Fall 2025 site update

Nov. 20, 2025

Here is your recap of site updates from October and November.

Apologies for a lack of updates. Health issues and hospitalization impacted the amount of time Dan Austin was able to work on the site.

We broke the news that demolition has begun at the former Belle Isle Zoo. Originally opened in 1895, the zoo boasted more than 150 critters by 1910. After the Detroit Zoo opened in Royal Oak in 1928, the Belle Isle zoo became a children’s zoo. As the City careened toward bankruptcy, then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick closed it in 2002 in a cost-cutting move.

Since then, the zoo had been left to rot, defaced by graffiti and overrun by Mother Nature. Last year, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced that it would not reopen the zoo and demolish the more than 20 buildings still standing and return the area to natural habitat with new nature trails.

Visit the HistoricDetroit photo gallery for images of the Belle Isle Zoo courtesy of Vance Patrick. You also can check out pre-demolition photos by HD's Helmut Ziewers to see a last look at the zoo here.

On Nov. 10, the Westlawn Methodist Church was destroyed in a massive fire. While news crews told the story of the fire, it was up to us to tell the story of the church and its congregation. We added a history of this lost west side church, as well as photos before showing its surprisingly intact condition before the fire and of the fire's aftermath.

We added photo galleries and building information for three other structures: the Albert Kahn-designed Detroit Waldorf School, the Amsterdam Lofts and Ossian Sweet House.

We also added 396 photos across a number of galleries, including new images of the ongoing renovation of the long-abandoned Lee Plaza, the aforementioned farewell tour of the Belle Isle Zoo, demolition of the gorgeous Carstens School, Book-Cadillac Hotel and a number of interior shots of the Theodore J. Levin U.S. Courthouse (pictured above)

September 2025 site update

Oct. 18, 2025

Here is your recap of site updates from September.

We did a lengthy history on the Alger Theatre, once among more than 100 neighborhood movie houses across Detroit in the 1940s. Today, it is one of only a handful of survivors, albeit a closed one that has been a “renovation work in progress” for nearly 40 years. We also added pages on the NSO Bell Building, a longtime landmark on Oakman Boulevard overlooking the Lodge Freeway, as well as the Simmons & Clark Building, home to a jewelry business celebrating its 100th anniversary.

We also added 193 photos, including 32 inside and out of the Alger (pictured above). In August, we added the Palms Apartments, and last month, we added 21 images of this Albert Kahn-designed building. We also continued to chronicle the demolition of the Mammoth Building, formerly the Federal Department Store at Greenfield and Grand River.

August 2025 site update

Sep. 3, 2025

Here is your monthly update for what we accomplished in August.

We added two full histories, as well as six "briefs" or "shorts" that we hope to expand upon later. The most exhaustive write-up dives into the history of Little Harry's, a beloved Detroit restaurant that was housed inside the Alexander Chene House, one of the oldest surviving houses in Detroit. Despite an outcry from the community, singer Anita Baker demolished it in 1991 to make way for an IHOP restaurant. We also told the story of the Chateau Frontenac, a glorious 1925 apartment building on the east riverfront overlooking Water Works Park that was flattened in 1999. The site has remained vacant land ever since.

The shorts added were the Mammoth Department Store, which is being demolished as we speak; the Albert Kahn-designed Griswold Building (today known as The Albert); the former Harper Hospital Nurses Home, designed by Kahn; the Kahn-designed Kahn Garage (built for The Detroit News); the stately Kahn-designed MSU Detroit Center; and the Bernard Ginsburg House in Brush Park, which was designed by, you guessed it, Kahn.

There were 417 photos added to the site in August, with 388 of them taken by HD’s own Helmut Ziewers. In addition to images of the new locations added to the site, Helmut added 162 images of the Detroit Opera House, pictured above, including some behind-the-scenes shots of areas many have never seen. He also continued to document the restoration efforts under way by The Roxbury Group on the Bonstelle Theatre and Lee Plaza, offering you an inside look and sneak peek at the work going on to bring these jewels back to life. He also continued to document the demolition of the Mammoth Building (aka Federal Department Store).

There are now more than 15,000 images on the website; just shy of 9,000 of them are by Helmut. Among the most photogenic buildings on the site are the Masonic Temple with 648 images; Michigan Central Station with 541; the Packard Plant, 370; Guardian Building, 259; the Detroit Opera House, 244; the Bonstelle Theatre, 241; Sacred Heart Seminary, 203; Lee Plaza, 171; Fisher Building, 161; and main branch of the Detroit Public Library, 146.

Thank you, as always, for helping to keep HistoricDetroit.org up and running.

