Fund Your Utopia Without Me.™

18 July 2013

The Destruction of Detroit (Photo Essay)






Michigan Central Station


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Waiting hall, Michigan Central Station



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The main concourse looked like this in 1913.
 

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Now it looks like this, with all of the copper skylight stolen.
 

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THEATRES


United Artists Theater


http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2165/2160806298_325f826504.jpg



The ruined Spanish-Gothic interior of the United Artists Theater in Detroit. The cinema was built in 1928 by C Howard Crane, and finally closed in 1974






Uptown Theater, Chicago

Central Park Theatre 
 

 Uptown Theatre


The Michigan Theatre
 


Ruins of Detroit: Michigan Theatre
 

 


Vanity Ballroom



Vanity Ballroom



 Detroit’s Vanity Ballroom with its unsalvaged art deco chandeliers. Duke Ellington and Tommy Dorsey once played here.  The exterior below:






The Eastown Theatre



 



CHURCHES AND SYNAGOGUES



 Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church, built in the Gothic revival style in 1911


 Former Unitarian Church

 Former Unitarian Church


East Methodist Church

 East Methodist Church



http://www.shtetlhood.com/images/Miskin_Israel.jpg
 

 Mishkan Yisroel Synagogue

 

 Detroit Synagogue Shaary Zedek

 

 Temple Israel


St Agnes Catholic Church



HOTELS


The Lee Plaza Hotel






The ballroom of the 15-floor art-deco Lee Plaza Hotel, an apartment building with hotel services built in 1929 and derelict since the early 1990s





http://scotthaefner.com/photos/images/fullsize/surface/leePlaza03.jpg

http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large-5/lee-plaza-hotel-1-paul-cannon.jpg


Fort Shelby Hotel


http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2013-03-20-kisalala-detroit-MarchandMeffreTelephoneSwitchBoardFortShelbyHotel.jpg

The telephone switchboard at Hotel Fort Shelby


Fort Shelby Hotel



American Hotel



Ballroom, American Hotel

Ballroom


Hotel Fort Wayne



http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4073/4829446498_28c8eacdb3_z.jpg




Office Buildings




Bagley-Clifford Office of the National Bank of Detroit

Bagley-Clifford Office of the National Bank of Detroit


Atrium, Farwell Building

Light Court, Farwell Building



18th floor dentist cabinet, David Broderick Tower



 Dentist Cabinet Broderick Tower

Donovan Building

Donovan Building


David Whitney Building

David Whitney Building


Metropolitan & Wurlitzer Buildings

Metropolitan & Wurlitzer Buildings

 

Hudson's Department Store


The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit - Hudson's Department Store.

The sun sets for the last time on Hudson's Department Store.
24 October 1998.



 

  

 



 
GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS

 


McGregor Public Library, Then

 http://www.detroit1701.org/Graphics/MdGreagorLibrary.JPG
   
Now

McGregor Public Library's doors






 


Mark Twain Library (now demolished)


Book Depository


St Christopher House, ex-Public Library


East Side Public Library


Highland Park Police Station


 
Ruins of Detroit: Offices, Highland Park Police Station
  


      
 
 
     




United Community / Southwest General Hospital











Shapero Hall at Wayne State University





















Schools



 Jane Cooper Elementary School, Spring 2008


 Jane Cooper Elementary School, Spring 2009

 Melted clock, Cass Technical High School

Melted clock, Cass Technical High School



Cass Tech


Piano, Saint Albertus School

Piano, Saint Albertus School

Ruins of Detroit: biology classroom at George W Ferris School

The biology classroom at George W Ferris School in the Detroit suburb of Highland Park

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There used to be a residential neighborhood surrounding this school.
This was left behind...
 

