This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Detroit, Michigan.
This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Latitude and longitude coordinates are provided for many National Register properties and districts; these locations may be seen together in an online map.[1]
There are 364 properties and districts listed on the National Register in Wayne County, including 14 National Historic Landmarks. The city of Detroit is the location of 283 of these properties and districts, including 10 National Historic Landmarks; those outside downtown and midtown are listed here, while the properties and districts outside Detroit, including 4 National Historic Landmarks, are listed separately. A single property straddles the city limits and thus appears on both lists.
The properties on this list are within the city of Detroit but outside of the Downtown/Midtown area bounded by the Lodge Freeway (M-10) to the west, the Edsel Ford Freeway (I-94) on the north, the Chrysler Freeway (I-75) and Interstate 375 on the east, and the Detroit River to the south. Properties on this list are further divided into geographical areas:
New Center Area: North of Midtown and bounded by the Lodge Freeway on the west, I-94 on the south, Woodward Avenue on the east, and Seward Avenue on the north.
North End: North of the New Center and bounded by the Woodward Avenue on the west, East Grand Blvd. on the south, I-75 on the east, and Highland Park on the north.
Palmer Park Area: Bounded by Highland Park and McNichols Rd. on the south, Livernois on the west, Eight Mile on the north, and Woodward on the east.
Corktown – Woodbridge: West of Downtown and bounded by I-96 to the east, I-94 on the south, the Lodge Freeway to the east, and the Detroit River to the south.
Southwest Detroit: The section of Detroit west of Corktown – Woodbridge and south of Michigan Avenue.
Eastern Market Area: The section of Detroit east of Downtown/Midtown and immediately adjacent to Eastern Market.
Jefferson Corridor: The section of Detroit east of Downtown and Eastern Market and south of Kercheval.
West Side: The remainder of Detroit not already delineated west of Woodward Avenue.
East Side: The remainder of Detroit not already delineated east of Woodward Avenue.
All together there are 278 properties and districts listed on the National Register in Detroit proper. Nine additional properties and districts, including one National Historic Landmark, are located in the Detroit enclave of Highland Park. Three properties are located in the Detroit enclave of Hamtramck. The properties and districts in these two Detroit enclaves, plus 75 others, are listed in this list of non-Detroit NRHP listings in Wayne County.
Augustus Woodward's plan for the city following 1805 fire.
Detroit, settled in 1701, is one of the oldest cities in the Midwest. It experienced a disastrous fire in 1805 which nearly destroyed the city, leaving little present-day evidence of old Detroit save a few east-side streets named for early French settlers, their ancestors, and some pear trees which were believed to have been planted by early missionaries. After the fire, Judge Augustus B. Woodward designed a plan of evenly spaced public parks with interconnecting semi-circular and diagonal streets. Although Woodward's plan was not fully implemented, the basic outline in still in place today in the heart of the city. Main thoroughfares radiate outward from the center of the city like spokes in a wheel, with Jefferson Avenue running parallel to the river, Woodward Avenue running perpendicular to it, and Gratiot, Michigan, and Grand River Avenues interspersed. A sixth main street, Fort, wanders downriver from the center of the city.
After Detroit rebuilt in the early 19th century, a thriving community soon sprang up, and by the Civil War, over 45,000 people were living in the city,[4] primarily spread along Jefferson Avenue to the east and Fort Street to the west. As in many major American cities, subsequent redevelopment of the central city through the next 150 years has eliminated all but a handful of the antebellum structures in Detroit. The oldest remaining structures are those built as private residences, including a group in the Corktown neighborhood and another set of houses strung along Jefferson Avenue—notably the Charles Trowbridge House (1826, the oldest known structure in the city), the Joseph Campau House (1835), the Sibley House (1848), the Beaubien House (1851), and the Moross House (1855). Other extant pre-1860 structures include Fort Wayne (1849); Saints Peter and Paul Church (1848) and Mariner's Church (1849); and scattered commercial buildings (one in Randolph Street Commercial Buildings Historic District, for example); Unfortunately, the demolition of historic structures continues into the present day: multiple structures listed on the Register, including the Alexander Chene House (1855), have been demolished in the last decade.
Rise of industry and commerce
As Detroit grew into a thriving hub of commerce and industry, the city spread along Jefferson, with multiple manufacturing firms taking advantage of the transportation resources afforded by the river and a parallel rail line. The shipyard that eventually became the Dry Dock Engine Works-Detroit Dry Dock Company Complex opened on the Detroit River at the foot of Orleans in 1852; Parke-Davis established a center between East Jefferson Avenue and the river in the 1870s; another pharmaceutical firm, the Frederick Stearns Company, built a plant in the same area in the 1890s. Globe Tobacco built a manufacturing facility closer to downtown in 1888.
The development of the automobile industry led to rising demands for labor, which were filled by huge numbers of newcomers from Europe and the American South. Between 1900 and 1930, the city's population soared from 265,000 to over 1.5 million, pushing the boundaries of the city outward. The population boom led to the construction of apartment buildings across the city, aimed at the middle-class auto worker. These include the Somerset Apartments (1922), the Garden Court Apartments (1915), and the Manchester Apartments (1915).
