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DETROIT HISTORIC DISTRICS:
The following is a list and short descriptions of all of the historic districts in the city, and whether they have National (N), State (S), or local (L) historic designation.
Arden Park-East Boston Historic District
(N, L) The development of the Arden Park-East Boston Historic District coincided with the period of rapid growth and expansion in Detroit?s commercial and industrial sectors at the turn of the century. This growth and expansion led to the emergence of a large group of nouveau riche industrialists, merchants and professionals, many of which chose to showcase their wealth by constructing elaborate, single family homes in this exclusive neighborhood adjacent to Woodward. Early residents included: Fredrick J. Fisher, director of the Fisher Body Corporation; John Dodge, founder of the Dodge Brothers Brass Foundry and vice president of the Ford Motor Company; J.L. Hudson, of the Hudson's Department Store; Willard Pardridge, of Pardridge & Blackwell Department Store; and Victor Dewey, president of Detroit Gas Company. The district, encompassing a six block area, contains some of Detroit's most outstanding examples of residential architecture, many of which were designed by en vogue Detroit architects of the period including Smith, Hinchman & Grylls and George D. Mason. Major building styles of the early twentieth century, including Shingle Style, Italian Renaissance, French Renaissance, Colonial Revival, Tudor-Elizabethan, Bungalow, and Prairie School, are represented within the district. Many homes are eclectic compositions that use elements from these architectural sources.
Atkinson Avenue Historic District
(L) The Atkinson Avenue Historic District encompasses six blocks of primarily single family homes constructed between 1915 and 1929. The district was a place where the average middle class resident could build a very good home; therefore the district is not known for the work of any single architect or prominent Detroiter. The construction of Henry Ford Hospital in 1915 was a major influence in the development of the Atkinson Avenue Historic District. Many doctors constructed homes in the neighborhood in addition to the ministers, real estate agents, architects, contractors, salesmen, insurance agents, and bankers who were also among the first residents of the Atkinson district. The six block district contains approximately 225 buildings. Most houses are of the 'basic box' or 'four square' types with Mediterranean, Colonial or Tudor elements and are two stories tall with an attic.
Berry Subdivision Historic District
(L) The primary single family homes within the Berry Subdivision Historic District are typical of the upper-middle to upper income homes constructed in Detroit between 1916 and 1929. Several prominent Detroiters, including John and Frederick Ford, Arthur 'Pop' Clamage of burlesque fame, and John Kay of Wright-Kay Jewelers, had their houses within the subdivision designed by notable architects including A.C Varney, Donaldson and Meier, Roland Geis and Robert O. Derrick. The Manoogian Mansion, now home to the mayors of Detroit, is located in this district. Alex Manoogian, founder of the MASCO Corporation and prominent philanthropist, donated the house to the City of Detroit in 1966. There are several notable examples of houses designed in the Mediterranean style with light brick or stone and red tile roofs. Influences from the Prairie and Colonial styles can also be found, while some buildings can only described as vernacular.
Boston-Edison Historic District
(N, S, L) The Boston Edison District is significant as a single family, residential area of quality and substantial architecture from the first quarter of the twentieth century. Many prominent and wealthy Detroiters constructed homes in this district including: SS Kresge, founder of the SS Kresge Company; Clarence Burton, a founder of the Detroit Historical Society and donor of the Burton Historical Collection to the Detroit Public Library; Rabbi Leo Franklin, organizer of the United Jewish Charities, editor of the Jewish American and long time rabbi at Temple Beth El; Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company; James Couzens, secretary-treasurer of the Ford Motor Company, first nonpartisan mayor of Detroit and later US Senator from Michigan; and William Strickland, vice president of General Motors and chief engineer of the Cadillac division. The district encompasses approximately 900 residences of varying architecture styles and sizes that can categorized into four groups: palatial, two to three story homes of stone, brick or stucco; brick homes, smaller than the first group, designed in the Georgian Revival or Georgian colonial style; English style, two or three story homes with massive gables that rise above the roof, and large, early twentieth century vernacular residences.