July 2025 site update

Aug. 10, 2025

Here is your monthly update for what we accomplished in July.

We added four locations to the site. Getting exhaustive histories were the legendary Flame Show Bar, which hosted everyone from Billie Holiday to Sam Cooke to Jackie Wilson - and was where a young Berry Gordy caught the music industry bug; the Clay School, the oldest surviving school in the city; and the Earle Hotel, a long-forgotten hotel in Midtown that was one of the few hotels designed by Albert Kahn. We also added a fairly lengthy write-up on the Clara Ford Pavilion, part of Henry Ford Hospital campus that was once where generations of Detroit women lived and studied to become nurses.

There were 287 photos added to the site in July, with 232 of them taken by HD’s own Helmut Ziewers. In addition to images of the new locations added to the site, we added more photos from Helmut’s behind-the-scenes access at the Guardian Building, dozens of photos of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (formerly St. Leo's Catholic Church), 27 shots of the inside of the historic and often-overlooked Senate Theatre in Southwest Detroit (pictured above), the Leland Hotel, the endangered Herman Kiefer Hospital and more.

We also continued to devote a lot of our time to setting up our nonprofit to ensure the site continues after I’m gone. As we told you last month, it also will help Detroit youth with scholarships. We received our nonprofit status from the IRS and EIN from the State of Michigan, and are now working on setting up its bank account, electing board members, etc. We should have more on that news for you in next month’s update.

Thank you, as always, to our Patreon patrons for helping to keep HistoricDetroit.org up and running, and I hope I can continue to count on you for support - especially after my passing, whenever that may be. Get your cancer screenings. If I had only done it at age 40 instead of 44 …

-d.a.

June 2025 site update

Jul. 9, 2025

June saw us add five locations to the site. The most interesting and in-depth of these was the Arena Gardens, a forgotten Albert Kahn-design that helped make rollerskating a nationwide fad and tried to make hockey a thing in the Motor City in the era before the Red Wings came to town. Another sizable entry was The Hamilton, a historic apartment building in Detroit’s Midtown that underwent an impressive makeover a few years ago. Other new arrivals were the Spanish-American War Memorial on Belle Isle, the Historic Motor City Missionary Baptist Church and the Clinton Street Greater Bethlehem Temple.

We made a major update to the Cambria Hotel page, going in depth on the history of WWJ-AM - the world’s first commercial radio station. This one was so sizable, it really ought to count as a new entry, but the building has had a page on the site for a while. We also made updates to the Children’s Hospital and St. Agnes Catholic Church pages, the latter because of a fire on June 3.

There were 283 photos added to the site in June, with 209 of them taken by our own Helmut Ziewers. These included more than 70 new images of the Masonic Temple (above), making HistoricDetroit.org the home of the most in-depth photo documentation of this incredible landmark. He also shot interior photos to accompany last month’s site addition of the Moross House, believed to be the oldest brick home in the city.

We also continued to share stories on our free Substack, including dusting off older stories that might get buried among all the new content on the site. Our favorite is the story of the Aquarama, a cruise ship that had an appetite for destroying docks and seawalls - and almost took out people, too. You can read those at historicdetroit.substack.com.

We’ve already added hefty additions in July, which our Patreon patrons have already gotten in their inboxes.

We also spent a lot of time getting our nonprofit set up to keep the site alive after the cancer takes me out. It also will help Detroit youth with scholarships. We will give you a full rundown once Uncle Sam signs off on our nonprofit status. It also will mean your donations will become tax-deductible. Stay tuned for that.

Another huge thank you to our Patreon patrons for making all of this possible. We cannot thank you enough!

May 2025 site update

Jun. 8, 2025

May was an incredibly productive month at HDHQ. We added seven buildings, one monument and three passenger steamers.

Getting new pages were the legendary United Sound Systems recording studio, the iconic Baker's Keyboard Lounge, the Parker-Webb Building, the Wisner Confectionary Building, and Koenig Coal & Supply on Gratiot. We did exhaustive histories on the Town Residences, which took 25 years to complete, and the Moross House - believed to be the oldest brick home in the city.

Our fleet of maritime histories were joined by the City of Alpena II, the City of Mackinac II and the City of the Straits, which launched as the first City of Detroit. We also added the Wish Tree, which was dedicated by Yoko Ono 25 years ago, and dove into the history of a park that once stood there.

We also updated a number of pages with, well, updates: The Lee Plaza renovation is finally, truly under way, and we were there to cover the ground-breaking with The Roxbury Group and Mayor Duggan; the deadline for The Parade Co.’s plan to turn the Brodhead Armory into its new headquarters is nearing; the Packard Plant is mostly demolished now; the Hilberry Theatre got a new name; and the Book-Cadillac Hotel got a new owner.