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Classroom, St Margaret Mary School

Classroom, St Margaret Mary School


Wilbur Wright High School
 







Biology classroom, Wilbur Wright High School

Biology classroom, Wilbur Wright High School



The Grand, Old Neighbourhoods



William Livingstone House, Brush Park, a French Renaissance-style house designed by Albert Kahn in 1893


[image]

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Mitt Romney's childhood home



 


James Scott Mansion



Apartment Buildings


Luben Apartments

Luben Apartments
 
Rich-Dex Apartments

Rich-Dex Apartments

Apartments


 Highland Towers








INDUSTRIAL



The former Ford Model T plant in Highland Park, Michigan













Miscellaneous


 








 



 


















 
















The burn!  It hurts!





I am told that this is NOT a ruin...






















Depopulation







The beauty of a city that once was...


Detroit's Fox Theatre


http://3.cdn.nhle.com/redwings/images/upload/2011/10/Fox_Theatre_661pw.jpg


http://www.detroit-travel-guide.com/images/fox-theatre1.jpg

http://www.lasplash.com/uploads/3/King_Guy-4.jpg


http://foxtheatredetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/fox-theatre-detroit.jpg

http://cdn.lightgalleries.net/4d76697865afd/images/Detroit_Fox_Theatre_1-1.jpg

http://spaceofentropy.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/fox-theatre-auditorium1.jpg







tinyurl.com/kuyclaz









14 comments:

Bmore said...

You know what would be really cool? Strip 0's mug onto everyone of those so that folks would associate the ruins with him. ; )

Anonymous said...

Some of these photographs look more like paintings than actual photographs.

Unknown said...

Obamatopia...I live in the rust belt of PA>WV>OH. Enviro weenies, Unions and the IRS have and are killing us. Dam' Revenooers!

Bmore said...

Anonymous said...

Some of these photographs look more like paintings than actual photographs.



Might be the HDR technique you are referring to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-dynamic-range_imaging

Unknown said...

Government costs. Maintaining government in the lifestyle to which it has become accustomed (viz – Michelle Antoinette Obama’s many maid-servants and endless vacations), costs even more. Maintaining government employees’ lavish lifestyles LONG after they have retired costs future generations.

Government employees – Federal, state, local, police, fire, teachers, councilmen, congressmen, you name it, ALL work under the illusion that they are paying taxes.

This is wrong. Civil employees MAKE nothing of value to add to the economy, they are PAID by taxes, how can they PAY taxes? But they tell you they do. It's on their pay stub. They have to file with the IRS every year too, right?

This argument is like a man standing in a bathtub with a teacup endlessly scooping up a cup of water and pouring it back into the tub saying “I'm filling the tub!”

The illusion that civil servants “pay” into the system from which they are robbing the life’s blood of America and its future must end.

We need to have a “national discussion” about this.

Anonymous said...

Norm B, you can't say it any better than you just did! Thank you

Anonymous said...

NormB, So, police, firemen, teachers, and the like should work for free? And how dare you say that teachers "MAKE nothing of value" when you seem to know how to spell at least. And the heroic efforts of police and fireman that save future generations? I'm surprised and shocked that you didn't add the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard into your senseless rant.

Ellie K said...

Thank you so much for posting this for us.

Detroit was beautiful. The people of Detroit DID have nice things, and the nice things were NOT just for an elite, wealthy few. Those are huge movie theatres, office towers, train stations, music halls, churches, public buildings, hotels, libraries and schools. Buildings look well-made, with elegant design and quality materials (despite the abuse).

Technology isn't the answer. I saw computer monitors heaped on classroom floors. The abandoned biology lab still had glassware and nice wood cabinets. The libraries still have books on the shelves. At least one of the schools, an elementary school, was intact in 2008, and in ruins by 2009. Why do we need more science, technology and math spending, when there were wonderful facilities in Detroit, before Obama?

Teachers and civil servants aren't supposed to be highly compensated, but they are supposed to have a decent wage. Detroit doesn't even have enough money for firemen now. Meanwhile, so called liberal progressive Democrats gentrify a few neighborhoods here and there. It isn't entirely about taxes, either. Or rather, it is about wealthy people in New York City, Washington D.C, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle having all sorts of ways to shelter their income, while insisting that everyone else needs to pay more taxes. There isn't much of a tax base left anymore, not after outsourcing and "disruptive innovation". I hate that expression! Schumpeter was NOT a nihilist nut, if any of the neoliberals would take the time to read his work. But no, they are too busy disrespecting religion, marriage, charity (given of one's own free will, not mandated by law and clumsy income redistribution efforts: the latter has only served to redistribute income from poorer people to rich people). Race inequality for black people has become orders of magnitude worse on Obama's watch, specifically in Los Angeles.

