History to Parking Lots - Demolition begins on United Artists Theater

[Richard]

[QUOTE=Trumpeteer;628899]

I NEVER said anything about you "not living in Detroit". I said you apparently had never been to Belle Isle. Keep it up Richard you're making a lot of friends here. Maybe find a DiscussFlorida site??

You seem to be confused,it is discuss Detroit and not discuss Florida and the ultimate goal in the bigger picture everybody in the country should be concerned about Detroit,because much to your dismay it is a part of the bigger picture.

I am not here to make friends or find a date and it does not matter if I am there or 5000 miles away,Detroit was an international city one of few in the country.

Florida is doing just fine,and a Discuss Florida site would be filled with people talking about how the state is being ruined by everybody fleeing from up north and bringing their sprawl and anti transit bs right along with them.

I prefer to go directly to the sourse,the better Detroit becomes the more people will move there and help contribute and the better the country becomes as a whole and the less people will be fleeing to Florida.

I do not need to step foot on Belle isle to understand its importance to the city and residents and that is all that matters.

You are not dealing with anything new,just repeating the mistakes that cities made years ago with scorch and burn urban renewal,they payed a heavy price for that and some never recovered,personally I prefer not to see that happen in Detroit it does not matter if I am 1200 miles away,the city is an important part of this countries history and it needs to be preserved so future generations can also see and feel that.

Yes those buildings in Detroit are for Detroiters and nobody else’s business,but those buildings are also a part of this country’s history,they tell a story not only of Detroit but of the country.

So if you got a problem with that,o well that’s your problem and nobody else’s,the bigger picture trumps your personal feelings about others.

I view Detroit as a whole as a cultural asset to the county and should be treated and preserved as such,it touched not only this country but it played a major role in changing the world.

Fiat is in Detroit now,did you know the last time Fiat was in Detroit was when a young auto manufacturer came to Detroit and met with Henry Ford so he could learn about the assembly line process that Henry ford had just implemented,he went back to Italy and instantly became the largest auto manufacturer in the country once he implemented Fords assembly line process.

Which by default made him the most powerful person behind the scenes that shaped the future of Italy in the process.

Every city in the country has historical buildings that tell the history of how that city was built.

Detroit’s buildings tell the history of not only how the city was shaped but they also played a role in shaping not only the country, but the world.

That is the difference.

Detroit is different then any other city in the country,when a building like this is demolished you are not just demolishing a run down building that is not worth fixing.

You are demolishing a part of the world’s history,that’s like saying the Eiffel tower needs to be demolished because it has some rust in it,but even the Eiffel Tower did not play the role on the world stage as that derelict movie theater in Detroit did,not even close.

[mikefmich]

Oh, I still go back to Motown on occasion, usually annually. You know, good old flat Detroit. As I have a love affair with mountains and desert, I'm quite happy with my current digs in LV. But I think fondly of Detroit and all of Michigan all the time. Always will.

I haven't been on here since February, and thought about you singning in. I am glad to see your still amongst the land of the living Ray. I am not as glad to see the guy who makes posts akin to War & Peace is still present here. lol

I'm a 4 hour drive, apparently you get back more than I do. Sadly it depends on the time of the year & the funeral schedules back home now.

You pretty up on your very early history of the DPD? I found a direct ancestor may have been in the first group, or within a year.

[mikefmich]

I was in the downtown theaters often the first 12-15 years of my life. I know I was at UA more than once, and a handful of the others. In earlier years I could tell you what I saw where, my memory is not digging up those details now.
I only remember seeing Bambi, Old Yeller, Ride the Wild Surf and the Cineramas for about 10 yrs. Music Hall, right?

I know there were many more. My ma kept detailed calendars all her life, I should dig thru that box. Often a movie coincided with a Hudsons trip. I know she would write down the movie and the movie house we went to. I think.

[expatriate]

The sad truth is that drawing people downtown from the 50+ surrounding suburbs requires a great deal of automobile storage. We are not landlocked like Manhattan or San Francisco and have spread across the landscape in a manner than makes public transit untenable. Even Los Angeles is more densely populated than Metro Detroit and I'm afraid we are stuck with it barring radical land use restrictions.

[Gistok]

People don't realize that the former theatre took up a larger part of the footprint than the office tower. The auditorium and rotunda lobby are razed.

[Gistok]

From what I gather, the outer lobby of the UA, which is within the office tower, will be preserved, and for now sealed off [unless that changes]. There are future plans to turn the outer lobby into possible restaurant space, like the nearby Oriental Theatre, except possibly more of the UA outer lobby survives [due to it being within the office block, and not having water damage], but I don't know how much survived from the scavangers allowed in under the Ilitch ownership. Here is an image of the outer lobby in its heyday...

[Gistok]

Here is how the west wall of Bagley Avenue used to look circa 1940 before the Tuller Hotel [foreground] was razed circa 1990. Back when the Tuller and Statler were still intact, Bagley had the most massive "street wall" in downtown Detroit, after Griswold Ave. in the Financial District.

If you look closely, you will notice that the wall of the UA Building facing the Tuller Hotel was blank. Early on there was a narrow parking lot between the Tuller and UA, and it was anticipated that there might be a tall narrow building put in that spot. But that was never to be. So at a later date that wall had windows punched into it on the UA Building. And that is why the windows on that wall don't match the windows on the main Bagley Ave. facade.

[Zacha341]

Nice pics G. Thank you for sharing them!

[Franksgoodnephew]

wouldn't surprise me a bit. Can you say Tiger Stadium?? Just another piece of incredible Detroit theater history gone with the wind! Remember the Michigan?? The Adams?? The Madison?? Maybe little caesars and his billions should consider SAVING history instead of throwing it away??! Just saying.

[canuck]

wouldn't surprise me a bit. Can you say Tiger Stadium?? Just another piece of incredible Detroit theater history gone with the wind! Remember the Michigan?? The Adams?? The Madison?? Maybe little caesars and his billions should consider SAVING history instead of throwing it away??! Just saying.

It may just be that fast food "minds" aren’t particularly obsessed with protecting historical artefacts.

[Franksgoodnephew]

Speaking of The Music Hall, I remember going to the opera for a season with one of my older brothers when I was a kid. Also saw 'The Hellstrom Chronicles' documentary there on a school field trip.