Hotel Norton

[mikefmich]

Thought I had sold all my old Detroit postcards a few years back, but I just found an envelope with 8 more of them. Guess I will have to get on eBay again shortly.

I will post the others when I get them prepped for size limits on here, but I did this one first.

I imagine the super sleuths will know where this was in about 20 seconds. Hope I get this image upload right.

[Mikeg]

From pg. 1210 of the 1914 Detroit City Directory, the Hotel Norton was located at 63-65 Griswold, opposite of the Interurban Station.
Attachment 7783

[marcwigle]

From the title on the postcard, I would say it's in Detroit. ;-)

[Mikeg]

Here's a photo advertisement for the Hotel Norton from the 1911 Detroit City Directory:
Attachment 7784

[mikefmich]

Interesting Mikeg...looks like they may have added a floor. Wonder when the place came down.

[Mikeg]

Here's an ad from the 1909 Directory with a photo that also shows it to be a 4 story building.

Attachment 7792

I suspect that the illustration in the 1911 ad included one story's worth of "artistic license".

The earliest mention of a "Hotel Norton" was in the 1908 Detroit City Directory. The latest mention I have is here in the 1928 Directory, however, it could have been in business a lot longer.

[Mikeg]

The Hotel Horton still appears at the northeast corner of Griswold and West Jefferson on this crop from Hornwrecker's 1930s-era map [source]:

Attachment 7793

[Gistok]

After the 1921 renumbering of Detroit street addresses the Hotel Norton is mentioned at 410 Griswold [[earlier it was listed as 63-65 Griswold).

Well the Guardian Building address is 500 Griswold... so it is possible that the Hotel Norton was razed for the Guardian Building... since the Hotel Nortons last directory entry was in 1928... and the Guardian Building was built in 1928-29.

[Mikeg]

Apparently the Hotel Norton building on your postcard and my advertisements was razed in 1917 or early 1918 to make way for a new and taller Hotel Norton building - click here to view additional photos and information from the book "Detroit's Historic Hotels and Restaurants" by Patricia Ibbotson.

[Fury13]

Looks like the second incarnation of the Norton was knocked down for the Michigan Consolidated Gas/ANR Building [[One Woodward), designed by Yamasaki and built in 1962. The ANR Building takes up the whole block. That is properly in the 400 block but is designated 1 Woodward for marketing purposes.

[Brock7]

It looks like the taller building was on the next corner over and the original four story building was turned into an annex.
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/imag...5DEB02F297.TIF

[mikefmich]

It looks like the taller building was on the next corner over and the original four story building was turned into an annex.
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/imag...5DEB02F297.TIF

I believe your correct on that. The newer bldg was standing where the naked lady of 1 Woodward stands today.

[mikefmich]

Here's an ad from the 1909 Directory with a photo that also shows it to be a 4 story building.

Attachment 7792

I suspect that the illustration in the 1911 ad included one story's worth of "artistic license".

The earliest mention of a "Hotel Norton" was in the 1908 Detroit City Directory. The latest mention I have is here in the 1928 Directory, however, it could have been in business a lot longer.

Mikeg, are you pulling your information from the city directories/maps online? If so, are all the old ones online?

[Mikeg]

It looks like the taller building was on the next corner over and the original four story building was turned into an annex.
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/imag...5DEB02F297.TIF

You've cleared it up for us. The original building in the post card was on the west side of Griswold [[odd street numbers). The new building was on the east side of the street at 410 Griswold. The old building became the Hotel Annex at 415 [[65) Griswold. The only remaining discrepancy is that the U of M photo showing the high-rise Hotel Norton is dated c. 1905 while the "Detroit's Historical Hotels" book says that it was opened in 1918. Looking at the vehicles in the hi-res version of the U of M photo suggest that it was taken sometime after 1918. You can also see the words "Hotel" and :"Norton" alongside the "Hotel Annex" sign on the original 4-story building.

Here's the 1920 Detroit Directory street index with both the old and new street numbers:

East Side of Griswold

Attachment 7794

West Side of Griswold

Attachment 7795

[Mikeg]

Mikeg, are you pulling your information from the city directories/maps online? If so, are all the old ones online?

The 1928 directory is available for free here The others [[1861-1923) are available with a subscription to Footnote.com. [[however, you can search them here without having a subscription).

I have uploaded selected 19th century directories here on my web server that I share with DY forum members, provided they agree not to copy, forward or otherwise post a link to that page [[too much publicity could result in a lot of download traffic and generate costs to me for excess bandwidth traffic beyond my monthly web hosting allotment).

[mikefmich]

Mikeg you have a PM

[Brock7]

GoogleBooks has some from 1880 and earlier:
Google Detroit City Directories
Google Polk's Detroit directories
Google Johnston's Detroit city directory

[Magnatomicflux]

On the Windsor side of things, we would have found the "Norton-Palmer" hotel.
Apparently it was named after Charles Norton, who I would've thought was a buisness partner with Perry Palmer to create the hotel. Could be wrong, but that's what the web site I got these off of said.
Located at the north west corner of Park and Pelissier, where Victoria Park Place now stands, the Norton-Palmer opened December 17, 1927 and was Windsors largest building at the time with 12 storeys, and 250 rooms. The hotel was demolished in 1979 I beleive.

Attachment 7798

I don't know when, but she had a major addition. I wouldn't think much long after the original building was finished.

Attachment 7799


http://heritage.windsorpubliclibrary...SOBOX=1&REC=13

[mikefmich]

Thanks to all for the contributions.

[Huggybear]

More than a fair trade. CAYMC is Two Woodward Avenue and a non-commercial structure, so it may not have been so much marketing as renumbering. I know the next block is 500...

Looks like the second incarnation of the Norton was knocked down for the Michigan Consolidated Gas/ANR Building [[One Woodward), designed by Yamasaki and built in 1962. The ANR Building takes up the whole block. That is properly in the 400 block but is designated 1 Woodward for marketing purposes.

[Jimg]

MikeG, thank you very much for those links.

[Mikeg]

MikeG, thank you very much for those links.

You're welcome!

When viewing the on-line 1928 Directory results, I prefer to view the pages using the PDF format instead of the default GIF image format [[switch to PDF using the "Format" drop-down menu at upper left). The PDF can be enlarged much greater than the GIF image and it is also easier to save.

Regarding the 19th century PDF files, fellow DY forumer [[and distant cousin of mine) FrankG purchased them years ago on e-bay and shared them with me with the understanding that I would also make them available to other DY forumers. Try using the Footnote.com search function and noting the Directory page number[[s) to find and view the search results in your downloaded PDF[[s).