Quote Originally Posted by motz View Post
I would LOVE a link to more info or something regarding this! I've been reading a lot on local drug culture [[Detroit true crime book the girlfriend got me) and am absolutely fascinated by it and like hearing about the pre-crack days, as that stuff can be REAL interesting.
I can't find any links, so I can only speak from what I know and remember personally. The Dixieland Hotel was already rather infamous as a place where show people, burlesque performers, musicians, gamblers, and other people of shady or ill repute stayed. Many of them having extended stays or living there.

After it became the Kevin House in the '60s it gained a reputation as a stopping point for single men coming into the city from out of town looking for work or other ways to make money, as well as for the availability of prostitution and drugs. As I remember, it had a big sign advertising rooms from $5 a night.

One infamous incident that made the papers in the '70s was when the Traveler's Aid desk at the old bus station sent some foreign tourists there who were looking for a cheap place to stay. They were harassed, robbed, and generally scared out of their wits.

Not long thereafter the police raided the place. I witnessed part of this raid, which was unbelievable, as drugs and drug paraphernalia - including lots of syringes - rained down from the windows. Some tenants barricaded themselves in their rooms and fires were started, which brought out the fire department with their big ladder trucks. The hotel was left unusable, shuttered and condemned, and stood that way for a few years until it was torn down for - what else? - a surface parking lot. The People Mover was also built cutting across the site.