Campau, Jos., Historic District

8. Statement of Significance Applicable National Register Criteria Areas of Significance (Mark "x" in one or more boxes for the criteria qualifying the property (Enter categories from instructions.) for National Register listing.) Architecture Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our Commerce history. Community Planning & Deve lopment Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past. Entertainment/Recreation

Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high Period of Significance artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack 1915-1962 individual distinction.

Property has yielded, or is likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history. • Significant Dates 1922

Criteria Considerations (Mark "x" in all the boxes that apply.) Significant Person Property is: (Complete only if Criterion B is marked above.)

N/A A Owned by a religious institution or used for religious purposes.

B removed from its original location. Cultural Affiliation Polish American Heritage C a birthplace or grave.

D a cemetery.

Architect/Builder E a reconstructed building, object, or structure. Charles N. Agree, Joseph Julius Gwizdowski F a commemorative property.

G less than 50 years old or achieving significance within the past 50 years.

Period of Significance Qustification) Earliest known date of construction - 1915 to fifty years prior to the date of the nomination - 1962.

Criteria Considerations (explanation, if necessary)

United States Depa rtme nt of the Interior National Park Service/ National Registe r of Historic Places Registration Form

Name of Property Coun ty and State

Statement of Significance Summary Paragraph (Provide a summary paragraph that includes level of significance and applicable criteria.)

The Jos. Campau Avenue Historic District is sig nificant because of its relationship to Detroit' s Polish heritage, its growth and development associated with th e automobile industry, and its rich commercial history. Jos. Campau 's history is tied to the history of Hamtramck, and the development of a thriving, distinctively Polish neighborhood. The district developed primarily between the years 1905 and 1930, and became a rich mixture of American and Polish commercial enterp rises on both a small and large scale. The Dodge Brothers automotive plant (known as Dodge Main) opened in 1914 and was the economic focus of much of Hamtramck's development. By 1930, the city had a staggering population of 56,000 people, making it one of the most densely populated cities in America. And more than eighty percent of the residents were of Polish descent. 61 So Polish was the city that the workday language in Dodge Main during World War II was Polish.62 Hamtramck became recognized as a center of Polonia (Polish people living outside Poland). Jos. Campau is also sign ificant as part of the city of Hamtramck's original Hamtramck Township and for being named for one of Detroit's early pioneers, Colonel John Francis Hamtramck (1756-1803). Jos. Campau Avenue was named for prominent early Detroiter Joseph Campau (1769-1863). Jos. Campau Avenue developed into a vibrant commercial street that offered nearly every kin d of goods and level of quality available. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Jos. Campau Avenue was the commercial lifeline of Hamtramck, running directly down its length. Jos. Campau remains as Hamtramck's main street and destination shopping avenue. Large discount department stores such as Kresge, W. T. Grant, Lendzons and by 1939, Federal Department Store were bu ilt on Jos. Campau and the buildings still exist today. These discount department stores drew large numbers of shoppers. In addition, independent retailers such as Max's Jewelry Store (10000 Jos. Campau) Lucille's (10238 Jos. Campau ) and Day's (9450 Jos. Campau) are sign ificant examples of retail stores that retain integrity from the period of their construction - likely the 1920's through their later renovations in the 1950's. New Palace Bakery (9833 Jos. Campau) and New Martha Washington Bakery (10335 Jos. Campau) are bakeries in the district that have been operating for well over eighty years in significant historic properties. Entertainment, restaurant, automotive, banking and municipal buildings also exist with in the district. Jos. Campau has seen many parades and special events over the decades. Jos. Campau parades celebrated everything from Memorial Day, Labor Day and "Dodge Days" to Paczki Day. A huge celebration was held on Jos. Campau for the city's 50 th anniversary in 1972. Presidents Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have been driven down Jos. Campau. On September 17, 1987, Pope John Paul II returned to Hamtramck and drove down Jos. Campau as part of an official papal visit.

Narrative Statement of Significance (Provide at least one paragraph for each area of significance.)

