Lee Plaza

I am so happy I started this blog for the simple fact that I feel like I have somewhere to go to vent and lose myself without the judgement of people I know. I am having way too many feelings this morning about what is going on in my life so I really just need to sit here and be lost with you all for a few moments.

The seventeen story structure was constructed in the late 1920s. It was Ralph T. Lee’s crowning jewel of his real estate empire he built from scratch. It was designed by Charles Noble who was a very prominent architect at that time. Lee wanted the apartment building to look like something out of New York. And trust me when I tell you that it does. It is absolutely huge. You can see it when your driving at least a mile away. The roof was originally made of Spanish tile, but that was later replaced with a green copper roof. This was sadly taken by scrappers many years ago. It was the tallest building of its time so when the sunset there would be a very bright light on the roof that could be seen for miles. Picture a Great Gatsby style thing if you get what I am saying; the light was a sign of extreme wealth.

And then it all went to hell. Lee lost everything and became default on the building. He actually ended up dying eight years before the whole dispute was even settled.  It ended up being turned into a hotel which would barely stay afloat until a developer bought it in the 1960s, fixed it up, and sold it to the city. It then became low-income housing for senior citizens. This was the last attempt to revive it. It was finally closed in 1997. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 5, 1981. It will most likely never be open again due to the severe vandalism that has happened.

Doing the research on this one was very interesting and much of it I didn’t know. That’s why this is so awesome. I hope you enjoy the pictures and I hope you all have a great weekend.

*UPDATE 10/18/17*

So I completely changed the photos that go with this blog as the ones that were originally on here were complete bullshit, amateur stuff. Also, the Lee Plaza still looks like this (from the outside at least). I haven’t been in this one in a few years because there have been talks about it being restored. That owner has completely back tracked his plan and it is now slated to be sold to the City of Detroit to be a redevelopment project. We will see what ends up happening. Enjoy the updated photos xoxo

Looks like a castle from this view.

The Ballroom.

Ladies’ bathroom and parlor on the main floor.

View of Michigan Central Station.

View of Downtown.

The Vanity

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day. Here is more on the Vanity Ballroom that I promised.

The Vanity Ballroom opened in 1929 on the eve of the stock market crash. It was the last ballroom that was to be opened in the city of Detroit. It was designed by Charles N. Agree, a local architect who also designed the Grande, to make people feel like they were at a Mayan temple, which I showed in my previous post. It was also built and maintained by the same person that built the Grande. Five nights a week the venue would have couples dancing on the 5,600 square foot maple dance floor. I talked about how the floor was a very important part of this venue because it was floating. This references to the dance floor being on springs and were therefore “floating” across the dance floor. This was an interesting location because although it had two grand bars, it did not sell alcohol. It fell to hard times when swing dancing became no longer popular and was mainly closed until it had the same fate as the Eastown and the Grande. It ended up housing many of the same acts as the both of them. The ballroom was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on Nov. 12, 1982 although Michigan does not recognize it as one. Here are more pictures I promised.

Outside view.

Where the original entrance was (I’m assumin)

*Update 10/18/17*

The Vanity has recently been the subject of a revitalization project. There is talks underway that have it as a possible chance at restoration. The project was estimated at a cost of $8 million and calls for mixed retail on the first floor with hopes of restoring the second. I have not been by this building in a few years either so I am not sure how it is holding up. I do know that it has been secured better and is harder to get into.

 

Eastown Theatre

Once upon a time there was an English class that I needed to take to graduate called Popular Literature. I thought it would be legit, thinking it was current New York Times best sellers etc. The professor turned out to be the most brilliant, mind expanding professor I’ve ever had; his name was Mr. L. Now, in his class we read these crazy books that I never would have heard of that were neither bad nor good but interesting nonetheless. Then, after we read the book, he had somehow arranged it so that the authors would come speak to the class. The one exception to this rule was the film Louder than Love, which was the story about the Grande Ballroom. Long story short, if you don’t know what the Grande Ballroom is, and trust me I didn’t know what it was until I watched this movie either, it is an old theater/concert venue in Detroit that housed the greatest rock n roll musical acts of all time. Seriously. Look it up.

This is the Grande circa 2014. It is currently owned by a church.

Now I’m definitely not the biggest rock n roll fan but the film was on more than that. It was about the decaying of the structure that was such an important part of history. If you live in Detroit or have ever been here before, you are familiar with the decay that has been happening for decades. It is simply mind-boggling to be quite honest. Anyways, so for my class with Mr. L we had to do a creative project that could be whatever we wanted that related to things we learned or read over the semester. Well the choice about what I was going to relate mine to was obvious to me, so I just had to figure out what I was going to do. Then ding, the light bulb went on. I thought well if this theater with all this history is just being left to decay then there must be even more going through exactly the same thing! And that is when I did a little research and found a few more abandoned theaters that were built around the same time that the Grande was.So it is here that I start my urban exploration journey. It begins with Eastown Theatre.

Eastown Theatre was built-in 1930. It was originally a movie theater that was designed in Baroque style by architect V.J. Waier. It is believed that this is the only surviving building by him. Not only did it have a grand theater that could sit over 2,000 people, it also had a ballroom inside that could fit up to 300. It had a successful run of over 35 years as a movie house but in 1967 it turned into a concert venue, just like the Grande. It housed many of the same artists that played the Grande. If you are curious about the rock acts, I encourage you to look it up because you’ll be mind blown. Anyways, it operated as a concert venue for a few years and became known as the place to get dope. The mayor of Detroit at the time tried for many years to get it shut down, which he was finally successful in doing in 1973. After that it reopened as various other things, none of which were successful, before finally closing in the mid nineties. Since then it has become a decaying eyesore. Here are some pictures of this historic gem.

*Update 10/18/17*

As stated in my previous post, this beautiful, historic theatre has been torn down. I miss it so much as it had such a special place in my heart. This was the one exploration that I felt comfortable going to by myself. Enjoy the new pics xoxo