Easttown theatre building on fire

**detroitbob** · August-09-10, 04:41 AM

Channel 4 @ 5:30 am just reported the Easttown Apartments at Harper and Maxwell are on fire and fireman have been ordered out of the building due to safety issues. The accompanying video showed a massive fire with the entire corner of the building engulfed in flames.

**Meddle** · August-09-10, 04:58 AM

Was a 2nd Alarm

203 [[Senior Chief) just left the scene.

Some companies are being relieved.

**Danny** · August-09-10, 08:45 AM

The fire was suspicious. Probably an arsonist who don't give a care about Detroit. Just let the neighborhood burn.

**Eastside** · August-09-10, 10:20 AM

What a shame to lose this historic building. Wondering if the whole building, including the theater has been destroyed?

**detroiturbex** · August-09-10, 10:21 AM

Via buildingsofdetroit.com: http://www.clickondetroit.com/slides...19/detail.html

This is really, really sad. What a fine building.

**detroiturbex** · August-09-10, 10:24 AM

Also, detroitfiregroundimages.com has pictures of the fire: http://www.detroitfiregroundimages.c...63611023_wEowz

**Kathleen** · August-09-10, 11:01 AM

Makes one wonder if the removal of the comedy masks noted in this thread a couple months back was in preparation for the total destruction of the building...
http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...hlight=eastown

**detroitbob** · August-09-10, 03:12 PM

Even though the theatre portion is seperated by a firewall, the entire complex will probably be demolished...can't see contractors taking the time or caring about saving a portion of the building. This will be a major demo project. This is the one of the last of the old ring of neighborhood movie palaces.

**Gistok** · August-09-10, 03:17 PM

If the Eastown Theatre gets razed, it will be the last of the outlying giants among old movie palaces in Detroit. The 3,434 seat Hollywood and 2,786 Grand Riviera are already gone. The 2,500 seat Eastown was the last survivor.

Detroit, like Chicago and New York, had a few very large neighborhood theatres that rivaled the downtown palaces.

**softailrider** · August-09-10, 04:03 PM

It was only a matter of time, the building a a couple of small fires the last few years and was open to trespass. I don't believe it could have been saved anyway.

**buildingsofdetroit** · August-09-10, 04:13 PM

Mauser took some jaw-dropping photos of the devastation. I'll ask him to post links to them here. The apartment building is destroyed, including much of the facade. I bet it isn't long before the whole thing is brought down.

**Patrick** · August-09-10, 05:23 PM

So who owns the building? It was probably torched intentionally for the insurance money...that is if it was insured.

**buildingsofdetroit** · August-09-10, 05:25 PM

Photo by DetroitFunk here:

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/...id=10183626925

**douglasm** · August-09-10, 05:29 PM

So it looks like the firewall saved the theatre itself, right?

**softailrider** · August-09-10, 05:38 PM

Originally Posted by Patrick

So who owns the building? It was probably torched intentionally for the insurance money...that is if it was insured.

I doubt very much that there was any insurance on that building at all, insuring a vacant building in the city is very expensive to impossible ; impossible meaning there aren't very many companies willing to write a policy on an abandoned apartment building in the city.

**mauser** · August-09-10, 06:53 PM

Here is 360 video of the damage with before and after photos for comparison.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4IhYoCZid4

**BVos** · August-09-10, 07:46 PM

Well I'd be surprised if the firewall was in good enough shape to survive the fire. That corner literally burned to the ground and probably took the entire apartment building with it. If the theater survived, it has extensive smoke and water damage. All it takes is a hole and inch or so in diameter through a firewall and it's as good as nothing. The chances that there were holes in the firewall are quite good.

**jerrytimes** · August-09-10, 08:23 PM

Well, at least, hopefully, another vacant building will get torn down. Too bad that this has to happen or even that the place was vacant to begin with.

**wolverine** · August-09-10, 08:45 PM

I think it's safe to say this now, this building has no future in Detroit. I hope someone comes and strips the facade off and puts it up somewhere else. I will always be bitter about what happened with the Lions heads on Lee Plaza, but the more I think about it, the more I see buildings fall in this city without any regard to salvaging valuable portions. The days are numbered on this place.

**jerrytimes** · August-09-10, 08:50 PM

Seems to happen everywhere. Did you see the thread on Carl's? That place got ransacked.

**detroitbob** · August-09-10, 10:18 PM

Based on the video posted earlier, seems to be no fire damage to the theatre, however, there is no hope for any redevelopment. The last of the midcity movie palaces will soon hit the dust.

**mauser** · August-10-10, 05:35 AM

http://www.detroitfunk.com/?p=4634

photos of the fire damage taken with the above video.

**mauser** · August-10-10, 01:50 PM

EMERGENCY DEMOLITION ORDERED - building was condemned. 3 days to file paperwork, during which time the City may demolish on its own in the interest of safety.

**mauser** · August-10-10, 01:51 PM

**marcwigle** · August-10-10, 01:56 PM

Originally Posted by mauser

EMERGENCY DEMOLITION ORDERED - building was condemned. 3 days to file paperwork, during which time the City may demolish on its own in the interest of safety.

Theater as well?