 
Burnsie
Member
Username: Burnsie
Post Number: 1169
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, October 04, 2007 - 5:36 pm: |    |
It's hard to narrow this down to one or two examples; there's so much to pick from! On purely an emotional, gut level (setting aside practical considerations), I'd have to go with Hudson's as the #1 loss. Not just the loss of the store, but the building itself. It had such a commanding, cliff-like BIG city look: its presence really lent a feeling of NYC or Chicago to the sidewalks below.
I concur with the comments about the destruction wreaked by the Jeffries. The section with both local and express lanes is especially obscene in the huge swath it took.
The loss of Fort St. Union Depot was also a shame. It would have been great to see Amtrak use that building, although some shifting around of tracks and connections would have been needed. It was a manageable size and very close to downtown.
Expatriot wrote that the demolition of City Hall "marked the beginning of the decline." Well, a lot of things were declining in Detroit before then. Just one example sat right across the street from City Hall-- Kern's, which closed in 1959. |
Chuckjav
Member
Username: Chuckjav
Post Number: 177
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, October 04, 2007 - 5:42 pm: | |
JjW & Detroit313....Right-On!
The dang old freeways didn't serve Detroiters; they wrecked an awesome city and - quite literally - paved the way for an Exodus of (first testament) Biblical proportions.
(Message edited by chuckjav on October 04, 2007) |
Detroitrise
Member
Username: Detroitrise
Post Number: 178
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, October 04, 2007 - 5:46 pm: | |
7 Mile And Gratiot. It's all crap now. They could have at least left it like Grand River and Greenfield. |
Lefty2
Member
Username: Lefty2
Post Number: 260
Registered: 07-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, October 04, 2007 - 8:44 pm: | |
man builds
man destroys |
Mauser765
Member
Username: Mauser765
Post Number: 1970
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Friday, October 05, 2007 - 6:41 am: | |
Motown headquarters -aka- Donovan Building / Sanders Henry Street chocolate factory. (for a dirt lot)
Art School of the Society of Arts and Crafts
Rivertown
Monroe Block |
Detourdetroit
Member
Username: Detourdetroit
Post Number: 344
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, October 05, 2007 - 9:56 am: | |
In Detroit
man builds...
man destroys
man destroys
man destroys
man destroys
man destroys...
man builds crap...
man destroys |
Mallory
Member
Username: Mallory
Post Number: 200
Registered: 05-2006
| | Posted on Friday, October 05, 2007 - 10:43 am: | |
Probably not one of the MOST regrettable, but tearing anything down, like Wonderland Mall, to replace it with a Wal-Mart or any of the big boxes is regrettable.
Also, ANY classic theater. |
Oakmangirl
Member
Username: Oakmangirl
Post Number: 478
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Friday, October 05, 2007 - 11:36 am: | |
It's most regrettable that Detroit has not demolished the Ren Cen. |
Fury13
Member
Username: Fury13
Post Number: 2549
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, October 05, 2007 - 11:44 am: | |
((((APPLAUSE)))) |
6nois
Member
Username: 6nois
Post Number: 526
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Friday, October 05, 2007 - 11:51 am: | |
I would say the most regrettable demo is the next one. |
Iheartthed
Member
Username: Iheartthed
Post Number: 1764
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Friday, October 05, 2007 - 11:53 am: | |
7 Mile And Gratiot. It's all crap now. They could have at least left it like Grand River and Greenfield.
Grand River and Greenfield is going that way sooner or later. They demolished the s/w corner for a strip mall and most of the n/w corner for another strip mall. Herb Strather wanted to redevelop King's Way/Mammoth into some type of lifestyle center(?) but apparently that has fallen through.
Are there any tenants left in Tower Center Mall? Is there any correlation between the death of that intersection and the construction of I-96? |
Detroitnerd
Member
Username: Detroitnerd
Post Number: 1486
Registered: 07-2004
| | Posted on Friday, October 05, 2007 - 11:56 am: | |
I heard some Windsorites say it looks like it's giving Canada the finger. |
Oakmangirl
Member
Username: Oakmangirl
Post Number: 479
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Friday, October 05, 2007 - 12:26 pm: | |
Since Windsor has such close ties to the Queen, I'm sure we could figure out a way to give the Continental equivalent. It would; however involve redirecting the fist.