Brush Park Historic District
(L) During the mid to late 1800?s, the land within the Brush Park Historic District was subdivided into large and expensive, individual lots with building restrictions requiring purchasers to erect elaborate homes within a specified time limit. Therefore, primarily affluent, upper middle class Detroiters populated the area. Some early residents include J.L. Hudson, founder of the J.L. Hudson Company, Michigan Supreme Court Justice James V. Campbell; Delos E. Rice, founder of the of the Fulton Iron Works; Emma A. Thomas, one of Detroit?s leading music teachers; and David Whitney. The district was characterized by substantial two- and three- story, brick and stone houses, most designed in the popular Victorian styles of the day. By the turn of the century, the district became a center of residence for the Jewish community, and new institutions supplemented those already established. The expansion of industry in Detroit brought several changes to the district in the 1910's. A number of larger scale, multi-family residences and 'corner-stores' - typically attached to the front of single family residences - were also built within the neighborhood. Many additions were attached to the rear of the grand houses converting them into apartment buildings or rooming houses. By the 1930's, a large number of African Americans had moved into the neighborhood, which became a significant section of Paradise Valley. Although many of the resources have been lost due to demolition and severe deterioration, concentrations of significant buildings remain throughout the district.
West Canfield Historic District
(N, S, L) The West Canfield Historic District includes twenty five properties on West Canfield, Second and Third. West Canfield, paved with granite brick and lined by mature trees, is one the few intact streets of High Victorian, brick and frame, single family houses left in Detroit. Second Avenue includes an important example of the larger scaled apartment buildings constructed throughout the area, and Third Avenue includes a mix of residences and commercial buildings.
Cass-Davenport Historic District
(N) The Cass Davenport Historic District contains a significant and intact grouping of architecturally distinguished, early twentieth century apartment buildings that convey the scale, massing, craftsmanship and materials of apartment buildings constructed during the phased development of multi-unit dwellings in the neighborhood. The district includes four apartment buildings constructed between 1905 and 1924. Architectural elements were incorporated into the structural design of the smaller scale, first phase apartment buildings that originally contained a low number of spacious apartments typically rented by primarily upper and upper-middle class professional residents. The second phase, large scale apartment buildings, with a high density of apartment units, featured facades with applied ornaments. The second phase apartment buildings were constructed in an effort to meet the massive housing demands caused by the city?s rapid growth in population due to the expanding automotive industry. Architectural styles represented within the district are Beaux Arts, Classical, Italian, Renaissance and Tudor Revival.
Corktown Historic District
(N, L) The Corktown Historic District is significant as a traditional Irish immigrant neighborhood in the City of Detroit and as the oldest extant neighborhood in the city. Its diversity of architectural styles is representative of working class housing from the late 1840's to the 1900's and its combination of land uses typifies development in the nineteenth century walking city. Corktown also served as a reception neighborhood for Detroit?s Latino and Maltese communities in the 1920's. The district contains over 300 buildings, most of which are small-scale residences built in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The most prevalent architectural styles within the district are Carpenter Gothic cottages, Queen Anne residences, row houses with Italianate and Georgian Revival elements, and Victorian townhouses. A small commercial strip along Michigan, between Eight Street and Trumbull, is also included in the district.
Cultural Center Historic District
(N) The Cultural Center Historic District consists of three monumental buildings that form the nucleus of Detroit?s Cultural Center Area, located approximately two miles north of the Central Business District on Woodward Avenue. Together they form an impressive complex with similar setbacks, size, scale, materials, and character. The three buildings are the Detroit Public Library, a white marble Italian Renaissance style building designed by Cass Gilbert in 1915; the Detroit Institute of Arts, a while marble Beaux arts style building designed by Paul Phillippe Cret and built in 1921-1927; and the Horace H. Rackham Education Memorial building, a limestone stripped classical structure built in 1941 according to the designs of the Detroit architectural firm of Harley, Ellington and Day to house the Engineering Society of Detroit and the Extension Service of the University of Michigan.
Eastern Market Historic District
(N, S) The Eastern Market Historic District, the last of several farmer?s markets that once served Detroit, is located on the land which was originally a major city cemetery. This area was chosen for the Farmer?s Market because the area bordered on Gratiot Road, a main artery for farmers carrying produce and travelers journeying to and from the city. The market contains primarily brick buildings, designed in styles ranging from the late 1800's Victorian to early 1920's commercial styles. Much of the district was originally mixed residential and commercial, the shop owners maintaining their businesses on the ground floor with living quarters on the upper floor(s).