During the early years of Detroit, the African-American population was relatively small. However, the Second Baptist Church (1857; rebuilt 1914) was founded with an African-American congregation in the 1830s; the church played an instrumental role in the Underground Railroad, due to Detroit's proximity to Canada. The auto boom of the 20th century changed the population, and in the years following World War I, the black population of Detroit soared. In 1910, fewer than 6000 blacks called the city home;[5] in 1917 more than 30,000 blacks lived in Detroit.[6] Significant African-American structures in Detroit are related to the struggle with segregation: Dunbar Hospital (founded 1914), the Ossian H. Sweet House (1925), and the Sugar Hill neighborhood. However, other structures, such as the Breitmeyer-Tobin Building (1905) are tributes to the slow integration in the latter half of the 20th century.
The Alden Park Towers were built in 1922 south of Jefferson to take advantage of the natural beauty of the Detroit River. This structure is one of the few large apartment buildings constructed in Detroit.
The Art Moderne Alger Theater is one of only two remaining intact and unchanged neighborhood theaters in the city of Detroit (the second being the Redford Theatre). The theater is owned by Friends of the Alger Theater, a non profit organization dedicated to refurbishing and reopening the theater.
This building was constructed in 1911 for the Amity Lodge No. 335 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. It was used by Odd Fellow lodges and other fraternal organizations until 1960, when it became the headquarters of the Spiritual Israel Church and Its Army, a predominantly African American denomination.
The Antietam Street bridge (along with the nearby Chestnut Street bridge) was built in the late 1920s and early 1930s as part of Detroit's program to separate railroad and street grades. It runs over what was once the Grand Trunk Railroad, and is now the Dequindre Cut. The bridge was demolished due to structural deficiencies.
The Arden Park-East Boston Historic District was platted in the 1890s east of Woodward in what was then the far northern reaches of Detroit. The neighborhood was platted with large lots to attract wealthier residents of Detroit; some of the neighborhood's first residents included Frederick Fisher, John Dodge, and J.L. Hudson. The neighborhood, along with nearby Boston-Edison (also on the register) remained a premier address for residential living in Detroit.
This Roman Catholic parish was started in 1830 by German immigrants. The church is known as the Assumption Grotto Church, due to the popularity of the grotto, completed in 1881, which was built as a replica of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in France. The church complex includes the grotto, a 1929 church, a rectory, convent, and cemetery.
The Edmund Atkinson School was built as an elementary school in 1927. Detroit Public Schools closed the building in 2007, and in 2010 sold it to National Heritage Academy for $600,000. The building has reopened as Legacy Charter Academy.
This two-and-one-half-story structure is still one of the finest of Detroit's Richardsonian Romanesque houses. Built of dark brick and brown stone, it has a massive gable roof and a tower with conical roof. The facade contains multiple surface and window treatments, including sculptural elements by Julius Melchers around the entrance.
The Birwood Wall is a six-foot-high (1.8 m) separation wall that was constructed in 1941 to physically separate Black and White homeowners on the sole basis of race.
The Joseph Campau House, built on land that was originally part of the Joseph Campau farm, is one of the oldest residences in Detroit. The house is a simply constructed two-story house with a symmetrical three-bay facade.
The Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament is the home of the Archdiocese of Detroit since its inception in 1938. Construction of the church started in 1913, but proceeded rather slowly. The interior was finished in 1930, and the exterior was not finished until 1951 with the construction of the towers.
This church was built by the Disciples of Christ in Detroit, in the mid-1920s as their second church in Detroit. In the 1970s, the congregation migrated into the suburbs, and the church was sold to the Little Rock Missionary Baptist Church.
In 1927, the Detroit Cab Company constructed this new, three-story flat-roofed garage and office building. In 1929, the Checker Cab Company purchased Detroit Cab, and by `931 had moved its own headquarters to the building. Checker remained in the building on Trumbull until 2016, when it sold the building for redevelopment into loft space.
The Chene House was one of the few examples of Federal architecture in Detroit. It was built in 1850 by Alexander Chene on land which had been granted to the Chene family by Louis XIV of France in 1707. The home was demolished in April 1991; an IHOP was built in its place.
The Chestnut Street bridge (along with the nearby Antietam Street bridge) was built in the late 1920s/early 1930s as part of Detroit's program to separate railroad and street grades. It runs over what was once the Grand Trunk Railroad, and is now the Dequindre Cut.
This Episcopalian church, constructed in 1863, is the oldest Protestant church in Michigan which is still located on its original site. The church is built in an American Gothic style, using limestone and sandstone; a massive belfry with a squared-off Germanic roof dominates the front facade. All interior woodwork, save the roof, is made from local butternut. There are two Tiffany windows in the church, with more windows designed by other famous glass companies.
This Historic District is a group of buildings associated with what was the Church of the Transfiguration Roman Catholic parish (and is now the Saint John Paul II parish). It includes the church itself, a shrine (with grotto), school, convent, rectory and activities building. They are all located near each other in a one-and-half-block area. The buildings were constructed over the period 1925 - 1961.
This school, designed by Donaldson and Meier, is an excellent example of Collegiate Gothic style, with no alteration to its exterior since its construction in 1927. The building was used as a Detroit Public School until 2009, and now houses the Frontier International Academy.