Better yet, if that Monroe Block development were visible across the pond, we'd be sending a big metaphorical F You. |
Chris_rohn
Member
Username: Chris_rohn
Post Number: 337
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Friday, October 05, 2007 - 1:42 pm: | |
THE OLD CITY HALL. |
Patrick
Member
Username: Patrick
Post Number: 5002
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, October 05, 2007 - 1:57 pm: | |
William Fisher mansion in Palmer Woods. According to the News articles, it could have been restored, since the fire didnt destroy the whole mansion. |
Gingellgirl
Member
Username: Gingellgirl
Post Number: 64
Registered: 04-2007
| | Posted on Friday, October 05, 2007 - 2:00 pm: | |
Agreed, Chris. Old City Hall, Hudson's, the Vernor's Plant, Lindell AC and anything that follows the words "I remember when there used to be this place called . . ."
"These old buildings do not belong to us only; that they have belonged to our forefathers, and they will belong to our descendants unless we play them false." - William Morris |
Rhymeswithrawk
Member
Username: Rhymeswithrawk
Post Number: 927
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Friday, October 05, 2007 - 5:37 pm: | |
Old City Hall, no question. After doing research on it, I am half-tempted to go piss on then-Mayor Louis Miriani's grave.
Here's an item on it that ran in the Freep this week. I post it for the old photos, including a demolition photo on the right:
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs .dll/article?AID=2007710020364
The old post office on Fort Street would be my No. 2.
http://i152.photobucket.com/al bums/s164/rhymeswithrawk/Detro it%20postcards/sc000083c0.jpg
Also, I believe Webster Hotel/Webster Hall/Mackenzie Hall was torn down in the early 1990s, around 1994, not the 1980s. |
Patrick
Member
Username: Patrick
Post Number: 5006
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, October 05, 2007 - 7:12 pm: | |
AIW...what was Windsor's most regrettable demo? |
Rhymeswithrawk
Member
Username: Rhymeswithrawk
Post Number: 930
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, October 06, 2007 - 12:31 am: | |
Windsor's most regrettable demo will be Sandwich if Matty Moron(sic) gets his way. I am praying that it does not come to pass. Put that second bridge in Del Ray. |
Michmeister
Member
Username: Michmeister
Post Number: 255
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Saturday, October 06, 2007 - 3:36 am: | |
The old Water Works Park. The water tower was gorgeous. |
Crash_nyc
Member
Username: Crash_nyc
Post Number: 1034
Registered: 08-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, October 06, 2007 - 5:20 am: | |
Rivertown.
Once an essential part of Detroit's nightlife, now just another wasteland. Sad. |
Rhymeswithrawk
Member
Username: Rhymeswithrawk
Post Number: 941
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, October 06, 2007 - 6:57 pm: | |
Oops, I was wrong about Webster Hall. I was off by three years. From the Freep in February 1991:
Wayne State landmark to be dynamited Sunday DETROIT -- Demolition experts expect to reduce Wayne State University's 12-story Mackenzie Hall to a 15-foot-tall pile of rubble on Sunday. Wreckers plan to set off 200 pounds of dynamite in about 1,000 spots drilled into support columns in the basement and first few floors at 10:15 a.m. The WSU landmark opened in 1925 as the 770-room Webster Hall Hotel. It later was used as a dormitory and for 29 years as the campus' main office building. |
Thecarl
Member
Username: Thecarl
Post Number: 1052
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, October 06, 2007 - 7:15 pm: | |
what??? no love for the ymca??? |
9936sussex
Member
Username: 9936sussex
Post Number: 14
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, October 06, 2007 - 11:34 pm: | |
I would also have to say that the destruction of Chene House (I always knew it as "Little Harry's" was a sad thing for me. It was a favorite restaurant of my husband and myself when we were dating, I thought it was such a beautiful structure. Everytime I drive by that IHOP, I feel SO sad.
