Library Gone at W. Grand Blvd & Warren?

[vivadetroit]

Does anyone know what happened to the Detroit Public Library at the corner of W. Grand Blvd and Warren? I drove by today and it is gone. There's just a giant hole in the ground. What a travesty. That was a really nice building.

[iddude313]

that's terrible! I've been hoping that something could be done with it. I've watched it slowly succumb to scavengers. I would have made a nice house i suppose.

[Ray1936]

It was nice, indeed. Here's how she looks on Google street view.

[blksoul_x]

I'm not one to cry about old demolished buildings, but I grew up down the street and remember spending a lot of time in the library on W.Warren and WGB.

A few years back, I saw a group of people, cleaning, cutting the grass and trimming the bushes, and I stopped and ask, what was going on?They told me they were going to renovate the building into a church, [[as if the Black community need another church). Nevertheless, a few years past and nothing was ever done to the building. I dreamed about plans of turning the building into a study/recreation hang-outs for young Black children. Too bad, I never had the finance to put the idea in motion.

As a young brotha, I had a lot of fun memories in the building. I had a direct route to the library. I would stop at the fire-station on WGB and McGraw, play with the cars crossing under the Ford freeway overpass, chased by the big homies, and along the way stopping at the original African American Museum across the street from the library, crossing over Warren to the library for lunch, movies, and storytelling. W.Warren seemed like such a wide street back then. Fun memories in the hood!

blksoul_atcha!
The BJL, we a movement by ourselves!

[Hamtragedy]

Amazing to watch us erase our history, our past, our memories.

[Kathleen]

What DPL branch was this? Anyone know how long ago it had been decommissioned?

[wobbly]

Is it possible the building was bought from the city by the church across the street, which eventually defaulted, and the city took it back and demolished it? I know that has happened [[but cannot confirm this instance) from someone at the librarians' union.

The library buildings were built to last, but in a style that would never be done today due to heating costs, etc.

[Bearinabox]

When I went to look the library up on Street View, some kind of glitch made the view take off down westbound Warren. I left the tab open and checked back periodically to see where it would end up. It headed through Dixboro and into Ann Arbor via Plymouth Road, then south on Main to Ann Arbor-Saline Road, through Saline and Milan, and finally hit a dead end on Custer Road just outside Monroe. Nothing to do with the thread topic, but I thought it was interesting.

[Detroitnerd]

That branch was the one Detroit author Marvin Arnett used when she was a child.

[MikeM]

What DPL branch was this? Anyone know how long ago it had been decommissioned?

Lothrop Branch. I don't know when it was decommissioned. The city's master plan of 1953 proposed closing it way back then.

[OriginalG313]

Page 12 of the PDF found here AGENDA

Approval to Send a Notice of Default Letter to the New Pentecostal Outreach
Church of God in Christ [[C.O.G.I.C.)
Commissioner Thomas reported that the Detroit Public Library sold the former
Lothrop Branch, located at 1529 West Grand Boulevard to the New Pentecostal
Outreach Church of God in Christ [[C.O.G.I.C.) on a land contract in 2003. The
contract clearly requires monthly monetary payments and satisfactory
maintenance and repair of the property.
As of February 2009, the Church is now 12 months behind in its monthly
payments; the building and the property have deteriorated to the point that the
building is open and exposed to entry.
Clark Hill was contacted to draft a Notice of Default letter demanding remedies
under the Land contract including:
• Payment of all outstanding principal and interest payments
• Repair all deteriorated plaster walls in the building
• Replacement of broken windows
• Repair deteriorated exterior concrete pavement
• Repair deteriorated exterior brick walls
• Remove all litter and debris
• Make such other repairs as may be necessary so that the Property and
the Building are in as good condition as they were on the date of the
Land Contract
Discussion
Ms. Norfolk explained that the church felt they were up-to-date on payments but
when they were asked to provide evidence, they were unable to do so. Mr.
Cromer said the Library’s name is still on the building and it looks like we are not
taking care of it. Commissioner Kinloch said our intent is for them to make their
payments. Ms. Skowronski said the time frame is explicit for 30 days for the
payments and 60 days for the repairs to be met. The land contract clearly states
our enforcement rights. Commissioner Bellant agreed that the process should be
followed and the letter sent.
Commission Action
Commissioner Thomas moved to approve Clark Hill sending a Notice of Default
Letter on behalf of the Detroit Library Commission to the New Pentecostal
Outreach C.O.G.I.C. Commissioner Bellant seconded; the motion was supported
unanimously adopted.

[OriginalG313]

Page 14 of PDF found here D E T R O I T L I B R A R Y C O M M I S S ...