On top of that, we made an embarrassing discovery: Hundreds of our vintage Detroit postcards somehow lost their tags, meaning you weren’t able to see them. We went through all 3,000-plus postcards and made sure they were tagged - a painstakingly mind-numbing and time-consuming process, but they weren’t doing anyone any good if you couldn’t find them! While we were at it, we uploaded (and ensured they were tagged) another 291 postcard images.

Helmut did what Helmut does best: Took hundreds of incredible images of our city’s historic architecture. There were 341 contemporary images added to the site in May, including 56 of the Greater Penobscot Building (one that has been criminally under-photo-documented on the site for too long); 68 of the Guardian Building, including areas the public doesn’t get to see; and 33 new sneak peek shots of the Bonstelle Theatre restoration. We also added 52 historic images to the site.

As of June 8, 2025, there are now 14,512 photos on HistoricDetroit.org.

And our Patreon patrons helped make all of this possible. We cannot thank them enough!

April 2025 site update

May. 12, 2025

April brought some really, really bad news in my ongoing cancer battle. Between meeting with doctors and telling family and friends the news, I didn’t have as much time as I would have liked to work on the site. That said, we still added four buildings to the site - one of which represents more than six months of work and is far and away the longest and most in-depth history we’ve ever added to the site. And, of course, Helmut was shooting photos left and right, as always.

This behemoth building bio is the story of the Detroit Journal, a long-gone daily newspaper that was bought out by The Detroit News. We trace the paper from its founding to its sale, including a series of disasters - one of which remains the deadliest in the city’s 324-year history. We also added the former home of First Congregational Church, Greenfield Park Elementary School and another lengthy write-up on the McGraw Hotel, one of the legendary Green Book sites that served African Americans when discrimination kept them from most other hotels in the city. Our next major building update will be the history of WWJ, the first commercial broadcasting radio station in the world, and its former home that is now the Cambria Hotel. As always, we’ll send it to our Patreon patrons' inbox first.

Photography-wise, Helmut added 290 new photos to the site in April. These include a comprehensive photo documentation of the “Detroit Industry” murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts; interior and detail shots of The Shepherd, a repurposed Catholic church on the east side into an artist community; new shots of the Guardian Building and One Woodward Avenue; and more.

Historic photos added include construction shots of the Detroit Yacht Club, Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church, and the Detroit Journal and old First Congregational Church. We also plan to upload more historic Belle Isle photos from Vance Patrick. They’re scanned; we just need to find time to upload and caption them.

Thank you for being there and being patient, and thank you to our Patreon patrons for keeping HistoricDetroit.org a free resource for all!

March 2025 site update

Apr. 5, 2025

March saw us add six new locations to the site: the Civic and Senate theaters, Edwin Denby High School, The Shepherd (a former Catholic church that has been turned into an art community), Detroit Unity Temple and Temple Israel.

Over on our Substack, which your contributions also make free for everyone to read, we spent March chronicling the lives of five incredible, trailblazing Detroit women for Women’s History Month. The stories of these pioneers wouldn’t have a good fit on the building-centric confines of HistoricDetroit.org, but they’re right at home on Substack. We dove into the lives of Mary V. Beck, Detroit’s first councilwoman; Erma Henderson, Detroit’s first Black councilwoman; Mary Chase Perry Stratton, co-founder of Pewabic Pottery; Ruth Ellis, an icon of Black, women’s and LGBTQ+ rights; and Johnnie Mae Matthews, believed to be the first Black woman to own her own record label and the person who discovered The Temptations and tutored Berry Gordy on the ins and outs of the record industry. Check them out at historicdetroit.substack.com.

Last month saw Helmut take a much-deserved vacation to his native Germany, but he still added nearly 100 images to the site. This includes historical and current images of the new sites we added, but also updated shots of the progress inside the Bonstelle Theatre restoration (pictured above). He also got inside the Civic Theatre, which has been subject of a lot of ink lately as the City cracked down on land speculator Dennis Kefallinos. Meanwhile, our friend Vance Patrick lent us ANOTHER batch of old Belle Isle photos that we got scanned and will be uploading in the next few weeks.

On a personal note, several folks have written inquiring about my battle with stage 4 cancer. Though I am not out of the woods yet, I have completed chemo and radiation and am awaiting new scans to determine my odds and next steps. I appreciate your continued support, both in this battle and of the site, during some truly challenging times.

Thank you to our Patreon patrons and Substack subscribers for helping to keep HistoricDetroit.org a free resource for all!