The GOP didn't push for the end of Glass-Steagall. That was President Clinton's doing. The GOP didn't end Job Corps for disadvantaged youth. No, that was run into massive deficit under President Obama in 2012. The Democrats, not the GOP, ended what Franklin Delano Roosevelt began.

I don't know what is happening. Why does Obama and his supporters want to destroy our society, our entire country? It will destroy them too, but then it will be too late for the rest of us.

Unknown said...

This is what happens to a city based on the automotive industry that is held accountable to investors on wall street to make more money next quarter than last. In order to keep up with the demands of the investors, they had to outsource jobs to countries with cheap labor and replace workers with robots. People left Detroit, and the tax base went with them. You want to place blame somewhere? Place it squarely on the shoulders of a system that is dependent on constant monetary growth...

Anonymous said...

I live in El Cajon, Ca. and as of the first of the year, I was told that we now have the largest population of Chaldeans from Iraq, living in our community. They are coming from Detroit, which has now the second largest population of Chaldeans. They refuse to do business with Americans unless they can get half off. They are horrible to our economy because they deal with cash and spend a lot of time trying to hide their money from our government. My question to you is; Do you think their moving into Detroit had any part of this destruction and downfall?

Anonymous said...

I can't imagine the ignorant comments linking this to Obama. He had nothing to do with the GOP's inability to fund infrastructure repairs and re-population of these areas of Detroit. It costs money to maintain and repair old structures. That money comes from taxes, taxes are paid by workers. Taxes on the wealthy under Reagan and before were about 90% as they should have remained. Those who elected tea party idiots are now reaping the results of the thoughtlessness that they sowed.

Ellie K said...

The prior Anonymous said,
"I can't imagine the ignorant comments linking this to Obama... taxes are paid by workers. Taxes on the wealthy under Reagan and before were about 90% as they should have remained. Those who elected tea party idiots are now reaping the results of the thoughtlessness that they sowed."

There were no Tea Party idiots in the Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush years. There were lots of economists in both parties who said, "globalize" and "free trade" and "more illegal immigration" though!

It is undeniable fact that one of the only areas in the U.S. that has prospered since 2008, in terms of rising real estate prices and incomes, has been the greater Washington DC area. That excludes impoverished minority communities. They are doing worse than ever. The GOP is hardly blameless, but who was president since 2008? Also, it doesn't help to raise taxes on a declining middle class, or even upper middle class yet grant the top 0.1% wealthy, primarily Democrat insiders, e.g. most hedge funds and so-called tech industry CEOs, extravagant tax breaks.

Under the guise of "innovation" Obama administration cabinet members and appointees have rolled back regulation that protected consumers and workers e.g. the Uber horror (championed and staffed by former Obama advisors) and the JOBS Act that has nothing to do with job creation.

Anonymous said...

Why cant everyone just enjoy the photographs instead of agruing about how all this happened? It happs everywhere and thats not good, but appreciate the beauty in the ruins of these nuildings because im sure thats why these were posted, not to argue.

JSwift said...

Several comments on here blame Obama. The Governor of Michigan for several years has been Rick Snyder, the Republican responsible for the lead in Flint's drinking water. And Snyder's appointed "economic czar", when he ws through in Flint, went to Detroit. Those who want to throw blame around, should look more locally.

Though this looks like it took decades to destroy this much of Detroit, without demolishing buildings which had apparently been simply abandoned.. Did owners simply close them and walk away do the suburbs? Was Detroit city government a fault in not condemning and demolishing unsafe buildings? Or was it Wayne County government? Or the Snyder administration in Lansing? Or all of the above?

the photos are great, by the way. Unfortunately, some of them are now missing.