Corktown is the oldest surviving neighborhood in Detroit, dating to the 1850s. The name comes from the Irish immigrants who settled there; they were predominantly from County Cork. The neighborhood is primarily residential, but the district does include some commercial buildings, mostly along Michigan Avenue.
This building was originally constructed in 1905 for a firm that made radiator chaplets, and was enlarged in several stages in 1916, 1917, 1924, and the early 1950s. The company ceased operations in Detroit in the 1980s. The building has been refurbished into lofts, and is now known as the Research Lofts on Trumbull.
The Croul-Palms House is named after its first two owners, Jerome Croul and Francis Palms. The house is an excellent example of Queen Anne architecture.
The Detroit Naval Armory, also known as the R. Thornton Brodhead Armory, was constructed as a training facility for the Michigan "naval militias", the forerunner of present-day Navy and Marine Corps Reserve units. During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration funded numerous artistic additions to the armory; this collection of WPA art is the largest collection of federally funded Depression-era artwork of any building in the state.
The complex includes a cluster of six buildings (also known as the Globe Trading Company Building) and a dry dock along the river; these structures are the remnants of a once-thriving maritime construction trade. The machine shop is significant as an early industrial building with structural steel frame and curtain walls.
The East Grand Boulevard Historic District includes a few moderate-sized apartment buildings and numerous large homes constructed primarily between 1900 and 1925. The apartment buildings in the district include the El Tovar Apartments, Saint Paul Manor Apartments, and the Kingston Arms Apartments.
Eastern market, established in the 1850s, is the largest historic public market district in the United States. The district houses food wholesaling and processing businesses as well as public market sheds. The second set of boundaries represents an increase added on 2007-02-01.
The Eastside Historic Cemetery District consists of three separate cemeteries: Mount Elliott Cemetery (Catholic, established 1841), Elmwood Cemetery (Protestant, established 1846), and the Lafayette Street Cemetery (Jewish, established 1850), spreading over 150 acres (0.61 km2) in total. The cemeteries are notable for the monuments, landscaping, and notable individuals interred there.
This building was constructed in 1912 for Edson, Moore & Company, a wholesale dry goods firm, as warehouse space. The company used the building until 1958.The building has been redeveloped into a mixed use space known as The Assembly Apartments.
The Eighth Precinct Police Station is the second-oldest police building in Detroit. The station is made up of two, two-story structures with a single-story arcade between. The main building was used as office space while the other building was used as a garage. The building currently houses Phoenix Group Consultants.
Engine House No. 11 is the oldest remaining fire house in the city of Detroit. It was organized in 1884 with horse-drawn equipment, and converted to motorized equipment in 1911. The building was used as a fire house until 1972.
Engine House No. 18 is the third oldest existing (and the oldest operating) fire station in Detroit. It was built in 1892 with two first-floor engine bays.
The First Baptist Church congregation was founded in 1827. This building was constructed in 1910 as congregants moved out of the downtown area. In 1957, with the congregation again on the move, First Baptist sold the building to the Peoples Community Church, who remain in the building.
The Fisher and New Center Buildings as a pair are an architecturally significant complex demonstrating some of the finest craftsmanship and artistry in Art Deco–style buildings. Both were funded by the Fisher brothers (of Fisher Body) and designed by Albert Kahn. The New Center building is now known as the Albert Kahn Building.
Built in 1927 by the Fisher brothers, this skyscraper is one of the greatest works by architect Albert Kahn. The Fishers spent lavishly to make this Art Deco masterpiece a monumental gift to Detroit and one of the most finely detailed major commercial buildings in the United States.[10]
The Ford Piquette Avenue Plant is a New England mill-style building, built by the Ford Motor Company in 1904. The building is where the Model T was designed and first built. Ford moved out in 1910, selling the building to Studebaker the following year. It is currently operated as a museum, the Model T Automotive Heritage Complex.
Fort Wayne is Detroit's third fort, after Fort Detroit and Fort Lernoult. The original star fort and barracks at Fort Wayne was constructed in 1845-48. It served as a mustering center and garrison post from the Civil War though the Vietnam War. Later buildings were added outside the star fort, including officer's homes, a guard post, hospital, additional barracks, and other buildings.
The Garden Court Apartments were constructed for J. Harrington Walker (of Hiram Walker & Sons) in 1915. Walker lived across the street from the Garden Court; when the building was completed, he moved into one of the apartments. The nine-story building originally housed 32 very large luxury apartments.
The James A. Garfield School is one of the oldest existing schools in the city of Detroit, as well as one of the least altered. The school, named for president James A. Garfield, was designed in 1896; in 1907, the name of the building was changed to honor Frank H. Beard, the director of the Springwells school board for 17 years.
The 15-story General Motors Building was designed in 1919 by Albert Kahn, and used until 1996 as the headquarters of General Motors Corporation. The building, currently known as Cadillac Place, is now leased by the State of Michigan.
The Gethsemane Lutheran Church is a wooden, High Victorian Gothic chapel, built in 1891 by the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church. The congregation used the building until 1976, when they went defunct. The building was purchased by the Motor City Missionary Baptist Church in 1978.