Honoring Women's History Month

Mar. 23, 2025

Over on our Substack page, we're celebrating a few of the legendary Detroit women who have left their marks on our city. It's the sort of content that doesn't have a home on HistoricDetroit.org, the site, but history that is very much worth telling.

So far, we've shared the stories of Ruth Ellis (pictured above), a pioneer in Black, women's and LGBTQ+ rights; Mary Beck, Detroit's first female City Councilmember and council president; and Mary Chase Perry Stratton, the co-founder of Pewabic Pottery. We also have two more we've got for you before Women's History Month comes to an end.

Best of all, our Substack is free to all - though donations via subscriptions are welcome. Sign up at HistoricDetroit.Substack.com.

February 2025 site update

Mar. 9, 2025

February might be a short month, but it saw a slew of updates on the site. Despite a brief hospitalization, we still added FOUR lengthy histories of Detroit buildings to the site:

The mighty manufacturing juggernaut that was the Burroughs Adding Machine Co. (the surviving pieces of which are now known as One Ford Place in New Center), the Detroit Light Infantry Armory (the only building in the Motor City designed by renowned architectural master H.H. Richardson), the Princess Theatre (slogan: “nothing nicer anywhere”), and the COGIC Brooks Cathedral Center, which was originally St. Mark’s Methodist Episcopal Church. This represents the largest output of complete histories we’ve added to the site in one month in some time.

And we have more to come, including one we’re working on now that involves one of the deadliest disasters in Detroit history. Stay tuned.

February also saw Helmut shooting his heart out, as always, with him adding 444 images. Including historic images, we added 639 photos to the site last month. This includes an incredible photo tour of inside the Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit, a place that not many get to see (pictured above). We highly recommend you check it out!

Lastly, you may have seen the article that Outlier Media wrote about me and my battle with stage 4 cancer. I want to let you know that I sung my appreciation for our Patreon patrons and their support, but it didn’t make the cut.

So, I’ll sing it again here: Thank you for your continued support! Especially in mentally, financially and health-challenging times, it is so incredibly appreciated!

The forgotten manufacturing might behind this Detroit building

Feb. 17, 2025

Up in New Center, just south of the Fisher Building, sits One Ford Place. Today, it is home to Henry Ford Health's administration, labs and more, but its history involves one of Detroit's forgotten titans of industry, the Burroughs Adding Machine Co.

We've added a full, in-depth history of this company, a powerhouse that once sold about 90 percent of the world’s calculating machines. Its story also includes a Beatnik author, one of the craziest corporate relocation plans ever (more on this in a future post), the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, an attempt to dethrone IBM as king of computers, and the formation of a company many still know today, Unisys.

If you haven't checked out our new Substack, we're telling more stories about Detroit and highlighting some of the quirky, fascinating and forgotten tales that might not quite fit on HistoricDetroit.org. Check out this unlikely bit about what the iconic Grande Ballroom has in common with a downtown sports bar, or the unsolved mob hit that stunned 1930s Detroit. We're also revisiting gems that might get lost in all the stories on the website, such as the building that made Detroiters 'seasick.'

If you'd like to help support our work here at HistoricDetroit.org, we have a Patreon, where you can get some nifty donation incentives for your generosity! Members get early access to new material, as well. Thank you!

January 2025 site update

Feb. 10, 2025

January saw a ton of new photographs added to the site, with Helmut adding 294 photos last month. The locations included Little Rock Missionary Baptist Church (pictured above), Michigan Central Station, updates on the ongoing Packard Plant demolition, and the White House on Belle Isle.

We continued to add more rare Belle Isle photos from Vance Patrick’s collection to the site, with another 72 of those added. These include vintage shots of the Belle Isle Aquarium, the second Bath House and the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory. 

We also added two east side churches to the site, the Church of the Messiah and the Iroquois Avenue Christ Lutheran Church. Interestingly, the latter was physically moved from downtown to Indian Village. Helmut has added a veritable top-to-bottom photo documentation of both of these houses or worship to their pages, as well. Meanwhile, Helmut got rare access to photograph inside the Sacred Heart Seminary, and has already added 64 photos with more to come.

The February update will be much more impressive, as I’ve switched from infusion chemo to radiation, which has left me with more pep to work on the site, including the longest new entry on our site in some time: the Burroughs Adding Machine Co. We trace the company’s history from its founding by the namesake of Beatnik author William S. Burroughs straight through its merger with Sperry to become Unisys to the building’s acquisition by Henry Ford Health to become One Ford Place.

Also want to plug our free Substack channel at historicdetroit.substack.com, where we're sharing some of the quirkiest and most fun stories about Detroit history. 