Although this isn't exactly on topic, but I have always thought that Washington Boulevard had been such a beautiful street in the 60's. I was always saddened by what has happened to it since (I especially disliked that red metalwork stuff that appeared sometime in the 70's or 80's). |
Rhymeswithrawk
Member
Username: Rhymeswithrawk
Post Number: 944
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, October 07, 2007 - 1:20 am: | |
Which YMCA, Thecarl? The Downtown Y?
I've got love for it:
http://callmequami.livejournal .com/144794.html |
Hudsonut1
Member
Username: Hudsonut1
Post Number: 10
Registered: 09-2006
| | Posted on Saturday, October 13, 2007 - 10:57 pm: | |
While I have been away from the Detroit area since 1956, the one place that always brought back memories was Hudson's. My mother used to take me there, up to the toy department where I would stand for hours watching the train displays. |
Gistok
Member
Username: Gistok
Post Number: 5515
Registered: 08-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, October 13, 2007 - 11:11 pm: | |
Here's one folks have not thought of... 40% of Detroit's housing stock. |
Bulletmagnet
Member
Username: Bulletmagnet
Post Number: 902
Registered: 01-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, October 13, 2007 - 11:28 pm: | |
The most regrettable thing demolished in Detroit was the hard working and safe way of life. It was replaced by the welfare state and crime. |
Detroitrise
Member
Username: Detroitrise
Post Number: 245
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, October 13, 2007 - 11:39 pm: | |
Gistok, that's an interesting thought. Now, I wouldn't call it a regrettable demolition exactly, but more or less a possible long term loss. In a way, I'm glad many of them were demolished when they were because the major crack/cocaine epidemic was right around the corner only hurting the city even more. However, not majority of the housing stock was demolished. Much of it was burned downed to teh ground by either Arson, the riots, or crack dealers/homeless people occupying the home. Others just sat abandoned beyond it's repair (naturally they had to either be demolished or they just collapsed). I would say majority of that 40% was either caused by Arson, the riots, crack dealers/homeless people occupying the homes, or a combination of all 3, burning the homes down to the ground, not so much by demolition.
In addition, Detroit would have never been able to re-occupy the abandoned housing stock no matter what type of a comeback we made. So it would have just been a waste of land letting those un-maintenanced, abandoned buildings just sit there.
On the other hand, Detroit's neighborhoods could have possibly been gentrified if it had maintained its medium density properties that were lost over the past 40 years, as it would make us look more typical as a city to the nation instead of a war zone. So I'm not disagreeing with you, but I'm not agreeing either. |
Sbll
Member
Username: Sbll
Post Number: 2
Registered: 04-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, October 13, 2007 - 11:45 pm: | |
I thought loosing the Kern building was a real loss. We met our friends under the clock. We could walk to downtown and save our street car fare and either go to Kresgess (how the heck do you spell Kressgees?) the dime store, or to Sanders for a cream puff hot fudge sundae. hmm............. |
Detroitrise
Member
Username: Detroitrise
Post Number: 246
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, October 13, 2007 - 11:51 pm: | |
Sbll, It's Kresge's. |
Sbll
Member
Username: Sbll
Post Number: 3
Registered: 04-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, October 14, 2007 - 12:11 am: | |
Detroitrise . Of course. Thanks. I really drew a blank. I loved that dimestore. |
Lefty2
Member
Username: Lefty2
Post Number: 361
Registered: 07-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, October 14, 2007 - 1:37 am: | |
Detroit's most regrettable demolition?
I would have to say the demolition of the family. |
Rhymeswithrawk
Member
Username: Rhymeswithrawk
Post Number: 959
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 - 6:03 am: | |
Lefty, plenty of people have families in Detroit. And, contrary to many people's misconception, many of them are not filled with poverty, crime or drug abuse. I was raised in the suburbs and had a dysfunctional upbringing filled with drug abuse and divorce.
I'm gonna keep my No. 1 most regrettable demo as Old City Hall by a landslide, but with the removal of signage and the raping of the seats and other items, I'm gonna put Tiger Stadium as a preemptive No. 2. But I put it at No. 2 with an asterisk. There is a need to tear down Tiger Stadium now, but only because Ilitch conned his way into a new ballpark. The team never should have left the corner, but those are words that have been repeated over and over and over on this board. |
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