Eastside Historic Cemetery District
(N) The Eastside Historic Cemetery District is significant for containing the three oldest cemeteries remaining in Detroit, one of which is the oldest Jewish burial ground in Michigan: the Catholic Mount Elliot Cemetery, the Protestant Elmwood Cemetery and the Jewish Lafayette Street Cemetery. The district?s cemeteries are also notable for containing the final resting places of many people prominent in the early history of Michigan and in the political, religious, business and cultural history of the state and city of Detroit. Mt. Elliott and Elmwood cemeteries possess additional importance as fine examples of rural cemetery design of the nineteenth century with their winding roads and mature trees. Mt. Elliot and Elmwood are also significant in architectural terms for their notable Medieval-style gatehouse structures and, in the case of Elmwood, for its early Gothic Chapel. The district represents the last remaining unchanged topography in Detroit.
East Ferry Avenue Historic District
(N, L)The East Ferry Avenue Historic District contains primarily residential buildings which reflect the upper middle-class idea in domestic elegance in the last years of the 1880's and 1890's as well as the opulent standards of living of some of Detroit?s wealthiest residents at the turn of the century. Residents included: Frank J. Hecker, a Colonel in the Union Arney and founder of the Peninsular Car Company; William A. Pungs, founder of the Anderson Carriage Company; Herman Roehm, co-founder of the hardware store Roehm and Weston; Charles Land Freer, part owner of the peninsular Car Works; John Scott, a prominent Detroit architect; and Samual A. Sloman, of M. Sloman & Company, furs. Architectural styles vary from Queen Anne, Romanesque and Tudor Revival to Colonial Revival and Mediterranean styles of the twentieth century. The district was a fashionable residential area up to the 1920's. This intact grouping of residences is also significant as a representation of some of the least altered residential work of Detroit?s leading architects of the late nineteenth century. Those architects include: John Scott; Louis Kamper, Malcomson and Higginbotham, Rogers & McFarlane, Mortimer Smith, Donaldson & Meier, Joseph E. Mills, A.E. Harley, and Smith, Hinchman & Grylls.
Frederick Avenue Historic District
(S, L) The Frederick Avenue Historic District contains two Victorian residences built in the early 1890's. John Owen, Jr., a prominent Detroit realtor and land developer responsible for the subdivision of historic Indian Village, built the eclectic Victorian home at 544 Frederick in 1890. Bertha Hansbury with her husband, William H. Phillips, opened the Hansbury School and Household Art Guild from their home at 544 Frederick. The school was responsible for the nurturing of thousands of young African Americans in music. The Household Art Guild, an agency licensed by the state, served as the first employment agency for African Americans in Detroit, pre-dating the first widely used government-supported job agency by more than ten years. The school was forced to close with the onset of the Great Depression. 580 Frederick, designed in the Romanesque Revival Style, was build by Charles W. Warren, a distinguished Detroit jeweler and co-founder of the Charles W. Warren Jewelry Company. The residence was converted into the Dunbar Hospital in 1919. Dunbar Hospital, Detroit?s first African American hospital, was organized by 30 physicians who could no longer deal with medical care of Detroit?s rapidly growing African American population on an individual home care basis. After raising funds, William Osby and Charles Webb purchased 580 Frederick for the hospital, which was named in honor of the Ohio black poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar.
Grand Circus Park Historic District
(N) The Grand Circus Park Historic District is significant as a collection of forty, late 19th and early 20th century commercial buildings by noted architects including Albert Kahn; Daniel Burnham; George W. Post; C. Howard Crane; Smith, Hinchman & Grylls; and Gordon W. Lloyd. The buildings include substantial commercial, luxury hotel and ornate theaters possessing a grand scale and sophisticated character. The district is also significant in urban planning as it includes the major nucleus of Judge Woodward?s 1807 Detroit street plan. The building in the district range from two to eighteen stories in height and are in a variety of styles including Gothic Revival, Beaux-Arts, Neo-classical, Tudor Revival and early 20th century commercial. The majority of the buildings were constructed between 1915 and 1928; the oldest being built in 1867.