We thank you for your support! 

December 2024 site update

Jan. 13, 2025

Here's your site update for what we were up to in December 2024.

December saw us upload the first tranche of those rare Belle Isle photos we’ve been telling you about. Our Patreon members got an exclusive first peek before we opened it up to everyone else. In all, we have uploaded 233 images from Vance Patrick’s Belle Isle collection, ranging from old family candids on the island to shots from newspaper archives. Most of these images have not been seen in 50 years or more, and some of them - namely, the family candids - have never been shared anywhere else. In addition to a slew of shots from the Belle Isle Zoo, there are images of the long-forgotten Belle Isle Sawmill, photos I’ve never seen before of the aftermath of the fire that destroyed the first Belle Isle Bridge, and a ton of images of the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory, Aquarium and Casino.

Not to be outdone, our very own Helmut Ziewers also continued to add a ton of stunning photography to the site, with 98 of his own images last month. These include photos of the Winter at The Station event at Michigan Central Station (pictured above), featuring the restored depot decked out in its holiday regalia; interiors of the historic Dime and Buhl buildings; shots of the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory on Belle Isle after reopening following its two-year restoration effort; demolition shots of the Packard Plant and Kettering High School, and more.

Continuing the Belle Isle theme, December saw us add pages for five locations to the site. We added an admittedly half-hearted entry for all of Belle Isle in order to accommodate the photo galleries mentioned above. The history of the island is long, deep and important, so it’s going to take us a while to flush it out and do it justice, but there is some background there. We also added the old Belle Isle Lighthouse; the old Band Pavilion from which orchestras once serenaded passing canoeists; and the White House, which is the oldest structure on the island. In addition, we posted a history of the Roger Margerum House in Jefferson Chalmers, and dived into the revered Black architect’s background.

Lastly, I don’t normally disclose site metrics, but … last year, HistoricDetroit.org received a whopping 1.5 MILLION page views from 504,000 unique visitors. This is just for the site and doesn’t factor in all the views and engagement on our social media channels.

A huge thank you to our Patreon donors for helping to support our work and providing a free online resource for the community.

We’ve got so much more in store for you in 2025. We thank you for your support!

November update and 2024 year in review

Dec. 1, 2024

Season’s greetings from HistoricDetroit.org!

October and November updates

Our very own Helmut Ziewers has continued to add a ton of stunning photography to the site, more than 700 of them since October, in fact. This includes more than 50 images of the Detroit Public Library, St. Albertus Parish School, the iconic Grande Ballroom, the stunning interiors of the Water Board Building and Scarab Club, and the Detroit Institute of Arts, among many others. He also continued to document the demolition of the infamous Packard Plant, including camping out to watch its water tower come down, and started chronicling the renovation of the Lee Plaza.

We added eight buildings to the site in October and November: the Detroit Fire Department Training Academy, the Forest Arms Apartments, Comerica Bank Center, Mercier Building, Monteith Elementary School, the Scarab Club, the Detroit Historical Museum, and the long-since demolished Fort Street Congregational Church. We also updated the Renaissance Center page with details and renderings of the proposed demolition of two towers as part of a $1.6 billion re-envisioning of the iconic building.

Our friend Vance Patrick lent us binders upon binders of rare historic Belle Isle images, and we have completed scanning hundreds of images. We’ve been cropping and touching up photos, and will be rolling these images out in batches. We’ll be sure to let you know when they're up, and, as always, our Patreon supporters get early access.

Year in review

We made a lot of progress in 2024, thanks to those Patreon supporters. There were 100 new locations added this year, ranging from landmarks like the Renaissance Center to churches to schools to the stately mansions built by auto barons and the like. That’s more than we’ve added in one year since launching the site in 2011.

There were just shy of 2,700 images by Helmut uploaded this year, chronicling not only the exteriors but stately interiors of many places our site’s visitors have never seen. From the Players Club to the Detroit Club, from the reborn Michigan Central Station to the doomed Packard Plant, Helmut and his camera gear were all over the Motor City, documenting for not only your eyes, but for posterity. We also added about 500 historical images for various locations.

Because we know you love vintage Detroit postcards as much as we do, we added about 300 new scans to the site, and just scanned about 300 more, so this number will grow before year’s end.

We also upped our presence on social media, ensuring posts every day - sometimes multiple posts. This ranged from our efforts to fight the demolition of the historic Detroit Boat Club and spreading awareness about how people could stand up for its preservation, to our new then-and-now feature that has proved popular, to our routine “on this date in Detroit history” posts. We’ve been most active on Facebook, but are trying to up our frequency on Instagram, as well.