Hamtramck was named after Colonel John Francis Hamtram ck (17 561803), Detroit's first American commander, who earlier had fought with George Wash ington in the Revolutionary War. Born a French Canadian, he changed his name from Jean Francois to John Francis to substantiate his alliance with the Americans. Hamtramck grew up with a hatred of the British who occupied his homeland of Montreal, Quebec, so he came to the United States when the American Revolution began to join the American Army in New York. Hamtramck served under General "Mad" Anthony Wayne and established Fort Wayne in Indiana. On July 11, 1796, two ships carrying sixty-five men under the command of Colonel Hamtramck arrived at Detroit to assert American authority followi ng the departure of the British.63

Throughout the nineteenth century, Hamtramck Township comprised a collection of farms surrounding the city of Detroit. The township, named for Col. Hamtramck, was a separate governmental entity established in 1798. Orig inally,

Kowal ski, Greg, Hamtramck: The Driven City, Arcad ia Publishing, Charleston, SC, 2002, pp. 35. 62 Gavrilovich, Peter and Bill McGraw, Th e Detroit Almanac, Th e Detroit Free Press, 2000, pp. 44.

63 Otten Jr., William L., "Co lon el J. F. Hamtramck: His Life and Tim es, Volume Two (1783-1791)" Pu bl is hed by Otten Publi shing, Port

Ara nsas, TX, 2003, pp. xii.

Hamtramck stretched from the Detroit River to the road ca lled Base Line (Eight Mile Road ) and from Woodward Avenu e through the areas along the Detroit River to the east called the Grosse Pointes. In 1827 Hamtramck Township was reduced in area when Wayne County divided into nine townships: Brownstown, Bucklin, Detroit, Ecorse, Hamtramck, Huron, Monguagon, Plymo uth and Springwells. The Grosse Pointes split off in 1848, and over the decades, Detroit annexed Hamtramck a bit at a time as development took place. Through the nineteenth century, Hamtramck Town ship was a rural area, but with some industry clustered along the Detroit River. The Detroit Stove Works grew to be one of the largest cast iron stove manufacturing companies in the world, and other iron manufacturers located along the Detroit River as we ll. Later, by 1905 the area's factories employed as many as 2,000 workers and the Morgan & Wright Co., the largest producer of rubber goods in the country, located there. During that period the housing for 2,000 workers developed along the riverfro nt as well as amusement centers for them: dance halls, skating ri nks, bowling alleys, and pool halls.

Industries settled along the railroad lines through Hamtramck Townsh ip, and in 1896, William L. Davies and Thomas Neal purchased a site on St. Aubin Avenue at the intersection of railroad lines for their new factory for the Acme White Lead and Color Works. This paint factory was one of the first factories in what would become the Village of Hamtramck, and later the city. The Acme White Lead Paint Company grew, and within a few years 1,000 people were employed at the plant producing paint, lacquer, varnish and enamel. Big business had arrived in Hamtramck.

In 1900 a group of Hamtramckans met in Holbrook School (still standing at 2361 Alice Street) to discuss the possibility of establishing a Village of Hamtramck. Their aim was to preserve the identity of Hamtramck, and prevent it from being incorporated into Detroit. In 1901 the Village of Hamtramck officially came into being, carved from a 2.1-square mile section of Hamtramck Township, completely surrounded by Hamtramck Townsh ip. At the time, the village had a population of about 500 and was still largely rural. The Village of Hamtramck essentially grew from the south end to the north. That is, the earliest businesses and houses, with the exception of some properties like the Dickinson and Dolland Farms, were clustered along Jos. Campau south of the Holbrook Creek. That creek, at the bottom of a ravine, was a key feature of the village and posed a serious safety threat in the winter when people complained about being blown down its icy slopes by the wind. These first residents of the Village of Hamtramck, the first farmers, saloon keepers and shopkeepers, were largely of German descent. In 1904 saloon permits were granted to J. P. Kaiser, AP. Schroeder, M. Kulczynski, J.C. Adams, L. Becker, and F. Bohn as well as W. Muenchinger. The saloons were the places where Hamtramck's powerbrokers gathered. In 1901 Hamtramck's several hundred German residents made up about 95% of the population. 64

