These before and after photos show how a decade of demolition altered Detroit

By Metro Times editorial staff on Fri, Mar 1, 2019 at 2:27 pm

Schools, churches, homes — these are just a few architectural casualties of the past decade in Detroit. Alongside the tremendous investment now flowing into certain parts of the city, demolitions have also increased. In some cases, buildings that have been around for more than a century and played integral roles in Detroit’s civic and social spheres have been razed by property speculators and city agencies.

Many of these historic albeit vacant buildings were leveled to make space for surface-level parking, which now occupies about 40 percent of land downtown. Who are these newly empty lots serving, and were they worth the cost?

Browse through these before and after photos of Detroit buildings demolished in favor of parking, or in some cases, just empty lots.

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Then – 2011

2870 Woodward Ave.; Detroit
Opened in 1890, First Unitarian Church was one of the city’s oldest churches. The church once boasted three round-arched stained-glass windows by John La Farge, who designed the windows of Trinity Church in Boston.
Photo ©Google 2019

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Now – 2019

2870 Woodward Ave.; Detroit
As Woodward Avenue expanded, the church’s facade became mangled throughout the 20th century. On Aug. 3, 1982, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. On the morning of May 10, 2014, a fire destroyed the church, stirring rumors of arson in the hot-investment District.
Photo by Will Feuer

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Then – 2011

3141 Cass Ave.; Detroit
Two beautiful, long-abandoned houses used to exist adjacent to the Gold Dollar, a legendary rock venue that once hosted early gigs by bands like the White Stripes during Detroit's garage rock boom.
Photo ©Google 2019

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Now – 2019

3141 Cass Ave.; Detroit
The buildings were demolished in 2016. The empty lots and the adjacent Gold Dollar were recently purchased by an entity named Urban Horticulture, LLC as part of a $2.2 million deal.

“[The] entity then transferred the properties for $1 to another entity called Cass Revival LLC, which used the Ilitch family-owned Fox Theatre as its address.”
Photo by Will Feuer

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Then – 2015

5250 Midtown Loop; Detroit
The distinctive Barat House was built in 1960 as an inpatient psychiatric facility for young women and continued to serve at-risk youth until the winter of 2017.
Photo ©Google 2019

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Now – 2019

5250 Midtown Loop; Detroit
The Detroit Institute of Arts purchased the building in 2017, and demolished it to make room for 65 parking spaces.
Photo by Will Feuer

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Then – 2009

8041 Harper Ave.; Detroit
The Eastown Theatre was the last survivor of the original four major neighborhood movie palaces, according to Historic Detroit, but it was also a den for infamous drug-driven rock concerts, which makes it way cooler than a movie theater.
Photo ©Google 2019

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Now – 2019

8041 Harper Ave.; Detroit
In the early 2000s, the Theater was taken over by a church group, which tried to sell the property for about $2 million, according to Historic Detroit. In 2009, they sold it for less than half that price and soon after a fire gutted the inside of the building. After years of scrapping, an emergency demolition order was issued in 2015.
Photo by Will Feuer

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Then – 2008

Intersection of W. Grand River Avenue and W. Elizabeth Street; Detroit
The Elizabeth Street Lofts building.
Photo ©Google 2019

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Now – 2019

Intersection of W. Grand River Avenue and W. Elizabeth Street; Detroit
The building was purchased and demolished by the Ilitches to make room for parking in the burgeoning entertainment District.
Photo by Will Feuer

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