Authorization to Contract for the Demolition of the Lothrop Branch Library
Building
Commissioner Bellant reported that the Lothrop Branch Library was sold on a
land contract in 2002. The Detroit Library Commission reclaimed the property in
June of 2009.
The City of Detroit Building and Safety Engineering department held a
Dangerous Building hearing on July 28, 2009, regarding the Lothrop Branch
building. It is the recommendation of the department to demolish the building.
A request for proposals for the demolition of the Lothrop branch building was
publicly advertised, listed on the library’s website and sent to 20 demolition
vendors. 12 vendors attended a mandatory pre-bid walk through and the bid
results are as follows:
Company Bid 15% Contingency Total
Dore & Associates $34,400.00 5160.00 $39,560.00
Bay City, MI [[disqualified bid)
Adamo Demo $39,000.00 5850.00 $44,850.00
Detroit, MI
Ferguson Enterprises $39,500.00 5925.00 $45,425.00
Detroit, MI
Able Demolition $44,350.00 6652.50 $51,002.50
Shelby, MI
Homrich $48,000.00 7200.00 $55,200.00
Carleton, MI
Detroit Dismantling $26,900.00 Non-compliant bid
Detroit, MI
It is the recommendation of the Facilities team to disqualify the lowest bidder,
Dore & Associates, due to issues encountered with the contractor during the

demolition of the 801 W. Baltimore building.

[Detroitnerd]

Well, at least the city is willing to put money into this structure -- to tear it down, anyway.

[DetroitZack]

I saw the google street view, but does anyone have a good picture of the building?

[EastsideAl]

I saw the google street view, but does anyone have a good picture of the building?

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...a%3DN%26um%3D1

[Chub]

Here's a like to a picture of the front in more recent times.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detroitderek/2191018478/

[Kathleen]

Thanks, Mikem and OriginalG313, for the branch name and the details about its recent owners and financial woes. Lothrop is a name that will soon be forgotten in the annals of Detroit, I'm afraid. My grandfather lived on Lothrop in Grosse Pointe Farms, so I've been interested in the name and the man behind the name. Lothrop was a Detroit lawyer who served as Michigan's Attorney General and even as U.S. ambassador to Russia. He owned a lakefront home in Grosse Pointe.

[vivadetroit]

Thanks Wobbly & OriginalG313 for the info. What a shame. I would have loved to see someone turn that into something viable. I need to get out and take pictures again of my neighborhood since it seems to change on a daily basis. One day here, gone the next.

[rb336]

And the Mark Twain is up for demolition too. just a little while ago, they were talking about restoration

[EastsideAl]

And the Mark Twain is up for demolition too. just a little while ago, they were talking about restoration

That was my library as a child. I remember going there and taking out childrens books every couple of weeks following shopping trips to the nearby Sears store.

It's a beautiful building, like so many of the branch libraries that were built around that time. The branch, on Gratiot at Burns, was designed by Wirt Rowland, who designed so many important buildings in Detroit, such as the Penobscot Building and the magnificent Guardian Building. Such care and attention to detail was taken with these buildings. It's a real shame to lose them.

The Mark Twain "closed for major repairs" back in the late nineties, and I don't think it ever reopened. At least in this case the books are still available to the people in the neighborhood, as a "temporary" library was opened in a nearby church hall and has remained open since. But I knew the old branch building was done for when I saw that scrappers had had at it.

I guess it's only a matter of time now until the library of my father's childhood, the truly breathtaking Monteith branch on Kercheval, which sits in a much more depopulated neighborhood than the Mark Twain or the Lothrop, goes too.

[buildingsofdetroit]

I had no idea the library was to come down. Drove by today and Adamo trucks [[surprise, surprise) were on the scene filling the crater left behind. With all of the desolation on that stretch of the Boulevard, I have no idea why that building was deemed a priority. Sure, maybe it wouldn't reopen. Maybe it was too far gone to save. But it didn't look half as bad as some of the destroyed mansions over there.

[Neilr]

Thanks for your post, EastsideAl.

The Mark Twain, Montieth, and Parkman Branch Libraries were designed to be Detroit's "Palaces of Reading."

The Mark Twain, the one I'm most familiar with, had multiple rooms, opening one to another, most with very high vaulted ceilings. There were several large fireplaces and lots of mellow oak paneling. The tables were made of heavy oak as were the easy chairs. There were a number of nooks and crannies, as you'd expect in that style and quality of building.

It also had a very large spinning globe with a big worn away spot marking "Detroit" which was long ago rubbed away by countless children pointing to their home town.

What it did not have was any parking to speak of. People from the neighborhood walked there, day and night, when it was in its prime. Also, it lacked public bathrooms.


Here's a link to some of Detroitfunk's photos of the Montieth and the Mark Twain.

http://tinyurl.com/yh6psc3

One of the not-to-be-solved problems with the restoration of the Mark Twain was the discovery of major asbestos problems in the ceilings.

[Khartoum]

I had no idea the library was to come down. Drove by today and Adamo trucks [[surprise, surprise) were on the scene filling the crater left behind. With all of the desolation on that stretch of the Boulevard, I have no idea why that building was deemed a priority. Sure, maybe it wouldn't reopen. Maybe it was too far gone to save. But it didn't look half as bad as some of the destroyed mansions over there.

I was wondering the same exact thing.

[Detroitnerd]

I was wondering the same exact thing.

C'mon. The demolition contractors need to eat too!

[Khartoum]

C'mon. The demolition contractors need to eat too!

They don't necessarily have to eat like kings.