In order to reach as many people as possible, we’re also launching a Substack that is free to join. We know this site has a LOT of content to sift through, so we’re going to make selections of new and past material. You can follow at substack.com/@historicdetroit. Again, we JUST launched it this week, so give us a bit of time to populate it. But I think it will be a good avenue for more people to see the work that our Patreon donors are helping to support.

We look forward to continuing to tell the stories behind the bricks in 2025 and beyond.

September 2024 site update

Sep. 24, 2024

Dan Austin here. So, why is the September site update so late? Well, I have some personal bad news, and at this time, I don’t know how it’s going to affect the site in the short term or the long.

In early August, I was diagnosed with late-stage (stage III-C) cancer. My life has been consumed by speed dating with various hospitals to determine where to seek treatment, all sorts of tests and doctor’s visits. This week, I had surgery to install my chemo port, and begin chemo on Thursday. I share this not in seeking sympathy or pity - just to explain why updates were few and far between last month. On the flip side, I’m hoping I’ll be able to write while receiving my treatment. At the end of the day, I just don’t know how I’m going to feel. But I’m hopeful.

Luckily, HD is now a two-person operation, and Helmut continues to pick up my slack.

In September, we added the Players Club, including a bunch of photos by Helmut. He added pages to host his photos of Alhambra Apartments, King Solomon Baptist Church, First English Evangelical Church and the Detroit Press Building. September saw Helmut add 320 images in all.

In other exciting news, our friend Vance Patrick - one of the driving forces behind saving the Belle Isle Aquarium - has lent us binders upon binders of rare historic Belle Isle images. We will be adding those over the next month or so.

Thanks for supporting what we do and bearing with me while I embark on this long fight. -d.a.

August 2024 site update

Aug. 23, 2024

Last month saw us cooking with Crisco, as we got back to site updates following the historic reopening of Michigan Central Station.

Our patreon members Patreon members got early access to two new additions to our site.

We added photos and history for the doomed Charles Kettering High School, a storied school on the city's east side that is slated to meet the wrecking ball.

We also added the Temple of the Maccabees, which started as a lumber baron’s mansion and wound up being felled for an Albert Kahn-designed Art Deco masterpiece. I’d looked at old postcards and photos of this far more modest ‘Bees hive for years. Though not one of the city’s most historically significant buildings, I’m glad to finally tell its forgotten story. We also added a brief page on one of the more unusually shaped buildings that once stood in Detroit, the parallelogram-shaped Otto Schemansky & Sons Building on Gratiot. We also added St. David’s Parochial, Van Zile, New and Marion Law elementary schools.

We also added more photos of the Renaissance Center, the Players Club and Detroit Institute of Arts. We’re working on getting permission to document a couple of other rarely seen interiors, and hope to bring you news on that next month.

Thanks to our Patreon members for everything that we do!

July 2024 site update

Aug. 2, 2024

July saw us add a few new buildings to the site, including the Lucy Thurman YWCA Branch.

Though segregation was not as bad in Detroit as it was in the South, there were still many restrictions on where Black Detroiters could live, work, and even play. This could range from hotels to recreation centers. This made facilities like the Thurman YWCA and the St. Antoine YMCA (built in 1924 and demolished in 1964) vital pillars of the Black community.

After integration led to the Thurman YWCA's closure, the building became home to the Sacred Heart Rehabilitation Center for alcohol addiction, which was run by an eccentric priest named Father Vaughan Quinn. He would drive around Detroit picking up clients for the clinic in a 1917 fire engine.

The Thurman was demolished in 1998 to make way for Ford Field.

Learn more about the Thurman Y, the Prohibitionist that the branch was named in honor of and more on our site. Photos of the Thurman are very hard to come by. If you have photos or memories we'd love if you'd share them.

Helmut took a well-deserved vacation in July, but that didn't stop him from adding photos to the site, including updated demolition photos of the Packard Plant, which continues to come down day by day.

Accomplishing the 'impossible': Michigan Central has been reborn

Jun. 10, 2024

When people walked into the abandoned Michigan Central Station, they often said, "No way."

There was no way it could be saved. There was no way its lost grandeur could be restored. There was no way someone would ever come forward to undo nearly four decades of neglect and decay.

But Ford Motor Co. has shown where there is a will, there is a way. Michigan Central Station opened its doors June 7 to the masses for the first time since 1988. The results of a six-year restoration have given Detroit not only one of its most familiar landmarks, but has risen the bar on what is possible through preservation. It also has helped flip the script on our city, turning one of its most notorious symbols of disinvestment and decline into one of promise and pride.