Greektown historic District
(N)The Greektown Historic District is historically significant as a traditional center of ethnic retailing in downtown Detroit that has served two distinct nationalities in its 140 year history. It is architecturally significant as one of the last viable surviving Victorian commercial streetscapes in downtown Detroit and for its several individually distinguished Victorian, industrial, commercial and ecclesiastical buildings. Historically, Greektown evolved from the farm of a French pioneer settler to a German residential and commercial area which was ultimately transformed into the present flourishing Greek commercial zone. The district generally comprises a small enclave of Late Victorian, two and three story, commercial buildings, industrial structures and churches surrounded on all sides by modern construction.
Hubbard Farms Historic District
(L) The Hubbard Farms Historic District is a mixed use community in southwest Detroit. The district?s significant architecture spans the years from approximately 1870 though 1930, thus representing a variety of styles including Victorian eclectic, Italianate, Romanesque, Tudor Revival, Beaux Arts, and Colonial Revival. The mixed used character of the district was influenced by the subdivision of the lots in varying sizes with different restrictions. The mainly residential district also includeds commercial uses on W. Vernor and institutional uses on W. Vernor, W Grand Boulevard, Scotten and Clark. The residents of the district over time reflect the different waves of immigration in Detroit throughout the 19th and 20th centuries including northern European, Germans, Irish and eastern European. Today the area has a cultural identification with Detroit?s Hispanic Community.
Indian Village Historic District
(N, S, L) The approximately 350 buildings within the Indian Village Historic District were primarily constructed between 1895 and 1928. Developed as one of the most prominent streetcar suburbs of Detroit, the district includes large single family residents of the highest quality and design, along with six churches and two schools. Many prominent Detroit politicians, businessmen, physicians, financiers, and entrepreneurs, including Book, Stroh, Dodge, Ford, Booth, Kales, Buhl and Webber commissioned the most celebrated Detroit architects - C. Howard Crane, Louis Kamper, Albert Kahn, and Smith, Hinchman & Grylls - to design their residences in the popular styles of the period. A wide variety of architecture is represented throughout the district and includes Queen Anne, Classical Revival, Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, English Cottage, and Craftsman/Prairie style residences.
East Jefferson Residential Historic District
(N, L)The East Jefferson Residential Historic District is composed of sixteen buildings, individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The district, which extends eastward on East Jefferson from downtown to Waterworks Park, includes some of Detroit?s earliest and grandest apartment buildings. The buildings range in size from a two story residence to a 14 story apartment building. A wide variety of architectural styles are represented within the district including Romanesque, Tudor Revival, Colonial and Spanish Eclectic. This grouping contains the following apartment buildings: Palms Apartments, Parkcrest, the Pasadena, Garden Court Apartments, Alden Park Towers, Indian Village Manor, Detroit Towers, the Whittier, the Hibbard and the Kean.
East Kirby Avenue Historic District
(L) The East Kirby Avenue Historic District contains three single-family residences built by upper middle-class professionals and businessmen around the turn of the century and an apartment building, Kirby Manor. By the early part of the twentieth century, the area had become home to a predominantly Jewish community, and in the 1930's and 1940's, it had become a predominantly African American neighborhood.
Lower Woodward Avenue Historic District
(L?) The Lower Woodward Avenue Historic District is a collection of commercial department store buildings constructed between 1886 and 1941. The area was Downtown Detroit?s major shopping district and included SS Kresge, Sanders and Woolworth Department Stores. Most structures on Woodward are of steel frame construction, designed with a window curtain wall, faced with a light colored brick, and classical detailing incorporated in the design. Most of the structures originally had commercial on the first floor and offices on the upper floors. All of the buildings on Woodward completely fill the lot lines and are consistently built to the sidewalk. The district contains structures varying in material composition from brownstone, white brick, white terra cotta, and red brick.
Madison-Harmonie Historic District
(L) Originally a German residential neighborhood, the development of the mixed use Madison-Harmonie Historic District began around the turn of the century and continued through 1925. The district surrounds Harmonie Park, a triangular park named for the German singing club which once occupied the Harmonie Club building on its west side. The commercial buildings, apartment buildings, the Detroit Athletic Club, Music Hall and parking garages located in the district reflect a variety of architectural style including Renaissance Revival, Italian Renaissance, Classical Revival, Art Deco, Neo-Georgian, and Beaux Arts.
