Jazz or Blues bar on Woodward by tunnel

[Fury13]

This should be easy. ;-) My dad used to go to a bar at the foot of Woodward in the 50's that had a numbered name... the number was the address on Woodward. He said that once you got out of the tunnel, it was right there. I found it mentioned somewhere years ago but never found it again. IIRC, there was a hardware store in it's place now [[or, at least when I found mention of it on the net a few years ago). My dad died last year so I can't ask him so if anyone knows of the name, I'd like to hear from them. He did say that it was a black bar that he and his fellow Canadians would visit on occasion. And he had told me that no one bothered him and his friends because the only whites that would go to the black bars had to be from Canada. I'd like to think that things have changed since then...

This most likely would have been the 509 Club, which originally was at 509 Woodward. It featured blues, R&B, and jazz acts of the time, including big local groups like Nolan Strong & the Diablos. In the late '50s, the club relocated up the street to 3929 Woodward, which had been the old Garden Theatre. However, the name, 509 Club, was retained for the new location even though "509" didn't match the new address. Around 1962, the 509 Club [[at the 3929 Woodward location) became The Village, a teen/dance club with live music that became famous as the incubator for artists like Nathaniel Mayer [[it's a matter of debate as to whether The Village was named for his hit record, "Village Of Love"), Gino Washington, The Fabulous Peps, and Billy Lee & the Rivieras [[later to be known as Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels). So, the 509 Club is fairly important in Detroit pop music history.

As for the original location, the entire 500 block of Woodward on the west side of the avenue [[which was all old 19th century storefronts) was demolished in the '60s.

Incidentally, The Village was run by Gabe Glantz [[I believe he had the place in its 509 days as well), who was involved in the Grande Ballroom in the late '60s and in the Michigan Palace rock shows in the '70s.