Around 1910 Hamtramck began to undergo a remarkable transformation. That year, Horace (1867-1920) and John Dodge (1864 -1920) opened the first part of their Dodge Brothers automobile plant at the southeast corner of the Village of Hamtramck. They purchased for $100,000, a twenty-four acre site that was crossed by rail lines. The Dodge Bros. plant was located to the south and east of Jos. Campau, and would remain a separate island of industry that was surrounded by a fence. Noted architect Albert Kahn was hired to design the initial part of the new factory, including offices, a forge, powerhouse and machine shop. By 1911, a substantial portion of the complex was complete. Kahn was the leading industrial architect in Detroit, but the Dodges felt Kahn 's firm was slow to provide plans for the new construction of additional buildings, and the Dodges were dissatisfied with the subcontractors' work and Kahn 's management. The Dodges turned to the firm of Smith, Hinchman & Grylls for architectural design work done after 1912. The complex of buildings at the Hamtramck Assembly Plant, commonly kn own as Dodge Main, would stand as one of the largest manufacturing plants in the world.65 Even as the massive plant opened it began expand ing and eventually would comp rise five million square feet of floor space on 135 acres of land. Whole streets, like Bismark and Wh iting, would be swallowed up by the factory. The first buildings were completed by November of 1910. The company initially manufactured automobile components for Henry Ford, and it wasn 't until 1914 that the first Dodge cars rolled off the production lines.66

By 1914 the Dodges had had enough of Henry Ford and the difficulties of working with him, although they were not ready to end their lucrative relationship with him. Initially, the Dodges earned little from their Ford stock dividends. But as Ford 's fortunes improved, the Dodges were earning millions of dollars by 1908. Workin g with Ford they had also gained a wealth of experience building car components. They were confident they could bu ild their own cars and would be free to make design changes and improvements as they saw fit. When the brothers announced they were going to build and sel l a

64 Kowalski, Greg, Hamtramck: The Driven City, Arcadi a Publi shin g, Charleston, SC, 2002, pp. 17.

Hyd e, Char les K., The Dodge Brothers: The Men, Th e Motor Cars, And The Legacy, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan, 2005, pp. 47. 66 Kowa lski, op. cit. pp. 29.

United States Departm ent of the Interior National Park Service/ National Reg ister of Historic Places Registration Form

Name of Property County and State

Dodge brand car, they were flooded with requests from would-be dealerships across the country. The Dodges built a huge franch ise network and promoted their products in an effective advertising campaign. In July 1913, the Dodges gave Henry Ford a year's notice that they would cease supplying him with parts for his cars. The stage was set for the launching of the Dodge brand of automobiles - and for the creation of modern Hamtramck. 67 Dodge Main was the central element in the explosive development of Hamtramck that followed in the 191 Os and 20s.

Dodge Main's development brought a massive influx of Polish residents that quickly came to dominate the community's population and made Hamtramck one of America 's most Polish places. Hamtramck's Polish community was an extension of a larger Polish settlement in Detroit that began in the mid-nineteenth century. The first Polish people to come to Detroit established homes between 1840 and 1850. There was a continuous immigration that began in the late 1850s on the eve of the American Civil War with the settlement of several families and related individuals from Prussian Poland. The first large family group to arrive, the Lemkes, was typical in that they spoke German, and clearly followed the migration routes of their German neighbors. By the time of the Civil War, Detroit, along with Chicago and Milwaukee, emerged as major centers of German settlement in the United States. The Poles settled next to the Germans in Detroit and used German ethnic institutions including German churches on the near east side. The early Poles were overwhelmingly Kashubian from the northern edge portion of today's Poland on the Baltic Sea. The Kashubs spoke a distinct Slavic language that was already by the mid-nineteenth century in the process of being absorbed into Polish. They were soon joined by Poles from other areas of the Prussian partition, particularly those from Poznan Province west of Warsaw. By 1870, Detroit's Polish population numbered 300 families.6

By the 1880s the face of the Polish community began to change. The increasing numbers of Poles from Galicia, as the Austrian Polish lands were known, brought different customs and dialects. The newcomers were poorer and less educated than the earlier migrants, but swelled the numbers of Poles. The fast-growing Polish population established its first parish on Detroit's east side with its church at St. Aubin Street and Canfield Street, named after Saint Wojciech, mistranslated as Saint Albertus, in 1872. Newly arrived Pole.s tended to settle near St. Albertus and older Polish residents to move near the church. By 1885 the magnificent Gothic church had been completed, exceeding all other Catholic churches in Michigan in size. Other Polish churches spun off from St. Albertus along Canfield Street in quick succession. Hamtramck developed directly to the north along St. Aubin Street, and a few blocks to the east along Jos. Campau, just three miles north of this original Polish neighborhood.