Mies van der Rohe Residential District, Lafayette Park
(N) The Mies van der Rohe Residential District is exceptionally important in the history of modern architecture and community planning and development. Its 26 buildings - the only buildings in Michigan designed by Mies van der Rohe and the largest collection of his buildings in the world - are excellent examples of the methods, materials, and ideas that this world-renowned master architect used in his later works. The district?s townhouse complex is the only such grouping ever built to his specifications. The district also has the distinction of being part of an early effort at urban renewal that actually succeeded; it was the outcome of a city plan to counter the flight of middle and upper-income families to the suburbs. The twin Lafayette Towers and the low-rise townhouses, featuring skeletal framing, aluminum and glass 'skins,' and spare, open interiors, are connected by a park and a naturalistic landscape designed by Alfred Cadwell.
Monroe Avenue Commercial Buildings
(N, S) Originally containing thirteen commercial buildings along Monroe Avenue, the National Theatre building is the only one that remains. The demolished buildings in the district represented a rare example of a 19th century commercial block consisting of a pre-Civil War and a Victorian Era grouping of buildings that remained relatively intact. Several of the buildings were built as theaters or were converted to theatres as business prospered in the city. The National Theatre, with a seating capacity for 800, became one of the showiest buildings in the downtown area. The theatre housed a wide variety of entertainment forms before becoming, in the end, a live burlesque theatre.
New Center Area Historic District
(L) The New Center Area Historic District developed with the northward expansion of the city and migration of the professional class. The architecturally significant, single- and multi-family residential structures were constructed between 1895 and 1920. With the rapid commercialization of Woodward Avenue as early as 1910, the residents of the district became concerned with the diminishing residential character of Detroit?s most prominent thoroughfare and the negative impact this commercialization would have on adjoining property values. In response to this, the 'Virginia Park Improvement Association,' was formed with the goal of re-landscaping the entrances of the subdivision into a park like setting with an ornamented brick wall and entrance gates. The single-family residences date from 1895 to 1920. Representative styles include Neo-Georgian, Arts and Crafts (Craftsman), Bungalow, and Neo-Tudor. Moderately tall apartment buildings erected approximately between 1915 and 1940 replaced single family dwellings predominately on Seward. Most have rich historical, architectural details.
Oakman Boulevard Historic District
(L) The Oakman Boulevard Historic District in named after Robert Oakman, the realtor and land developer who developed this major boulevard during the second decade of the twentieth century. The development of the district was directly related to Detroit?s industrial boom at the turn of the century, which caused the boundaries of the city to push outward. The district was the fashionable place for prosperous and upper-middle class professional and business people to live beginning in 1921. Development within the district was halted due to the stock market crash of 1929 but began again in 1935. The district contains approximately 200 buildings, most of which are single family residences; some apartment buildings are located at the east boundary and the Parkman Branch Library is also located within the district. A wide variety of architectural styles are evident within the district and include Prairie, Colonial Revival, Neo-Tudor, Mediterranean, Early English, Neo-Georgian, and International.
Palmer Park Apartment Buildings Historic District
(N) The Palmer Park Apartment Buildings Historic District is architecturally significant as Michigan?s most extraordinary community of multi-family dwelling types. The buildings are individually significant as some of the finest and most varied examples of apartment buildings designed in Michigan, and together form a unique example of the development of this building type from 1925 to 1940. In addition, Palmer Park is noteworthy as an example of a high density community incorporating a suburban concept of living in a park like environment. The district contains a wide array of architectural styles ranging from the 1920's wildly eclectic Egyptian, Spanish, Mediterranean, Venetian, Tudor, Moorish revival styles buildings to severely plain 1930's Art Moderne and International Style buildings. Most buildings are constructed of brick with either terra cotta, cast concrete or stone trim and are four stories tall.
