  Rustic Member Username: Rustic Post Number: 3225 Registered: 10-2003 |
Here is what I recall of the story of that "Nazi" bookstore. It was MUCH less of a big deal at the time than it apparently seems to be in the collective memory of this forum. It was a junk store/headshop owned or operated by a yahoo. (The guy, AIR looked like a young (say mid 20s?) version of the Canadian wrestler George Cannon but he had red hair.) It was a place where you could browse, for example:
Anyway at some point the guy moves some white supremacist literature in the front window (once upon a time Detroit storefronts had glass windows). After a while this attracted the attention of, I think, the Detroit News which did a short article followed by a longer article on this. In between the shorter and longer DN articles he was able to bring in a motley assortment of "nazis" in mismatched home brew "uniforms" to stand outside the storefront posing for the media, scheduling permitting (I reckoned they worked around Hazel Park Raceway and Northville Downs post times). Background: at the same time this was happening, a well-funded "nazi" front organization was being used as a small component of an elaborate block busting scheme in one of Chicago's holdout white ethnic neighborhoods. (A Detroiter, btw, was brought in to clean up THAT mess, but that is another story.) ... anyway ... There was a bit of a media frenzy for a few weeks, and, after everything died down, the guy continued to operate a junk shop (maybe at the same store front, maybe a few doors down) and later a store front church a block away (yes ... white southern diaspora does the store front church thing too). The storefront church mighta had some white supremacy tie, tho that might have been assumed. I recall occasionally seeing that guy around that stretch of Fenkell in Brightmoor for many years afterward (into the late 80's). AIR any store front firebombings back then were unrelated to the "nazi" stuff, instead they had more to do with white "motorcycle gangs" (in reality low level "hillbilly" gangster "crews" specializing in drug distribution, prostitution and low level protection) displaced from further east (along Warren, Joy, etc) positioning themselves with each other and the already established Brightmoor "motorcycle gangs". Yay Detroit! | ||
Sailor_rick Member Username: Sailor_rick Post Number: 215 Registered: 02-2004 |
Rustic, With your memory for detail, do you recall around that time, the "First Psychic Church of Brightmoor" on the south side of Fenkell? We could never figure that one out. It never seemed occupied, maybe the parishioners just needed to collectively think about mass to attend. Also nearby on Fenkell, (Detroit’s Fifth Avenue of Fashion) there was a jam-packed used clothing store that was run by a tiny, elderly lady. I recall a dozen new-looking Nehru jackets hanging in a corner. I doubt they survived to see the Austin Powers fab 60’s revival. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 6401 Registered: 11-2003 |
Rustic and Sailor_rick post HOF classics. Thanks so much for the Westside color. jjaba. | ||
Sailor_rick Member Username: Sailor_rick Post Number: 216 Registered: 02-2004 |
Thanks! I'm flattered that my three-year stint in Brighmoor would be found so memorable by such an August source. Sailor Rick, Past West Side, Short-Timer | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 6403 Registered: 11-2003 |
jjaba can just imagine all the theses material coming out of Brightmoor for those UM volunteers. More PhDs per square mile have been produced there than anywhere in the USA. It is a fascinating cross-cultural crossroads for your typical college student or professor. We share the joy of their clean-ups. jjaba remembers when students rushed into Salina, in East Dearborn with similar interests. The demographics are amazing, even for Detroit. More of every social problem and more of every social service in the country is here. When good growth is measured by Habitat for Humanity Housing up to 40 units in that one place, tells you yards about it. More of sub-prime foreclosures, more of school lunch programs, more of unplanned and unintended babies, more of whites and blacks living together in close proximity, less immmigrants, more poverty, more unemployment, more school drop-outs, more crime, than other Detroit zip codes, AND NOT ONE DOCTOR IN THE ZIP CODE EITHER. Comments about Fenkell's Avenue of Fashion and actual stores with display windows brings back real nostalgia. This was atleast two generations before today's Baghdad Bunkers and door bells, and plexiglass with lazy susans commonplace in retailing today. jjaba. | ||