We have added some 325 photos of this restored architectural wonder, and on social, we posted some before-and-after images that really show off what the 3,100 men and women who worked on this project accomplished over a staggering 1.7 million hours of labor. Helmut Ziewers has seemingly spent as many hours documenting nearly every corner of the building, and his work is available for you to see thanks to our generous Patreon members. Helmut even covered the opening concert on June 6.

As some of you may know, our lead researcher and writer, Dan Austin, is the communications director for Michigan Central. With the opening festivities being all-consuming (including a literal 20-hour work day on June 6), non-photography-related site updates have had to take a backseat. Once things settle down, however, he will be back at it. You can bet a restored 1913 train station on it.

For those in Michigan, Ohio and willing to make the drive, Michigan Central Station's restoration needs to be seen to be believed. Some 60,000 free tickets for the 10-day OPEN House were snatched up the first day they were made available, but the public will be able to see the depot without a ticket from 5-9 p.m. Fridays and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays without a ticket starting June 21 and running through August.

April 2024 site update

Apr. 18, 2024

There were 34 buildings that got new pages added to the site, though we’ll admit, most of those were shorter entries on houses. The two most substantial additions were the former Greyhound Bus Garage on West Fort, which demolition wrapped up on this month, and the Majestic Hotel, a long-gone piece of Detroit's Roaring Twenties that serves as a reminder that underneath all those parking lots near the Fox Theatre and Little Caesars Arena is a story. We gave our Patreon members early access to the history on the Majestic Hotel, so hopefully you got the e-mail with a brief synopsis and the link! We were busy with the camera, too. We added 500 photos and a whopping 81 photo galleries in March. Now, many of those were for the houses that joined the site, but not all of them. Among the highlights are Fisher Body 21, a long abandoned eyesore that recently began a major renovation into apartments. Others include the Southwest Hospital near Michigan Central Station, the latest on the demolition work going on at the Packard Plant and the Greyhound Bus Garage (pictured here).

March 2024 site update

Mar. 11, 2024

Here is your recap of site updates from February 2024 ...

We added six buildings to the site: Pewabic Pottery, Belcrest Apartments, Mount Calvary Lutheran Church, Harpo's (originally the Harper Theatre) and an exhaustive write-up on the Comique Theatre.

As promised, our Patreon patrons got first dibs on the Comique, a fascinating forgotten theater that you won’t find information about anywhere else. It involves “tramp jugglers,” “shooting wonders … who shot the ashes off a cigar held between the teeth using rifles and pistols,” a contortionist named Dracula, and a hero named Arcady Bubnob - not to mention what was said to be the largest electric sign ever erected on the front of a building in America … at the time anyway.

After averaging 350-some new images a month, Helmut took a well-deserved vacation in his native Germany, so our galleries took a step backward - with a mere 236 images added in February. We’re sure there’s still plenty for you to look at. Mariners Church got an extensive photo shoot by Helmut, and we added photos of the demolition of the Hannan Memorial YMCA on East Jefferson, Hanneman Elementary, the Savarine Hotel, the Hotel Eddystone and more, not to mention images of the aforementioned new locations added to the site.

And all of this is made possible by our Patreon patrons' generous contributions! Thanks for supporting what we do! If you'd like to help support us, and get some cool swag in the process, please consider lending us a hand!

Farewell to the Hannan

Feb. 12, 2024

Demolition began Feb. 12, 2024, on the Hannan Memorial YMCA. Its demise was not a surprise, as the building had a target on it for years. But as we like to remind demolition enthusiasts, buildings are made of more than bricks - they are made of our city's stories. To learn more about this doomed east side landmark, head over to our page on the Hannan. We will chronicle the Hannan's demolition over the next month or so. The Hannan is only the latest historic Detroit building to fall to the wrecking ball in the first month and a half of the year, with the National Theatre and Hanneman Elementary also succumbing to the wreckers' siege. After several years of seeing historic preservation victories, the last year and change have seen the city revert to old form.

February 2024 site update

Feb. 8, 2024

Here’s your January update recap.

We added four churches to the site: Assumption Grotto, St. Francis D’Assisi (pictured above), St. Hedwig and St. Peter’s Episcopal. We have two in-depth histories that just didn’t quite get over the finish line last month, but when they post this month, our Patreon patrons always get early access. We’re quite happy with what we’ve unearthed from the newspaper archives, and think you’ll find our histories quite interesting.

We added 28 photo galleries, including historical and current ones for the four churches above. Others included Coleman A. Young International Airport (aka City Airport), Mount Calvary Luthern Church, Harpos (formerly the Harper Theatre) and the Hartz Building. We also have been documenting the demolitions of the National Theatre and Foch Intermediate School. All in all, there were 304 photos added in January alone.

