Monroe Block Development

[Detroitdave]

Does anyone have any pictures of what was On the Monroe block before the parking lot?
Of can you direct me to a Link ?
thank you

[Atticus]

I would guess that the reason for the demolition of the FTD buildings and National Theater bldg [[beyond that the latter may be beyond repair), is to accommodate a proposed underground parking garage.

If you are going to build an underground garage, it makes logistical and business sense to span it across both blocks, similar to how the Grand Circus Park garage is under two blocks. You also want to maximize the footprint of the garage without cutouts, which is what keeping the FTD and Theatre buildings would do.

For that reason, I would hope they could keep the facade at least of the FTD buildings, even if they have to tear down the building to build the garage under that site. I really believe the facade would provide a nice contrast to the more modern architecture, and help avoid the superblock effect.

[dtowncitylover]

Does anyone have any pictures of what was On the Monroe block before the parking lot?
Of can you direct me to a Link ?
thank you

I believe this block in the picture was up until the 1980s. Such a shame to lose it...

I'm also reading about it my Newspapers.com account. I wasn't alive back then, so I don't know much about it though I should. I'm beginning to think it's probably a tie for the greatest loss of a building or set of buildings lost in Detroit. Old City Hall is the other. Most of these buildings dated back before the Civil War. They all gave Monroe a good streetwall, though they were small, and potential today would be massive.

https://digitalcollections.detroitpu...ndora%3A159252

[Detroitdave]

Thank you , looks like those building fronted Monroe st.
So , I use to work in Cadillac tower, so at the edge of the building is now a street, according to that picture there was no street there? I'm assuming it was added after they tore down those buildings to the east ?

I believe this block in the picture was up until the 1980s. Such a shame to lose it...

I'm also reading about it my Newspapers.com account. I wasn't alive back then, so I don't know much about it though I should. I'm beginning to think it's probably a tie for the greatest loss of a building or set of buildings lost in Detroit. Old City Hall is the other. Most of these buildings dated back before the Civil War. They all gave Monroe a good streetwall, though they were small, and potential today would be massive.

https://digitalcollections.detroitpu...ndora%3A159252

[southen]

Here is a photo to show what im talking about.

[Detroitdave]

Ahhhhh now it makes I see ! they look similar ! Thank you for that !

Here is a photo to show what im talking about.

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

I believe this block in the picture was up until the 1980s. Such a shame to lose it...

I'm also reading about it my Newspapers.com account. I wasn't alive back then, so I don't know much about it though I should. I'm beginning to think it's probably a tie for the greatest loss of a building or set of buildings lost in Detroit. Old City Hall is the other. Most of these buildings dated back before the Civil War. They all gave Monroe a good streetwall, though they were small, and potential today would be massive.
https://digitalcollections.detroitpu...ndora%3A159252

I worked in the First National in the early/mid 80’s when the Monroe Block was largely intact, albeit run down and quite vacant. To this day I think the best thing would have been to restore and reuse those historic buildings.

[401don]

I worked in the First National in the early/mid 80’s when the Monroe Block was largely intact, albeit run down and quite vacant. To this day I think the best thing would have been to restore and reuse those historic buildings.

Funny, it was run down but didn't look a whole lot different than that 1910 photo, except for being abandoned of course. While it was tragic to lose, at least it was one block of many that remain downtown. There are a lot of towns across North America that have lost similar blocks, which represented most of their historic downtowns.