A smaller settlement founded largely by Austrian and Russian Poles took shape on the west side of the city of Detroit in the Michigan Avenue-23 rd Street area. Like its east side counterpart, the growth of the Polish community on the west side was measured by a series of new parishes, proceeding west toward Dearborn along Michigan Avenue. Polish immigrants drawn by work in the chemical and steel industries developing in the Downriver area settled in southwestern Detroit and Wyandotte by the 1890's.69

In Hamtramck, by 1915 the population shifted from largely German to 80% Polish. Some immigrants came straight from Poland; others first worked in the mines of Pennsylvania before migrating to the Detroit area, and still others lived and worked just south of Hamtramck in the old Poletown section of Detroit clustered around St. Albertus Church. Some were skilled tradesmen, while others knew nothing more than how to plow a field. Regardless of whatever social status any of the immigrants had, they shared a desire to build a better life, even if that meant working in the grueling conditions of the auto factories.70 Nothing had a greater influence on the city of Hamtramck than the development of Dodge Main. Shortly after its construction, the call went out for workers, and the response was staggering. "Poles from different parts of the country flocked to it (Hamtramck) as a homeland." 71 By the end of the First World War, about a half a century after it first took root in Detroit, the larger Polish community reached the northern end of the present boundary of Hamtramck at Carpenter Street.

According to Dr. Thaddeus Radzilowski 's book The Polish Experience in Detroit, "Poles have been a significant part of the history for Detroit for half of its existence. They have been such a major presence in the city that it is impossible to imagine the development of Detroit after the Civil War without them. From the beginn ing, Polish immigrants to the Detroit

67 Ibid.

68 Radzilowski, Thadd eus C., The Polish Experience in Detroit, Saint Mary's College of Ave Maria University, 2002, pp. 6. 69 Ibid. ° 7 Kowalski, Greg, Hamtramck: The Driven City, Arcadia Publish ing, Charl esto n, SC, 2002, pp. 17.

71 Wood, A. E., Hamtramck Then and Now, New York, 1955, pp. 55.

area built a new society here. They transplanted intact many values, customs and institutions from their old lives. They adapted others and created still others de nova to preserve their faith and transfer their heritage to new surroundings. In the course of creating a new community and a new culture, each new group of Polish arrivals moved from being immigrants to being ethnic and hence, Americans. "72

By 1920 the Village of Hamtramck's population approached 48,000 - all within an area of 2.1 square miles. It was also a young city: In 1920, 1 in 5 Hamtramck residents was younger than five years old, the highest proportion in America.73 The new Polish population soon learned the American political system and forced out of power the German saloon-keepers, who had traditionally controlled the town from their barrooms. In 1922 Hamtramck incorporated as a city to prevent any further annexations by Detroit. So it remains today, a completely independent city, surrounded by the city of Detroit. From 1925 on, Hamtramck became synonymous with Polish-American culture. By 1930, the city had a staggering population of 56,000 people, making it one of the most densely populated cities in America. And more than 80 percent of the residents were of Polish descent. 74 So Polish was the city that the workday language in Dodge Main during World War II was Polish. 75 Hamtramck became recognized as a center of Polonia (Polish people living outside Poland).

As Hamtramck grew at a rapid rate in the 1910's and 20's, whole neighborhoods were being thrown up at a furious rate to accommodate workers. Maximizing what was available, developers put up single-family homes, multifamily houses and even boardinghouses on lots just thirty feet wide by 100 feet deep. Examples of this housing are contained in the St. Florian National Register Historic District which adjoins the Jos. Campau district on the west. The St. Florian Historic District reflects the residential development within the St. Florian parish area, although additional similar development to the north and east of Jos. Campau is not currently encompassed by any historic district.

Hamtramck's rural character was changing to urban as Holbrook Creek was turned into Holbrook Street. Holbrook Creek lay in a ravine that was twenty feet deep. In 1905 DeWitt C. Holbrook's farm on the north side of the creek was graded and the creek was channeled into an underground storm sewer. Holbrook Creek - converted to Holbrook Street - became a principal cross-street through Hamtramck. The profound transformation of Hamtramck from a rural area to urban occurred in just a few years.