The Grande Ballroom is a historic live music venue, designed by Detroit architect Charles N. Agree in 1928. In 1966 the Grande was acquired by local radio DJ Russ Gibb as a venue for the new psychedelic music and a resource for local teenagers.
The Greenfield Union School was built for $40,000 in 1914 in what was then Greenfield Township. In 1916, the area was annexed by the city of Detroit. The school was nominated to the NRHP as part of the Public Schools of Detroit MPS.
The Hook and Ladder House No. 5 and the Detroit Fire Department Repair Shop are two conjoined structures originally built for the Detroit Fire Department. The Hook and Ladder House was built in 1888, the Repair Shop in 1917. The two are now the Sala Thai Restaurant and the FD Lofts.
In 1890, William Northwood, the co-founder of the Howard–Northwood Malt Manufacturing Company, commissioned architect George F. Depew to design this home. The structure was completed in 1891 at a cost of $13,500. In the 1960s, the house was converted into a church. In the early 1970s, the home was purchased by the Hunter family, who converted it back to a private residence. This house is also known as the Northwood House or the Northwood–Hunter House. It is currently operated as the Woodbridge Star, a bed and breakfast.
Hurlbut Memorial Gate, named for Detroit grocer and Water Commissioner Chauncey Hurlbut (1803–1885), marks the entrance to Waterworks Park, the main site of Detroit's municipal water system. The gate is a handsome limestone Beaux Arts design.
Indian Village has a number of architecturally significant homes built in the early 20th century. Many of the homes were built by prominent architects such as Albert Kahn, Louis Kamper and William Stratton for some of the area's most prominent citizens such as Edsel Ford.
Jefferson Hall was a four-story "garden court" style apartment, where apartments are arranged in a U-shape around a central courtyard. It has been demolished.
The Historic Jefferson-Chalmers Business District, running eight blocks along Jefferson Avenue, is one of a few early 20th-century neighborhood commercial districts that still survive in Detroit.
The Kean is a strikingly Art Deco apartment building designed by Charles Noble in 1931. The building is sixteen stories high, containing four apartments per floor. It was the last of the large apartment building built along East Jefferson before the Great Depression depressed development.
The Kingston Arms is a 4+1⁄2-story apartment building with 24 apartments, and is a representative example of the rise of middle-class apartment buildings in pre-Depression era Detroit. It is located in the East Grand Boulevard Historic District.
First built as an ornate high rise hotel along West Grand Boulevard, Lee Plaza was an upscale apartment with hotel services. Decorated with sculpture and tile outside, the structure rivaled the Book-Cadillac Hotel and Statler Hotel for architectural notice in Detroit during the 1920s. The structure is currently vacant.
The Nellie Leland School is a school building, originally built to serve handicapped children. It is named after the wife of Henry M. Leland, a Detroit automotive pioneer who founded both the Cadillac and Lincoln automotive companies and a philanthropist who focused on helping those sick with tuberculosis.
The Manchester Apartments is typical of medium-scale middle-class apartment buildings built in Detroit in general and along East Jefferson in particular in the first decade of the 20th century. The details of the exterior, including corner blocks around window groupings, brick quoins, and patterns above the cornice demonstrate the rise of modernism.
In 1925, developer Emil C. Pokorny of Pokorny & Company hired local architect Harvey J. Haughey to design this building, one of five Porknoy developed in Detroit. The building is a U-shaped four-and-a-half-story, Neoclassical multi-tone red brick building. The apartments were rented as fully furnished units, and were marketed to professionals and white-collar workers.
The Metropolitan United Methodist Church congregation was founded in 1901 with the merger of two earlier congregations. The church building was constructed in 1922 on land donated by one of the congregants, Sebastian S. Kresge. By the mid-1930s, the congregation was the largest local church in the Methodist world.
This district contains 13 contributing commercial buildings, constricted from the 1880s through the 1920s. This represents the most intact section collections of buildings along this stretch of Michigan Avenue.
This structure was built in 1929-30 as a warehouse, garage, and office space for Western Electric. Western Electric used the building as its Michigan headquarters until 1958, after which it was used by Michigan Bell and its Yellow Pages operation until 1999.
The Michigan State Fair Riding Coliseum, Dairy Cattle Building, and Agricultural Building are three buildings located on the grounds of the Michigan State Fair. They were built two years apart in 1922, 1924, and 1926. All three are similar in appearance, being Neo-Classical Revival, white stuccoed buildings sitting on high red brick foundations.
This 78-acre (320,000 m2) urban renewal project was planned by Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig Hilberseimer and Alfred Caldwell. It is the largest collection of his work in the world, centered around a landscaped, 19-acre (7.7 ha) park with no through traffic, in which these and other low-rise apartment buildings are sited. The apartment buildings are classic examples of Mies' International Style, with their simplicity, clean proportions, and cladding of tinted glass and aluminum.
Miller Middle School opened in 1921 as a Junior High. However, as the percentage of African-Americans in the Black Bottom neighborhood increased, white parents of students at nearby Eastern High School complained. In response the Detroit School Board converted Miller to a senior high school in 1933. A liberal school transfer policy allowed White students zoned to Miller to attend Eastern, which effectively segregated students, leaving Miller as the de facto African-American High school. In 1955, steps were taken to end segregation in Detroit schools, and in 1957 the building was converted back into a middle school. It remained a middle school for 50 years, and was closed in 2007.