Palmer Woods Historic District
(N) The Palmer Woods Historic District, a planned, exclusive residential subdivision designed by landscape architect Ossian Cole Simonds, received the Michigan Horticultural Society Award of Merit in 1938 for being the finest platted subdivision in Michigan. The district contains many of the finest examples of early to mid-20th century residential design in Detroit by architects including Frank Lloyd Wright, Minoru Yamasaki, Maginnis & Walsh, C. Howard Crane, Pollmar & Ropes, and Baxter, O?Dell and Halpin. The district is characterized by large, irregularly shaped lots with large homes designed in styles such as Tudor Revival, Neo-Georgian, Mediterranean, Moderne and Craftsman. The predominant building materials in the area are red brick, stone, stucco, and slate.
Park Avenue Historic District
(N, S) The Park Avenue Historic District is a mixed use district containing thirteen buildings including office buildings, apartments, hotels, social clubs, stores, and restaurants related to the nearby Theatre District. The architecture varies in age, style and height, giving the street a distinct character, and includes Classical Revival, Beaux Arts, Arts and Crafts, and Chicago Style.
Parke-Davis and Company Pharmaceutical Plant, River Place Complex
(N) The Parke-Davis complex contains twenty six structures which comprised the Parke-Davis and Company pharmaceutical research and manufacturing plant. The district is significant as the home of Parke-Davis, one of the most important American pharmaceutical firms since 1870 and as the birthplace of the American pharmaceutical industry. The district contains the first pharmaceutical research laboratory building constructed in the Unites States as well as buildings where dozens of significant research and production breakthroughs occurred. The fourteen and one-half acre Parke-Davis and Company complex developed between 1891 and 1955 and included manufacturing, research and office buildings ranging in height from one to six stories. Excellent examples of standard brick mill buildings and 1920?s reinforced concrete buildings are found within the district. Most are part of the Rivertown complex, a mixed-use development including office, retail and residential space, which was one of the largest tax-credit projects in Michigan.
Peterboro-Charlotte Historic District
(L) Development within the Peterboro-Charlotte Historic District reflects the expansion of Detroit?s middle class in the late 1800's. The developers of the district, Mary Edwards, her husband John, and Edward C. Van Husan, a realtor, took great pains to create a desirable urban area. Although two of the most notable Detroit architects are represented within the district (Malcomson and Higginbotham and Mason & Rice), most of the dwellings were designed by builders. Some notable Detroiters lived in the area including: the Honorable Judge Charles Walker I; Robert W. Gilman, physician; Robert B. Tannahill, vice-president of the J.L. Hudson Company; and William V. Moore, prominent Michigan political and lawyer. The architecture of the Peterboro-Charlotte Historic District represents a study in late 19th century middle-class single family dwellings and early 20th century apartment buildings of moderate cost and scale. Urbanity is expressed by the closeness of the houses to each other.
Randolph Street Commercial Buildings Historic District
(N) The Randolph Street Commercial Buildings are architecturally significant as a rare surviving Victorian commercial streetscape in the heart of Detroit?s retail district. The interesting range of buildings include several Victorian Italianate designs, a rare survivor of the 1840's, and a 1920's marble storefront structure. Although the buildings have been continuously altered over the years at the first floor level and two had new top stories added, they retained their characteristic Victorian brickwork and metal window hoods. The cornices were removed in the 1950's as a result of the city sponsored cornice removal program.
Virginia Park Historic District
(N) The Virginia Park District is a significant example of a well preserved, late 19th to early 20th-century suburban residential neighborhood whose ultimate development and form was planned in advance. Compared to the random nature of most neighborhood development, the neighborhood was conceived as an upper-middle class enclave and its appearance was predetermined by the building requirements filed with the original subdivision plat. As a whole, Virginia Park is architecturally significant for its noteworthy homes designed in a diversity of styles including colonial Revival, Neo-Georgian, Tudor, Arts and Crafts inspired and Bungalow. The district contains fifty eight residences.
Warren-Prentis Historic District
(N) The Warren-Prentis Historic District maintains one of the largest, mostly intact concentrations of upper- and upper-middle class, late 19th and early 20th-century housing extant in Detroit. Containing 123 buildings, the district primarily contains single family residences and small to large scale, brick apartment buildings. This area housed both the early, wealthier Detroiters and the expanding working class population in Detroit. Other uses moved into the district following this residential growth, including commercial uses and numerous auto showrooms. The district?s overall character has been maintained due to the high concentration of buildings, many of which have been minimally altered over time.
