Joe is NOT Old!

[RaumVogel]

Well, the cost of moving it would be too high,IMO. The building itself is in the way of progress.Move it, or lose it.It's a shame, but probably inevitable.Rex,where did you find that pic?

[rb336]

Not many old Victorians around the D anymore, except the few saved in Brush Park, Woodbridge and Corktown. And yes, there are a few in Midtown that are well preserved. The question in My mind, is whether the physical plant of the building could have been saved. If there aren't Too many rats chewing out the walls, if the plumbing hasn't leaked, maybe it could have been saved? Even if it WAS bad, it could have been gut-renovated. The Addison, Eddystone etc., and an 1890 former hourly Hotel on Second Ave, have all been saved/gentrified so why not THIS place? It has architectural significance. See my old post on the 1883 house on 3rd ave. Ilitch and the City only want to make Big Bucks on a new arena that the City does not Need. The Joe is NOT Old!

The Joe is outdated. It was outdated from the day it opened. Sub-par facility. architectural significance? what architectural significance? It was the closest an old Victorian could get to being a Pulty home.

[rb336]

Can't take credit for the pic

wait, is that a body ​in the trunk????

[Django]

Eastside Al thank you for straightening out my pic. Ive never had that problem before.

I took this yesterday. I sure wish I could somehow save that sign when it comes down.

[rex]

Go snag it
I dont think anyone would care.

[drpoundsign]

Well, those big old hotels we speak of, REPLACED Victorians in the Cass Corridor, and then became slums themselves-just as The Jeffries and other PJs became slums and had to be removed. We need to have a sense of History here. See my post on the 1883 house in the Western part of the Corridor being sold for "the value of the land only."

SAD

[emu steve]

Sorry if I come across as an idiot, but Detroit has a lot of very nice historic homes in residential areas which can [[and should) be preserved.

But in the area we are talking we are talking of the Temple Hotel and a brand new arena.

A historic house or building seems to make sense within the context of what is around it. The Temple Hotel next to [[let's assume) a new modern office building is kind of like how [[some) guys dressed in the 70s [[checks and stripes, etc. - hard on the eyes).

Doesn't this sound a little like 31 flavor of ice cream, I mean structures?

Architecture needs to blend and be easy on the eyes. Isn't that one reason for zoning. Who wants a small apartment building on a block with a dozen single family homes????

This is the McMansion issue we have in the D.C. area. Someone will take a rambler and turn it into a 'mansion' and will dwarf a bunch of other ramblers.

[nain rouge]

Who wants a small apartment building on a block with a dozen single family homes????

Um, that's super common in historic cities, and there are tons of people - believe it or not - that love streets like that.

[cman710]

Um, that's super common in historic cities, and there are tons of people - believe it or not - that love streets like that.[/COLOR]

I agree. As one example, in Cambridge, MA, which has a wealth of amazing, victorian architecture, it is not entirely uncommon to find a small apartment or condo building on a block with many single family homes. The buildings tend to be on or near major streets and the single family homes as you go away from the major streets, and they do not detract from the single family homes.