And all of this is made possible by our Patreon supporters' generous contributions! Thanks for sticking with us and supporting what we do!

January 2024 site update

Jan. 14, 2024

Last year was a huge year for us, with Helmut Ziewers joining me on the team and adding 3,799 (!!!) photos to the site. We also added 133 locations over 2023, more postcard scans than I can count, a bunch of historic architectural renderings and more. This year will see lots more updates, plus the reopening of Michigan Central Station. We shot photos of the inside, and trust us, you’re going to be blown away. (No, we can’t share them yet, but when the building opens this summer, they’ll be posted!)

We were tied up during the holidays, like most people, so December saw us add only the three buildings that we told you about last time, but Helmut did add 314 photos in December, including galleries of St. Elizabeth Catholic Church (pictured here), Cathedral Church of St. Paul, and St. Mary of Redford Parish. We are back and work and recharged post-holidays with histories in the work on the Detroit College of Law and a couple of surprises that we look forward to unveiling to our Patreon patrons first. If you're interested in helping to support what we do and snag yourself some cool Detroit loot and early access, you can go to www.patreon.com/historicdetroit to sign up.

For the next year, all patrons who sign up to receive a free vintage Detroit postcard will now get TWO each month! Plus, we still have some 1920s train tickets from Michigan Central Station left, which are sure to be a hot item with the building's reopening this summer.

Thank you!

November-December 2023 site update

Dec. 11, 2023

Happy holidays, from HistoricDetroit.org!

November saw a number of site updates, including more than 400 (!!!) new photos added. It also saw us continue our efforts to stop the potential demolition of the historic Detroit Boat Club on Belle Isle. With the holidays coming up fast, we’re going to roll December’s updates thus far into this recap for you.

We have added eight buildings to the site. The most in-depth write-ups are of the historic St. Mary of Redford Parish and the Thunderbird Motel. St. Mary is still going strong today, a beautiful church that Helmut Ziewers documented from top to bottom with his beautiful photography. The Thunderbird opened in 1957 as a cute Mid-Century Modern motel, one of many that popped up around Detroit. By the 1990s, however, it was a hive of nefarious goings-on. The Thunderbird turned out to be a lightning rod for trouble, and we’ve got it all for you, from being robbed at Air Gun point by the “Beatnik Guitarist” Bandit to the federal raid that led to its closure and demolition for a parking lot for the main post office. Check it out on our site.

We also added pages and photos for the El Tovar Apartments, the Bennett Building, the Globe Tobacco Building, the Post Intermediate School, the Nativity of Our Lord Church and Blenheim Apartments.

Among the 400-plus photos are some jaw-dropping shots of churches by Helmut, including the Cathedrals of St. Paul, Most Blessed Sacrament and St. Anthony and the Nativity of Our Lord Church. He also has been documenting the work at the Bonstelle Theatre that is restoring its original Albert Kahn-designed glory. We also added a number of historical photos to various galleries.

And all of this is made possible by our Patreon patrons' generous contributions! Thanks for sticking with us and supporting what we do!

Helmut and I wish you and yours a happy holiday season, and we can’t wait to show you what we’ve got in store for 2024.

October 2023 site update

Nov. 10, 2023

October saw more locations, more photos, more postcards … more of everything. We also saw us flex our preservationist muscle to help put the skids on the potential demolition of the historic Detroit Boat Club on Belle Isle.

We added eight buildings to the site. First up, the Fisher Administration Center, a University of Detroit Mercy campus landmark that is being demolished right now. We also added the Newberry & McMillan Building, a long-demolished but beautiful piece of Detroit history. The others were the Clairwood Apartments (currently undergoing a renovation), the Grosfield Building (a 19th-century gem currently targeted by the City for demolition), the Art Deco gem that is the Laredo Apartments (pictured), the Fisher Branch YMCA, and the Foch and Crockett schools. Some of these are rather skimpy on history, but we wanted to get the photo galleries up sooner rather than later - especially given that some of these are marked for demolition.

We mounted a full court press to bring media attention and mount opposition to the razing of the Detroit Boat Club. There’s too much to go into here, but you can read all about it at patreon.com/historicdetroit. We do more than just chronicle Detroit’s architectural history, we fight for it.

We also added 201 photos, both historical and current shots by our Helmut Ziewers. Among the biggest galleries were shots inside the aforementioned Grosfield Building and Laredo Apartments, the Detroit Boat Club, Holy Redeemer Parish, and the demolition of Fisher Admin.

And all of this is made possible by our Patreon patrons' generous contributions!