704 East Jefferson

**M CD M** · January-25-10, 09:33 PM

Another photo that eludes me is the Veterans Building that was also the Office of Civil Defense at one time at 704 E Jefferson.
It would of been there before I-375 was put in.
Photo would be from 1945-1959ish
Google maps places it on the RenCen side, but would it have been near that gas station [[mobile I think it's called)
Google search and WSU VMC search didn't turn up anything.

**MikeM** · January-25-10, 10:19 PM

Here you go:

Former home of the Detroit Institute of Arts, corner of E Jefferson and Hastings. Later used as a veteran's memorial until the new one was built in the late 1940s.

**jtf1972** · January-25-10, 10:26 PM

It amazes me what is destroyed & lost every single time.

**MikeM** · January-25-10, 10:33 PM

This one is better since the office name is visible:

**buildingsofdetroit** · January-25-10, 10:37 PM

Originally Posted by M CD M

Another photo that eludes me is the Veterans Building that was also the Office of Civil Defense at one time at 704 E Jefferson.
It would of been there before I-375 was put in.
Photo would be from 1945-1959ish
Google maps places it on the RenCen side, but would it have been near that gas station [[mobile I think it's called)
Google search and WSU VMC search didn't turn up anything.

That's because the building was best known as the Detroit Museum of Art before it was the Vets Building. Try searching for that. There are TONS of photos and postcards of it.
My write-up on the building [[with photos): http://www.buildingsofdetroit.com/places/moa

**casscorridor** · January-26-10, 02:44 PM

The houses to the left of the museum look fantastic, I saw many that looked just like that in Philly. 3 1/2 stories. Too bad most of Detroit houses are 2 1/2 stories.

And what a shame that these buildings are completely gone. Now there is a stark division between downtown and the near east side neighborhoods, when before it was seamless. Although the old DIA's demo was a crime, a new DIA was needed. I just wish we coulda kept this one, converted it to something else besides a freeway ramp.

**EastsideAl** · January-26-10, 03:35 PM

My mother and her brother took art classes there during the WWII years. Classes were still given there in the studios in the old Art Institute, even though by then it was the HQ of the city's Public Welfare Department.

**Fury13** · January-26-10, 04:33 PM

Originally Posted by casscorridor

I just wish we coulda kept this one, converted it to something else besides a freeway ramp.

Freeways were considered progress; plus, there wasn't much love for 19th-century architecture in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Victorian/Romanesque stuff was considered grotesque and ugly by a lot of people. Plus, the buildings were only 60-80 years old at that time, so... no great loss. That was the thinking.

**gnome** · January-26-10, 04:38 PM

That building to the left or west side of the old museum was called the Blodgett Terrace apartments circa 1900

Jefferson Ave before it was widened

Looking east up Jefferson

Looking toward the river down Hastings, note the "moonlight" tower on the right as well as the plank sidewalk.

Reverse angle, looking towards Jefferson up Hastings.

**Fury13** · January-26-10, 04:43 PM

Great pics, incredible building. We have so little left of that era today.

**gnome** · January-26-10, 04:48 PM

upon looking at google maps I think I might have committed an error in placing the Blodgett. I think mow that the Blodgett was on the water side of Jefferson. On what would now be called Schweitzer Place.

**Fury13** · January-26-10, 04:56 PM

South side of Jefferson, SE corner of Jefferson & Hastings [[now Schweizer), right? What was the address? 900 block of E. Jefferson?

**EastsideAl** · January-26-10, 04:59 PM

Originally Posted by Fury13

Great pics, incredible building. We have so little left of that era today.

And what we did have left we just allowed to go to hell and decay into nothingness, like Brush Park. I swear this area has less respect and feeling for its past than any other place I've ever lived. And thus less of it left standing.

**EastsideAl** · January-26-10, 05:05 PM

Yes, it was on the south side of Jefferson, as was the old Art Museum. You can orient yourself by the still-standing Christ Church that appears at the far left of the first photo in this thread. The University of Detroit, now U of D Law School, was across Jefferson just a little to the west.

Here is the 1922 Sanborn of the block. The old Art Institute in on the lower right at the SW corner of Jefferson and Hastings. The still-standing U of D buildings and Sts. Peter and Paul church are on the north side of the block, a little to the west closer to St. Antoine St. The Blodgett Apts. would have been be just across Hastings where the "28" is, and Christ Church a little further to the east in the middle of that block [[the next cross street was, and is, Rivard).

**jtf1972** · January-26-10, 05:16 PM

I feel like weeping.

**Neilr** · January-26-10, 06:13 PM

The Thomas Parker House [[G.W. Lloyd, 1868), on the north side of Jefferson, between the Chrysler and Rivard still stands and is in great shape. It has one of the most interesting paneled dining rooms I've ever seen. At one point in its history it was converted into studio apartments with tiny pullman kitchens. It's now a law office.

The picture is from the Hawkins Ferry book.

**Hermod** · January-26-10, 06:20 PM

On East Jefferson [[maybe 1300 block) used to be a rather large Swedish restaurant called the Stockholm. The last time I was there was 1960. Does anybody remember it and remember when it was closed? My grandparents held their 50th wedding anniversary dinner there in 1955.

**M CD M** · January-26-10, 06:39 PM

Thanks guys!
High fives all around!!!
I guess If I had the older name for it I would've found it.

Thanks again!
Eric

**Patrick** · January-26-10, 06:40 PM

I was under the impression that this structure is the main reason why the Freer Galllery is NOT in Detroit.

**EastsideAl** · January-26-10, 07:03 PM

Originally Posted by Neilr

The Thomas Parker House [[G.W. Lloyd, 1868), on the north side of Jefferson, between the Chrysler and Rivard still stands and is in great shape. It has one of the most interesting paneled dining rooms I've ever seen. At one point in its history it was converted into studio apartments with tiny pullman kitchens. It's now a law office.

It also had doctors and dentists offices in it at one time. My parents' dentist was in a first floor office there from the '40s into the early '80s.

Originally Posted by Hermod

On East Jefferson [[maybe 1300 block) used to be a rather large Swedish restaurant called the Stockholm. The last time I was there was 1960. Does anybody remember it and remember when it was closed?

That building became Detroit's Playboy Club around 1962. The Playboy Club was there for the rest of the '60s and then moved out by Greenfield and 8 Mile in the early '70s. The building, very much altered, is now a phone company service center.
Here is a thread about the Playboy Club from a few months back:
http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthread.php?t=2983

**Onthe405** · January-26-10, 07:21 PM

Well, at least not everything is gone. Christ Church [[with its prominent bell tower seen in the distance) in MikeM's original photo post, still stands at Jefferson & Rivard nearly as it was back then. It's a beautiful building and a very welcoming parish, I might add.. I attend every time I visit Detroit.

Photo from the 1920s & today in the shadow of RenCen:

**Savoyard** · January-27-10, 11:14 AM

Originally Posted by Patrick

I was under the impression that this structure is the main reason why the Freer Galllery is NOT in Detroit.

Actually, Charles Freer financed and supplied the Freer Gallery in D.C. because he got his knickers in a twist during the Detroit bi-centennial celebrations in 1901. He had proposed a huge, very expensive monument to be built on Belle Isle to celebrate. The public and politicians gave him so much flack over it, he stopped supporting the Detroit Museum of Art and gave all his money to establish a gallery in D.C. He tore the beautiful Peacock Room out of his house on East Ferry and had it re-installed in D.C.