Paulmcall Member Username: Paulmcall Post Number: 942 Registered: 05-2004 |
If you drive down Fenkell where the Irving Theater was and continue past Telegraph, you can understand the difference between Detroit and the suburbs instantly. Downtowners might not be so smug about the "progress" being made. It's like a ghost town with those empty buildings along there. | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 11553 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: Go fuck yourself with your comtinuous 'Downtowners' might not understand crap. Your condescending non-sense is not applicable. Most of us know the city very well but the forum focuses on positives (I can explain that concept if you would like) so much of the forum attention is towards the areas that are seeing improvement. Are you this big of an asshole in real life? | ||
Paulmcall Member Username: Paulmcall Post Number: 944 Registered: 05-2004 |
Sounds like I struck a nerve. It's obvious that calling people names must make you feel better about yourself. I just resent flag wavers who don't fight for fixing up boarded up building in the neighborhoods while touting downtown projects that don't affect the rest of Detroiters. If Detroiters really cared about their city, they wouldn't let Kwame stay in office without major protests in the streets. They also wouldn't have elected him a second time either. | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 11558 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: No, your incessant need to be a record player and repeat the same point struck a nerve. I like conversation, not the redundant non-sense you spew. I call people as I see (or read) them. From reading your posts I am not calling you a name, I am stating as a fact that in my opinion your a complete asshole. There are many people I disagree with here that I would happily share a pitcher with. You certainly are not one of them. quote: How do you know what the majority of people here do? It is your annoying assumptions that just back up my opinion about you. There are many, many people here that do things to help neighborhoods (often their own) throughout the city. What exactly do you do to help? My guess is absolutely zero. quote: Yes, protests will convince him to step down. I guess once again you ignore facts and realize that about 45% of Detroiters did not vote for Kwame. Just more assumptions on your part. quote: 'They' represent about 53% of the populace yet you feel you have the right to be a jerk to 100% of the population. But hey, you wrote a book about a stadium in New York and delivered a lot of mail so i guess that your opinion should carry so much weight with us. So, please enlighten me what you do to help these neighborhoods that you champion? | ||
Craig Member Username: Craig Post Number: 752 Registered: 02-2007 |
Rustic - re: Nazi bookstore... Are you confusing the little junk store with the "bookstore?" They were neighbors. I recall that the bookstore was empty prior to opening, and then was empty afterward. Years later it housed a storefront church. Nazis went into the white storefront (go figure), and the junk store was in the stone-faced store just to the west. The bookstore was a huge deal in Brightmoor for its short existence. People from the neighborhood walked to Fenkell to see the excitement - me & buddies were there every day (remember the chant? "Out! Out! Kick the Nazis out!"). Further: the bookstore wasn't unlike the former "red" bookstores on Woodward... poorly reproduced polemic literature (I have samples from both places - Nazi lit was dumped on the front lawn of my DPS school). jjaba - Brightmoor produced a few grad students of its own. Not many, but more than one might think. JT (good to see you again, btw) - you & I might have crossed swords over the state of Brightmoor and its place in the City today. But I'll say again: it's difficult to believe that the City can come back after a ride along Fenkell. The old 'hood wasn't as bad as some here imply, but where it is now takes the breath away from this native son. | ||
Rustic Member Username: Rustic Post Number: 3226 Registered: 10-2003 |