The Moross House was built in the 1840s by brickmaker Christopher Moross; it was one of two built by Moross on the site. It is the oldest surviving brick house in the city.
The Nacirema Club, founded in 1922, is the first African-American social club in Michigan. During its heyday, this men's club was the social center of the surrounding neighborhood. The name is "American" spelled backwards.
The New Amsterdam Historic District contains a mix of industrial, commercial, and government/utility buildings constructed primarily near the start of the 20th century. Industry in the district was enabled by the construction of major railroad infrastructure, known as the Milwaukee Junction, in the 1890s. The district includes the original Cadillac assembly plant.
The New Bethel Baptist Church was founded in 1932, and led by the Reverend C. L. Franklin from 1946 until 1979. In 1963, the church moved to its current location, the former Oriole Theater building. The church and this building was at the center of the Civil Rights Movement in Detroit.
This district contains fourteen contributing structures, built the late 1880s to 1942. The structures are one to three-story commercial masonry buildings, constructed in a range of architectural styles, including Commercial style, Neoclassical, Art Deco and Moderne. The district is representative of many of the local commercial districts in Detroit which sprang up at the intersections of major streets. However, the New Center area has retained more commercial vitality than many other neighborhood commercial districts, and the buildings within the district maintain a higher degree of integrity.
The Philetus W. Norris House was built in 1873 by Philetus W. Norris, who went on to become the second superintendent of Yellowstone National Park. Norris founded the town of "Norris" (later "North Detroit") and built his house there. The town was later subsumed into the city of Detroit; Norris's house is one of the few original structures left in the area.
The North Woodward Congregational Church was built in stages, with a small chapel on the site of the present church constructed as early as 1907; the main sanctuary was built in 1911–1912 and additional sections were added later, with the most recent, the church house, being added in 1929. By the 1950s, the congregation had substantially moved out of Detroit, and the building was sold to St. John's Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.
The land that this historic district sits on was once the estate of Thomas W. Palmer. In 1925, Walter Briggs hired Albert Kahn to design an apartment building at 1001 Covington. Forty buildings total were constructed in the district by multiple architects, including Weidmaier and Gay, Robert West, and William Kapp. The second set of boundaries is from the boundary increase of February 11, 2005.
Palmer Woods sits on land originally owned by Thomas W. Palmer, a prominent citizen of 19th-century Detroit and a United States Senator. The neighborhood was platted in the mid-1910s, and most of the homes were constructed between about 1917 and 1929. Landscape architect Ossian Cole Simonds laid out a subdivision with gently curving streets, capitalizing on the natural beauty of the area and creating a parklike atmosphere in the neighborhood.
The Palms was one of the first buildings in the US to use reinforced concrete as one of its major construction materials. The building was named after Francis Palms, a major investor, who lived close by (in the Croul-Palms House). The original floor plans called for apartments that occupied an entire wing of the building, consisting of a double parlor in the front and a dining room with fireplace to the back separated by bedrooms, libraries, baths and more.
In the 1870s, Parke-Davis moved to the riverfront property this complex now occupies. Between 1891 and 1955, the company expanded the complex to cover over 14 acres (57,000 m2), building the 26 buildings that still stand (including the National Historic Landmark Parke-Davis Research Laboratory). These buildings range from brick mill buildings built around the start of the 20th century to reinforced concrete buildings constructed after 1920 and range from one to six stories in height.
The Arthur M. Parker House is a two-and-one-half-story house, faced with brick on the first story and stucco and half-timbering above. The house has a medieval character reinforced by irregular bays, though more restrained than the next-door Frederick K. Stearns House.
Thomas Parker was a grocer and real estate speculator who commissioned Gorden W. Lloyd in 1868 to build what is now a rare example of a Gothic Revival house in Detroit.
This building is a two-story brick duplex, and is significant as the home of civil rights icon Rosa Parks, who lived in the first floor flat with her husband Raymond from 1961 to 1988.
The building is an early example of upper-class, multi-unit housing, and is one of the earliest of these structures to be built with reinforced concrete. The building was constructed at a time when newly wealthy families associated with Detroit's industrial boom were appearing, yet financing requirements for private homes were substantial enough that renting was a preferred option.
The unfinished building began operating as Detroit's main passenger depot in 1913; it was constructed as part of a much larger project that involved the Michigan Central Railway Tunnel below the Detroit River for freight and passengers. The building was used for rail service until 1988, and is now abandoned.
This 1907 building, designed by William Stratton, is the home of ceramic artistMary Chase Perry Stratton's studio and production facilities. Her work in the Arts and Crafts movement raised the artistic standard of American pottery, and is featured in numerous prominent buildings and distinguished institutions.
Designed by Charles N. Agree in 1924, these two apartments provided housing for Detroit's growing professional and middle-class during a time when the surrounding area was being developed with luxury apartment buildings.
The area along Piquette was an important center for automobile production in the early 20th century. Ford Motor Company, Studebaker, Cadillac, Dodge, and Regal Motor Car had plants in the area, as well as suppliers such as Fisher Body. In 1911, the two largest automobile producers in the world, Studebaker and Ford, were located next door to each other on Piquette. The district includes the National Historic Landmark Ford Piquette Avenue Plant.
