Lost Hotels of Columbia Street.

[EstateSale]

Hello all! Long time lurker, first-time poster.

In the mid-to-late 1970s, when a child, my suburban family would occasionally visit Detroit, and for reasons I don't quite recall we would often use Columbia St. as part of a shortcut to get from Woodward to Cass and thence Michigan Avenue. I can remember at that point Columbia was the home to numerous small hotels, a bar called "The 33," and other small businesses. Among the names I remember are the Columbia Hotel, The Mayflower Hotel, the Lester Hotel, and I think the Hotel Washington, which I recall had a large Faygo painted ad. I'm sure there were others I don't recall. For some reason I was especially fascinated by this street when I was around 8 or 9. It was an area that struck me as, if not exactly thriving, at least showing signs of life. My question is: when was that area bulldozed for parking lots? [[When I learned to drive around 1985, I drove down that way and was shocked to see it all gone.) And does anyone have any memories of other businesses or life on this stretch?

[Stinger4me]

There was a hotel on the north side of Columbia and it was just east of Park Avenue. I can't recall the name but it was a narrow building, two stories. It was across the street from Fox's Magic Shop.

[EstateSale]

I did some research at the library this evening on the topic; I'll post my findings here later on.

[EstateSale]

Okay, folks, I had a pretty productive afternoon of research, so I'm sort of answering my own question here. I found a Polk City Guide from 1970 and was able to determine the following addresses, all of which are on W. Columbia Street:
27--Little Normandie Hotel
33--33 Bar
66--Mayflower Hotel
74--Cedars Chop House
110--Sam's Barber Shop
118--Wright Hotel [[about the only thing left from that stretch that still stands)
145--Astrid Apartment Hotel
151--Columbia Hotel
161--Lester Hotel

Furthermore, I found that the Columbia Hotel experienced a fire in February 1980 in which three people died. I also found quite a few pictures of the above mentioned buildings on this site starting here:http://placepromo.com/search_results...ption=&page=89

Still nothing on the Washington Hotel, although I'm starting to think it may have been on Cass or Clifford...

[Lowell]

What about the Hotel Vermont/Tremont?


See the archived 'Old' Forum thread here.

Interesting discussion in view of the surge of 'boutique' hotel announcements in downtown Detroit.

[EastsideAl]

The Cedars! Well, that awakened a few old memories of that area. I had a sort of very faded dowager maiden great-aunt who lived over there in one of the larger residential hotels on Park [[the Royal Palm?) in the '60s and early '70s. I would go visit her with my grandparents and parents and she would take us out for lunch or dinner, often for lunch at the Women's City Club right there on Park.

But if it was dinner we would often go to Ernie Klee's steakhouse [[aka The Embers - NOT the Flaming Embers) nearby on Cass, which my grandfather liked because he knew Ernie from a bowling alley he used to run on the eastside [[oh, and they had beer!). One of the other places we went several times was the Cedars, which was a middle-eastern nightclub sort of place in the block behind the Fox Theater that featured a floor show with belly dancing. My grandfather certainly liked that, and it sure made quite a lasting impression on my pre-teen self too. I've been trying to remember the name of that joint for years.

I remember those hotels along the sidestreets in there. Most of them in those days were, like the hotels in the Cass Corridor to the north, still full of single men, many of them elderly, who had come up from down south, down from northern Michigan, or arrived from elsewhere to work in the city. Of course, there was a fair amount of drinking that went on there too. In the 70s though drug use and prostitution would take over and the area became somewhat unsafe. The Young administration and DPD "cleanup" efforts in the late '70s and early '80s closed a lot of those places down, and many were torn down soon thereafter in the hopes of future development for the area that has taken decades to arrive.

I was always a little excited for those trips to that area as a kid because, if my grandfather was on board, they often included a trip to Downtown Train & Camera on Elizabeth to get me a new train car or slot car for my good behavior. I later spent a lot of time walking through there, and observing a lot of "urban life", when I was at Cass Tech.

[Honky Tonk]

There was a hotel on the north side of Columbia and it was just east of Park Avenue. I can't recall the name but it was a narrow building, two stories. It was across the street from Fox's Magic Shop.

Wow, Talk about a memory jarring blast from the past. I totally forgot about Fox's Magic Shop. I do remember riding my bike there as a kid, and being fascinated with the place.

[EastsideAl]

Still nothing on the Washington Hotel, although I'm starting to think it may have been on Cass or Clifford...

I believe the Washington Hotel was at the corner of Cass and Columbia. I think it was addressed on Cass.

[K-slice]

Tragic to see what has been lost in sea of surface parking. I always love the feeling standing at the intersection of Park and Motcalm, there you can really get the feel of what the neighborhood used to be like. Low and mid-rise buildings built right up to the sidewalk of narrow streets give you a different feel than right downtown.

[EstateSale]

Thanks for the replies everyone! Interesting stuff.

[Sandhouse]

It's not on Columbia, but a block south, but does anyone know why the building that contained the Downtown Train and Camera Shop is the only one still standing in the "sea of surface parking?" Or at least it was in the August, 2015, Google Streetview photo, which shows it in good condition, including the entrance stairs to the basement store. I believe the address was 122 West Elizabeth. Does it have a holdout landowner?