Washington Boulevard Historic District
(N) The Washington Boulevard Historic District is significant as an intact streetscape of architecturally distinguished commercial buildings dating from 1901 - 1930 with the majority built in the 1920's. The buildings individually represent some of the finest early 20th century architecture in Detroit and as a group illustrate the evolution of the commercial style in Detroit as it was practiced by some of Michigan?s master architects. The district is also significant as a product of a planned real estate development inspired by the City Beautiful movement and carried out as the private artistic endeavor of the Book family and their architect, Louis Kamper. The district includes twelve buildings designed in the popular architectural styles of the period in which they were constructed and ranging in height from two to thirty six stories in height.
Wayne State University Historic District
(N, S) The Wayne State University Historic District is significant as a symbol of the University?s tradition of adapting a variety of dissimilar structures to academic uses and as a focal point for the growth and development of the University. It is also significant for the architecture of each of its individual components. The district contains three buildings: the MacKenzie House, a Queen Anne style, brick residence constructed in 1895; the Hilberry Theatre, a Neo-Classical style building that was originally constructed as a church in 1917; and Old Main, a large Romanesque style building constructed in 1895 as Detroit?s only high school.
West Village Historic District
(N, L) West Village is architecturally significant for its handsome assemblage of individually distinguished buildings and its cohesive period streetscapes. The neighborhood is of historical importance as a benchmark to the growth of Detroit in the early 20th century and as the home of a number of prominent Detroit residents, some of whom achieved national notoriety. The district contains approximately 275 single and two family buildings, thirty apartment buildings, and twenty commercial buildings constructed between 1890 and 1920. A wide variety of architectural styles are represented within the district including Queen Anne, Tudor, Colonial Revival, Georgian Revival, Dutch Colonial, Mediterranean, Prairie and Bungalow styles.
Willis-Selden Historic District
(N) The Willis-Selden Historic District maintains a large concentration of architecturally significant, late 19the century and early 20th century historic buildings of mixed uses extant in Detroit. Substantial single-family and small-scale multiple unit residential buildings, churches, and commercial buildings (residential in style and scale) are evidence of the district?s early development as a streetcar suburb of Detroit. The additional construction of commercial (many auto related), industrial, and institutional buildings reflect the further growth of the district into one of Detroit?s commercial centers in the early 1900's. The district contains 102 buildings.
Woodbridge Neighborhood Historic District
(N) The Woodbridge Neighborhood Historic District is located to the north of Woodbridge Farms and is significant as in intact, turn of the century streetcar suburb containing architecturally significant residential and commercial buildings. The neighborhood was primarily developed between 1860 and 1920 as middle class with a large number of single and two family residences. Commercial buildings were located along Grand River, Trumbull, Twelfth, and Fourteenth. The primary architectural style within the district is Queen Anne, both modest and lavish examples, as well as Colonial Revival, Georgian Revival, and 'cottage' type architecture.
Woodbridge Farms Historic District
(L) Planned development in the Woodbridge Farm Historic District began in the early 1870's with the speculative building of houses by Henry Clay Hodges and Charles Carrol Hodges, who were among the pioneers in the real estate business in Detroit. The original residents of the houses in Woodbridge Farm tended to be a mix of merchants, professionals, industrialists, and widows. Among them were the co-founder of the Wagner Company Esselstyn Bakery; a partner in Hitchcock & Co., wholesale woolens and tailors; a dealer in sewing machines, pianos and organs; a conductor with the Michigan Central Rail Roads; a member of the M.H. Chamberlain & Co. wholesale wine and liquor; a proprietor of Michigan Steam Laundry; and a builder. The architecture in the Woodbridge Farm Historic District runs the gamut between 1870's Second Empire style single-family dwellings to 1920's apartment buildings.
Woodward East Historic District
(N, S) The Woodward East Historic District is located within the Brush Park neighborhood and is known for its High Victorian style residences constructed for Detroit?s elite at the turn of the century. The buildings are located in the center of an area that became known as 'Piety Hill,' due to the concentration of religious buildings along Woodward. Although a larger number of buildings have been lost in recent years, the remaining residences exhibit the high quality and skill of craftsmanship utilities in home building during the late 1800's and early 1900's as well as the variety of Victorian style subtypes.
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