The Players Club of Detroit was founded in 1910 by a group of local Detroit businessmen as an institution to encourage amateur theater. In 1925, Players Club member William E. Kapp designed an elaborately decorated two-story building to permanently house the club. It was constructed of what was, at the time, a novel material: cinder blocks. The bed of Bloody Run Creek, where the Battle of Bloody Run took place between Chief Pontiac and British forces, lies underneath one corner of the building.
The Redford Theatre opened in 1928 and has continuously operated since. The theatre's original 3 manual, 10 rank Barton theatre organ is still in place and operational.
This district consists of three houses located in a row on Appoline Street, designed by architect Louis G. Redstone for himself, his brother, and his business partner. The houses exhibit fundamental characteristics of the International Style, including low hip roofs, corner windows, and curved walls. The design is distinctive in the use of reclaimed common red brick for the exterior, rather than the white stucco usually associated with the International style.
The River Terrace Apartments was built in 1939 and designed for middle-class tenants. It was one of the first two garden apartment complexes built in Michigan which used loan guarantees from the Federal Housing Administration, and the architectural style exemplifies the FHA standards at the time.
Sacred Heart, built in 1875, was the third German Roman Catholic church constructed in Detroit. After World War I, the German population slowly moved from the area. In 1938, Sacred Heart was converted from a German parish to an African American parish. The congregation at this time measured approximately 1500 members, and they quickly utilized the school at Sacred Heart, graduating the first high school class in 1945.
Sacred Heart Major Seminary is a Catholic institution of higher learning associated with the Archdiocese of Detroit. The seminary building was built in 1923 in the English Tudor Gothic architectural style, with stained glass windows designed by Margaret Bouchez Cavanaugh.
In 1871, St. Albertus Parish was organized with three hundred or so Polish families. A frame church was built in 1872. The parish grew enormously, and in 1882, construction was started on the present building.
Ste. Anne de Detroit, founded July 26, 1701, is the second oldest continuously operating Roman Catholic parish in the United States. The current church was built in 1886, and contains some pieces from an earlier 1818 version of Ste. Anne's. The parish today has a largely Hispanic congregation.
The St. Bonaventure Monastery is a complex of religious buildings, built for the Capuchin Order of Franciscan friars. The friars operate a soup kitchen which, during the Great Depression, provided as many as 3,500 free meals per day. Father Solanus Casey, a Capuchin friar who acted as a porter at St. Bonaventure's, introduced as a candidate for sainthood in 1966.
The St. Catherine of Siena Parish complex consists of four architecturally significant buildings: the parish school (1913), convent (1926), rectory (1926), and the church itself (1929). All buildings are basically Romanesque in style, with some Byzantine elements. The church is now the Augustine and St. Monica Roman Catholic Church.
In 1886, a parish dedicated to St. Charles Borromeo was established to minister to the eastside area where an influx of Belgians had settled. As Detroit grew, the parish grew along with it, with French, German, Irish, Scotch, and English congregants in addition to the original Belgians. By 1920, the congregation numbered over 3000.
St. John's – St. Luke's is the oldest German Protestant church in Detroit, and was the base from which twelve other German Protestant churches in the city were formed. The church was originally constructed in 1874 from brick, but in 1915 the exterior was completely covered in Formstone, a cast concrete made to resemble limestone.
The church, built from 1893 to 1896 and originally named St. Joseph's Episcopal Church, is a massive rock-faced, cross-gable-roofed, sandstone, Romanesque Revival structure. In 1907, it was sold to a Catholic congregation.
The church building is a typical Gothic structure with a narrow gabled nave and projecting side aisles. A large rose window faces Woodward, and a tall bell tower is to the south. The structure is now St. Matthew's-St. Joseph's Episcopal Church.
St. Joseph's is a historic German Catholic parish; the current church was constructed in 1870-73. It is still in full operation today. Three subsidiary buildings -- the rectory, convent, and the Wermers House -- were added to the listing in 1992.
The Saint Rita Apartments is a six-story English Renaissance Revival red brick apartment building, built as an upscale apartment building in 1916. By 1990, the apartment building had been converted into subsidized housing, and was closed in 2005. The Saint Rita Apartments reopened in 2019 as 26 units of "Permanent Supportive Housing" for veterans.
In 1898, the parish of St. Stanislaus was established to relieve the overcrowding in the Polish congregation of at St. Albertus. In 1911, work was begun on a magnificent Baroque church with a lavish Beaux Arts interior, which was completed in 1913. The church is now used by the Promise Land Missionary Baptist Church.
The St. Theresa of Avila Roman Catholic Parish Complex consists of the church, rectory, school, and convent. All of the buildings are essentially Neo-Romanesque in character, with Byzantine and Art Deco influences. They are constructed of dark red brick trimmed with Indiana limestone.
St. Thomas the Apostle Parish was a Polish-American Roman Catholic parish founded in 1914, at the eastern edge of the predominantly Polish sections of Detroit. A church was constructed in 1923, and the parish had both a grade school and a high school. The church has been demolished, and the school currently serves as the St. Thomas Assessment Center for troubled youths.