Sailor Rick, yeah I remember that store front church, it was down the block (west) from what I was talking about. That one was relatively large (it was probably 2 addresses combined) and they plywooded the windows so you couldn't make out what was going on within which, combined with the name made it a most mysterious place indeed. The sign and store front was maintained long after the church seemed to no longer be active. Sailor rick, that resale place you mentioned reminded me of that little neighborhood mame un tate department store whose name escapes me right now. You know what I'm talking about? It was a block or two west of Burt Road on the north side of the street, it was probably no larger than Checker drug in square footage. There were several similar department stores on the westside and southwest (but near I could tell they were independently owned). Some stayed in business for quite a long time, that little one in Brightmoor I'll bet stayed in business longer than the big National Chains did down on GR/Greenfield. jjaba, thanks for the kind words. (You exaggerate a bit about brightmoor, but that is ok.) | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 11559 Registered: 10-2003 |
Craig - I agree that a ride along Fenkell and many other parts make me wonder if the city can ever come back and there is a distinct chance that many parts of the city never will. That is just the sad fact of the situation. I just take exception with people like Paul that condescend to everyone with his incorrect assumption that everyone here knows downtown and does nothing but hang out downtown. I am all for facing reality as we all know the city has too much 'reality' but Paul's condescending attitude with his 'get outside of downtown' lines gets real old. I also don't question the pain of seeing an old neighborhood decline (my first house no longer exists) but it is one thing to feel pain and loss and a whole different thing to take the attitude of Paul. To add to my comment to Paul - Craig is someone I am certain I would enjoy conversation with over a pitcher even though we may not see eye to eye e=on everything. | ||
Rustic Member Username: Rustic Post Number: 3227 Registered: 10-2003 |
Craig, as I recall the "nazi" bookstore had its start in the junk store as I wrote, it is quite possible that it very briefly expanded into the neighboring property with the flurry of activity in response to media interest if so it was _VERY_ short lived. It does make sense tho ... (now that I think about it that junk store might not have had a plate glass windows from my memory, you are right about that weird stone front, so that would be consistent with the bookstore being next door.) | ||
Barnesfoto Member Username: Barnesfoto Post Number: 5010 Registered: 10-2003 |
somebody was talking about the "Fifth Avenue Resale"...This was on the south side of Fenkell (Five Mile/Fenkell/Fifth Ave-Get it?) just west of Lahser, run by a tiny old lady and packed with stuff. Not far from the Psychic Church and an old ice depot that became a cyrogenics lab...(you know , one of those places where they stored dead folks in Liquid Nitrogen until they can be waked up..) If we are discussing the odd and the quainte:. there was also a Feed Store- McCaffery's across from Thrifty Hardware on Burt Rd. Our friend Eeyore who brays constantly about "you downtowners" (barnesfoto never lived downtown, he lived in a NEIGHBORHOOD near downtown) might want to consider that when my father was a kid on Winthrop, gramps warned that he better never hear about the Barnes kids going to Brightmoor. So there's been a bad rep around for many years. | ||
Vetalalumni Member Username: Vetalalumni Post Number: 999 Registered: 05-2007 |
AIR, the Nazi bookstore did indeed have a large plate glass window. While I never crossed the threshold into the bookstore, I did look in through the front window on several occasions. And yes, it was somewhat like a junk store in appearance. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 6405 Registered: 11-2003 |
Vetalalumni, proudly with his Brightmoor school in his handle, achieves centurian status with 1,000 posts. Mazel tov with this award. Post your email address and jjaba will contact you for a gift. jjaba, Proudly Westside, Noble School K-7. (plus United Hebrew Schools after school.) | ||
Reddog289 Member Username: Reddog289 Post Number: 247 Registered: 08-2007 |
fifth ave resale, my uncle still talks about that place and laughs, i think he,s trying to replicate that place in his house. | ||
Ggores Member Username: Ggores Post Number: 59 Registered: 10-2007 |
sorry everybody, but I am replying directly to an older post, be patient. Craig - yes, you are correct in the fact that neither of our memories may be 100% accurate (i'm just saying that mine is more so ;-). But that is not the point, is it? Thanks for pointing out that it certainly was one of 'Bmoor's finer moments in how that bookstore thing went down. Everybody thought those guys was simply nuts! I do distinctly remember walking past a charred office, and the front window being shattered, and police tape blocking off the entrance. There is a lot that can be learned about race relations from that place, isn't there? | ||