[MikeM]

1940:

[wilderness]

Wow, Talk about a memory jarring blast from the past. I totally forgot about Fox's Magic Shop. I do remember riding my bike there as a kid, and being fascinated with the place.

Fox Fun 'N Magic was originally owned by Karell Fox [[one of the Milky the Clowns) and Roy Kissel. Kissel stayed there until the mid to late-70s and then moved out to 6 or 7 Mile on the mid-east side. Roy was still performing in the early 80's. Roy wasn't exactly cordial to customers. There was another magic shop a few blocks from Husdson's [[you could see the old Sams Store from their windows. Jimmy and Lila Martin owned that. It was much smaller than Fox, and was a former Jewelry Store. All the local magis always visited Jimmy and Lila because it was a friendly atmosphere. Roy Kissel used to have magi gatherings a few Saturday's a month. You had to be in the click to get in. There was a large shop located in the Tel-12 area in the 80s-90s. Also a small shop near Ford and Middlebelt [[couple of blocks east of Ford).

[Honky Tonk]

Fox Fun 'N Magic was originally owned by Karell Fox [[one of the Milky the Clowns) and Roy Kissel. Kissel stayed there until the mid to late-70s and then moved out to 6 or 7 Mile on the mid-east side. Roy was still performing in the early 80's. Roy wasn't exactly cordial to customers. There was another magic shop a few blocks from Husdson's [[you could see the old Sams Store from their windows. Jimmy and Lila Martin owned that. It was much smaller than Fox, and was a former Jewelry Store. All the local magis always visited Jimmy and Lila because it was a friendly atmosphere. Roy Kissel used to have magi gatherings a few Saturday's a month. You had to be in the click to get in. There was a large shop located in the Tel-12 area in the 80s-90s. Also a small shop near Ford and Middlebelt [[couple of blocks east of Ford).

Thanx for the info, Wilderness. I just remember going up there a few times, feeling like I was privy to the "Secret Chamber". Good times for young kids.

[wilderness]

Thanx for the info, Wilderness. I just remember going up there a few times, feeling like I was privy to the "Secret Chamber". Good times for young kids.

There's a big Magic Festival each year in Colon, Mich. It used to go on for a week. I've never been https://magicgettogether.com/specialevents.html Abbott's Magic had the largest catalog [[sold for $3.00 in the 60s). The only bigger magic shop/company was Louis Tanner in NY. Tanner's catalog was a hard-cover book. Wish I kept those catalogs from the 60s There was a card company in Covington, KY [[just over the river from Cinnci) that used to make all the standard and trick cards that magis used. Don't remember the name though. Visited their once.

[EstateSale]

1940:

This is fantastic! Thank you! Forgive my ignorance, but what does the [[br) after some addresses stand for? Branch?

[CassTechGrad]

Information from 1928 along Columbia and Cass Avenue.

[EstateSale]

Information from 1928 along Columbia and Cass Avenue.

Many thanks! A small correction, though: Washington Hotel listed at 2130 Cass. 2203 was the Windsor Hotel. I wonder would these have been considered residential hotels in 1928?

[MikeM]

This is fantastic! Thank you! Forgive my ignorance, but what does the [[br) after some addresses stand for? Branch?

Yes, branch location.

[EstateSale]

Wow. Following the trail of names from the info provided above, I found a 1940 census page covering the residents of 151 Columbia, later the Columbia Hotel, and earlier apparently known as the Hazeltone Apartments. In 1940 it looks like the address was a rooming house run by Hovannes Sarrijian [[spelling varies) and his wife Anoush, both natives of Turkey.
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/...219&cc=2000219
Other residents came from Turkey, Greece, New York, Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana.

Edited to remove erroneous information regarding 1930 residents and to add the 1930 cenus for 151: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/...731&cc=1810731

[Lowell]

I believe the Washington Hotel was at the corner of Cass and Columbia. I think it was addressed on Cass.

Correct. Anybody else remember the large sign on the south side of the building reading "IF YOU LIVED HERE YOU WOULD BE HOME NOW" that one would see drive up Cass.

It was a crack-up to everybody as it was a notoriously dilapidated flea-bag building that one would think of being the last place where one would want live.

[EstateSale]

Correct. Anybody else remember the large sign on the south side of the building reading "IF YOU LIVED HERE YOU WOULD BE HOME NOW" that one would see drive up Cass.

I don't remember that, but I do remember a large painted sign for Faygo Uptown on the side of the building visible from Columbia overlooking a parking lot. As Faygo Uptown wasn't [[and isn't) sold anymore, I found this fascinating when I was a kid--to me it was like seeing a prehistoric cave painting or something.

I'm pretty sure the Washington was abandoned by the time I started riding through the area. I can remember seeing the furniture still in some of the lower level rooms.

[kathy2trips]

Thank you for shedding some light on a little discuss aspect of Detroit history. They may have been shady places in our time, but when Detroit was a manufacturing behemoth, these places provided incoming workers with much needed places to stay. They said that Detroit was the city of houses, but these "apartment hotels" were the first homes of thousands of new Detroiters from whom many of us descend.

Detroit Free Press, Sunday, February 1, 1914

[EstateSale]

Interesting reading on the topic of residential hotels can be found here: http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpresse...;brand=ucpress Concentrates on the subject on a national level using San Francisco as an example, but provides information and insight on a seemingly forgotten aspect of American history.