This church, designed by George D. Mason, was built in 1925. It was purchased by civil rights leader Rev. Albert B. Cleage Jr. and his Central Congregational Church in 1957, and was remnamed for the 1967 murla painted by Black artist Glanton Dowdell . The church is significant for its association with Cleage and as the location of many significant 20th century African American civil rights activities.
The Sibley house is a clapboard, side-gabled Greek Revival-style home, and is one of the oldest structures in Detroit. It was built by Sarah Sproat Sibley, widow of Solomon Sibley, in 1848.
The Frederic M. Sibley Lumber Company Office Building was built in a Neo-Classical style in 1925. At the time, the Sibley Lumber Company employed 400 people and was the second largest lumber firm in Detroit.
The Somerset Apartments were five interconnected rectangular buildings, each four stories, built in a row running rearward from Jefferson. It was an excellent example of high-quality middle-class residential architecture from the 1920s. It burned in late 2013 and was demolished in 2014.
This house is a two-and-one-half-story house constructed from hollow tile for Frederick K. Stearns, founder of a pharmaceutical company. It is significant because of its fine medieval and Arts and Crafts design.
The Frederick Stearns Building is a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant, originally containing Stearns's production facilities as well as warehouses and white-collar offices. The first three stories of this building were constructed in 1899, the fourth floor was added later. A taller concrete addition, designed by Albert Kahn, was built around 1910.
In 1925, African-American physician Ossian Sweet moved into this house in what was then an all-white neighborhood. A hostile mob confronted Sweet and his friends, and after a standoff, someone in the house shot and killed one of the whites outside. A landmark trial, where attorney Clarence Darrow argued self-defense, resulted in a hung jury and no further prosecution of Sweet.
Sweetest Heart Of Mary is the largest Roman Catholic Church in Detroit. At the time of construction, Sweetest Heart was a Polish parish, which had split from St. Albertus parish, and established a new parish outside the jurisdiction of the mother church. The parish was later reconciled, and this impressive Gothic Revival church returned to the Roman Catholic fold.
The church consists of two buildings: the original church, a Tudor Revival structure built in 1917, and the later church, an Art Deco building constructed in 1937. In 1934 Rev. J. Frank Norris began his tenure as pastor there. Sold in 1951 to King Solomon Baptist Church, it served as an important venue for Civil Rights leaders.
This Albert Kahn-designed building was home to Detroit's Temple Beth El from 1922 to 1974. The building is now known as the Bethel Community Transformation Center.
This police station is a well-preserved example of a late-19th-century Beaux Arts public building, and is significant for its role in the history of the Detroit police force. It was in use as a police station from 1896 until 1959. It is currently used as office space and is known as the Sun Center Building.
Trinity Episcopal Church was built in 1893 by James E. Scripps, owner of the Detroit News. Scripps was born in London and developed a fascination with historic English churches; he commissioned Trinity to be in the English Gothic style. The exterior of the building boasts over two hundred carvings, including gargoyles that serve as water drains. In 2006, Trinity's congregation merged with Faith Memorial Lutheran to become Spirit of Hope.
The Trinity congregation was originally a German-speaking congregation, formed in 1850 when members of St. Matthew's Lutheran Church broke away from the main body following the excommunication of another member. As the flow of German-speaking immigrants dried up, Trinity began offering English-language services. The current building was dedicated in 1931.
The Charles Trowbridge House, built in 1826, is the oldest known structure in the city of Detroit. Charles Christopher Trowbridge built the house and lived there until his death in 1883. It was originally built in a Greek Revival style, and later updated with Victorian elements.
The United States Immigration Station, now the Rosa Parks Federal Building, was originally constructed as nurse's housing for the Detroit Marine Hospital. When the Marine Hospital was moved, the Detroit Border Patrol Station was installed in the building.
The Vanity Ballroom Building contains the last remaining intact ballroom of the multiple Detroit dance halls that hosted big bands in the 1930s-50s. It is built in a flamboyant Art Deco style with an Aztec theme. The 5,600-square-foot (520 m2) dance floor was built on springs, giving the dancers a "bounce" and they moved.
In 1893, Virginia Park was platted with 92 relatively small lots. Requirements ensured that only well-to-do businessmen and professionals could afford to erect a home in the neighborhood. Most of the homes were built between 1893 and 1915, in Tudor, Neo-Georgian, Bungalow and Arts and Crafts architectural styles.
This pair of early 20th century commercial buildings housed WGPR-TV studios from 1975 to 1995. WGPR-TV was the first Black-owned television station in the nation, and offered local programming and opportunities for Black professionals on both sides of the camera.
This building was constructed in 1956 by Storer Broadcasting Inc to house studios for WJBK television. The station produced news and programming here until 1971, when it was sold to Detroit's public television station WTVS.
This home was built in 1896 for Franklin H. Walker, a son of Hiram Walker and president of the Hiram Walker Distillery. The house was notable for its immense size, diverse building materials, and medieval motif. The house was used until 1980 as Doctor's Hospital. It has since been demolished.