Ggores Member Username: Ggores Post Number: 60 Registered: 10-2007 |
ok. I've read through this whole thread and am impressed by quite a few of the posts. with this in mind I can only say a few words: 1. mister nine ball 2. the psychic church didn't come along until early 90's or so 3. rexall drugs 4. 48223 never really felt like "detroit". downtown was looked at as the glorious, far-away island where the kings and queens lived. therefore, some statements that are offensive to some here... must be put in perspective. 5. scotty simpsons still serves fresh! | ||
Parkguy Member Username: Parkguy Post Number: 265 Registered: 04-2007 |
Someday I will buy a latte in Brightmoor. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 6407 Registered: 11-2003 |
Thanks for the hot lead, Parkguy. I'm sending my guy out first thing Monday morning. Howard Schultz, Starbucks in Seattle. | ||
Crawford Member Username: Crawford Post Number: 220 Registered: 10-2006 |
When did Brightmoor change racially? It was mostly white well into the 1980's, right? Was Fenkell vibrant until relatively recently? It's obviously dead now, but some of these posts indicate that it had retail through the 1990's. | ||
Ggores Member Username: Ggores Post Number: 62 Registered: 10-2007 |
it is still vibrant. go do a load of clothes at the All Wet laundrymat sometime. serious. go on a Sunday morning, you will see something you'd of never imagined - a true, vibrant neighborhood. done with this one, over n out. | ||
Parkguy Member Username: Parkguy Post Number: 269 Registered: 04-2007 |
Thanks for the hot lead, Parkguy. I'm sending my guy out first thing Monday morning. Howard Schultz, Starbucks in Seattle. I said "someday." That could be a while, jjaba. Parkguy, getting his caffeine in Roastdale Perk. | ||
Lmichigan Member Username: Lmichigan Post Number: 5954 Registered: 10-2003 |
Check this link out. It gives the most detailed history of Brightmoor that I've ever seen: About Brightmoor | ||
393bird Member Username: 393bird Post Number: 24 Registered: 09-2007 |
I remember when I was a kid in Redford Township, I went to the Irving Theater many times. I never had any trouble while there, and remember many stores along Fenkell back then. This was in the mid to late 50s. During the Summers, I was either at the Irving, or at Rouge Park, swiming at the pools. There was a riding stables on Telegraph, just south of Fenkell that I spent a lot of time at also. | ||
Rustic Member Username: Rustic Post Number: 3230 Registered: 10-2003 |
393bird, can you recall the name of the drive-in with car hops on Telegraph somewhere along there on the East side (northbound) of the street? In my mind's eye it is closer to McNichols but I may be mistaken. I've asked this a few years back on this forum and no one then seemed to remember it. Note I am NOT talking about: the Elias Bros. Big Boy near the Hilltop motel on Telegraph, Daly Burger on GR and Burt, A&W on Schoolcraft and Westwood, OR that drive-in/dairy qu___ variant on Fenkell near Eliza Howell. The one I'm thinking of was NOT a chain and I dimly recall it as a little kid. Any recollection of the place? | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 6410 Registered: 11-2003 |
One overlay to the discussion is the stability of such neighborhoods like Brighmoor on the Westside of the 1940 and 1950s. Few neighbors changed, few stores up and left, and few store fronts went up for rent. It wasn't until massive white flight after the expressways went in, factories moved out, and integration, then re-segregation became a reality. Then, was invasion and succession, stores, jobs, people, churches, synagogues, schools transformed. The results were the massive urban disinvestments of the following 50 years. Now is two generations later. That's a long time without normal growth and normal community building. jjaba, Westsider. | ||
Lmichigan Member Username: Lmichigan Post Number: 5957 Registered: 10-2003 |
Invasion? Come again? | ||
Thoswolfe Member Username: Thoswolfe Post Number: 55 Registered: 11-2007 |
Rustic- I do remember a drive-in with car hops on the east side of Telegraph just north of Pilgrim. It was a former A&W (obvious design)that went 'independant' by late 60's, but I can not recall the name of that drive-in. For car hop drive-ins most of us stopped at that Big Boy near Plymouth Rd. or at Telway when cruising Telegraph. Wow-that DQ/Drive-in across from Eliza Howell closed looong ago,by mid-60's, but that building is still there,hidden by the fence around the property. |