Warren Motor Car Company was founded in 1909 by real estate magnate Homer Warren. Warren hired the Detroit architectural firm of Rogers and MacFarlane to design a series of building to fill the site. These buildings were constructed and occupied in 1910. However, Warren Motor Car went bankrupt in 1913, and a series of automobile companies occupied the buildings, including Lincoln Motor Company and the Ford Motor Company. Grocery firms occupied the buildings after WWII, and as of 2019, the Holden facility housed a recycling center, an artist studio, and a public art gallery.
The William H. Wells House, designed by architect William Henry Miller, is an outstanding example of Romanesque revival residential architecture in Detroit.
This Dom Polski, or Polish home, was established on the west side of the city as a meeting hall and social club for the Polish-Americans that had established a community in the area. The structure's first cornerstone was laid in 1917, but financial difficulties delayed building completion until 1925.
The West Vernor-Junction Historic District is a commercial district located along West Vernor Highway. The district encompasses 160 acres (0.65 km2) and 44 buildings, including the Most Holy Redeemer Church, which was once estimated as the largest Catholic parish in North America.
The West Vernor-Lawndale Historic District is a commercial district located along West Vernor Highway between. The district encompasses 30 acres (120,000 m2) and 10 buildings.
The West Vernor-Springwells Historic District is a commercial district located along West Vernor Highway. The district encompasses 80 acres (320,000 m2) and 28 buildings.
The West Village Historic District is a neighborhood just west of Indian Village Historic District. It is a primarily residential neighborhoods containing 275 single and two-family houses, thirty apartment buildings, and about twenty commercial structures of a wide range of architectural styles spread over 20 square blocks.
The Whittier Hotel was constructed as an apartment hotel, meaning that tenants could rent an apartment, yet have access to services typically provided by a hotel. The hotel actually consists of two separate structures: an eight-story building to the north and a larger fifteen-story Italian Renaissance style hotel to the south (closer to the river). The northern building has been turned into a senior citizen's living center, known as the Whittier Manor.
The Woodbridge neighborhood was primarily developed between 1870 and 1920 with single and two family residences built in Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Georgian Revival, and 'cottage' style architecture. Commercial districts in the neighborhood were located along Grand River, Trumbull, Twelfth and Fourteenth. The boundaries of the District were increased twice: first on 1997-12-01, and 2008-03-20; these are distinguished in the boundary listings with "also" descriptions.
The Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church was built in 1911 in the Gothic revival style by architect Sidney Badgley. The exterior is faced with rough rock and trimmed with a contrasting limestone. The church was for some time the Abyssinia Church of God in Christ.
The Chateau Frontenac was an eight-story apartment building constructed from buff brick, with off-white terra cotta details and a hipped roof of green Spanish tile. It has been demolished.
This Fort Street bridge was by far the largest and most ambitious structure included in the 1920s grade separation plan, where major streets and rail lines were separated with a series of bridges and subways. Fort Street was, at the time, designated a "superhighway", requiring the bridge to be 80 feet (24 m) in width; the tracks underneath required a 2,800 feet (850 m) span.
The Grand Riviera was built in 1925, at a cost of over one million dollars. It seated over three thousand patrons, and was the first "atmospheric" theater in Detroit, using lighting, special effects, and interior design to make the audience feel like they were sitting outdoors in a garden. Due to structural deterioration, the Grand Riviera Theater was demolished in 1997.
Henry M. Leland acquired a factory here in 1917 and greatly expanded it in order to produce Liberty Engines as part of the World War I war effort. After the war, Leland used his long and prominent experience with Cadillac to inaugurate the Lincoln line of automobiles. Leland sold his company to Henry Ford in 1922; by 1952 this original Lincoln plant was retired from automotive production. Most of the complex was demolished in 2002/03, leading to withdrawal of its National Register listing and National Historic Landmark designation.[11]
St. Boniface was built in 1873 to serve the German Roman Catholic church residing on the west side of Detroit. The parish was closed in 1989, and the building demolished a few years later.
Designed by naval architectFrank E. Kirby. Between 1910 and 1991, the Ste. Claire ferried passengers to Bois Blanc Island (Boblo) for the Detroit & Windsor Ferry Company.[12] The Ste. Claire was listed in the National Register in 1979 and became a National Historic Landmark in 1992. In 2016 she was docked in the Rouge River in Detroit, then moved to the Riverside Marina on the Detroit River. There on July 6, 2018, a devastating fire caused severe damage during repairs.[13] As a result, the Ste. Claire lost her NHL status and was delisted from the NRHP in 2023.
The original site of Detroit Tigers baseball opened at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull in 1895 when owner George Vanderbeck opened Bennett Park. Successive owners enlarged the park, with Frank Navin increasing seating to 23,000 (renaming the park Navin Field) and Walter Briggs increasing it to 53,000 (renaming the park Briggs Stadium). In 1951, the name was changed to Tiger Stadium. The city demolished the original stadium on June 30, 2008. In 2000, a replacement debuted at Comerica Park.
^The latitude and longitude information provided in this table was derived originally from the National Register Information System, which has been found to be fairly accurate for about 99% of listings. Some locations in this table may have been corrected to current GPS standards.
^ abNumbers represent an alphabetical ordering by significant words. Various colorings, defined here, differentiate National Historic Landmarks and historic districts from other NRHP buildings, structures, sites or objects.
^The eight-digit number below each date is the number assigned to each location in the National Register Information System database, which can be viewed by clicking the number.
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