In 1922 Hamtramck incorporated to remain an independent city, yet that did nothing to solve the massive social problems that the huge immigrant influx brought. With few resources, Hamtramckans turned to innovation to deal with their challenges. School superintendent Maurice Keyworth developed landmark education programs that were adopted by school districts across the country. He began special education classes as early as 1927 and brought doctors and nurses into the schools to treat health problems common among poor immigrant children. Keyworth also developed bilingual education programs and promoted adult education to move the children and their parents into mainstream American society.76

While the schools made history, industry continued to have a major impact on the community. Dodge Main became a massive plant of more than five million square feet, and employed 27,000 workers. The often terrible working conditions at the plant spurred the establishment of labor unions, and in 1937 Dodge Main was the site of a major sit-down strike. The strike was instrumental in forcing the auto manufacturers to accept the United Auto Workers as a legitimate bargaining agent of the workers.77 At its peak during World War II, Dodge Main employed more than 45,000 people, had six million square feet of floor space and thirty miles of conveyers. During the war years, instead of producing Dodges and Plymouths the plant was producing ambulances for the U.S. Army, the Sperry-Gyro compass and the Bofors anti-aircraft cannon. Through this time of war, Dodge Main was still the magnet that drew Polish immigrants to Hamtramck.

Following World War II, Hamtramck was aging and facing a gradual loss of population. Many residents were looking for the wider lawns that were available in suburban communities. Most houses in Hamtramck were built between 1915 and 1930 on thirty-foot-wide lots. Homes in the suburbs were new and offered space for driveways and two-car garages.

72 Radzilowski, Thaddeu s C., Th e Polish Experience in Detroit, Saint Mary's College of Ave Maria University, 2002, pp. 1.

73 Ga vrilovich, Peter and Bill McGraw, The Detroit Almanac, The Detro it Free Press, 2000, pp. 316. 74 Kowalski, Ibid, pp. 35. 75 Gavrilovich, Ibid, pp. 44.

76 Ibid.

77 Ibid.

of the population to a more manageable number. Poles still made up the overwhelming majority of residents: 81 percent in 1940 and 75 percent in 1950. Nevertheless, the downward population trend was established.

In other ways, Hamtramck was growing. The wealth of post-war America had come to Hamtramck. In 1950, the Polish American Century Club on Holbrook Street was dedicated; covering 6,000 square feet, the building was one of several modern halls constructed that year. Late r that year, the Polish Falcons Nest 86 opened a $140,000 build ing at Klinger and Caniff Streets. Our Lady Queen of Apostles Parish began build ing a large new church on Conant Street, and Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic parish began building a $350,000 school building. The Polish National Alliance closed out 1950 by dedicating a new $128,000 hall on Conant Street. 78 (None of these build ings are located within the district.)

Hamtramck's population stood at 34,137 in 1960, and ten years later it was down to 27,245. Right through the 1980s, the city's population declined and urban blight became a serious threat. In 1963 Hamtramck became the first city in Michigan in which residents voted for a 1 percent income tax. But by the 1990s, Hamtramck was on the rebound. In the 2000 census, Hamtramck recorded a 25 percent population increase - reversing a seventy-year trend. A new wave of immigrants began arriving, this time from Bangladesh, the Middle East, India, Eastern Europe, and Arabic countries. Now more than thirty languages are spoken in the schools, posing for school administrators some of the same problems of fifty yea rs earlier.79 The 2010 census information on ethn ic and cultural backgrou.nds tells us that today between 15 and 16 percent of Hamtramck residents claim Polish heritage. The Asian population comes in at 21.5 percent, and the African American population at 19 percent. 80 While the identity of Hamtramck's population is changing, it still claims its Polish heritag8 of the 20 th century.

Jos. Campau History Jos. Campau Street was named for prominent early Detroiter Joseph Campau. Joseph Campau (1769-1863) was a grandson of Jacques Campau, who was an officer and secretary to Detroit founder Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac who arrived in Detroit in 1708. Joseph Campau owned large tracts of land running from the Detroit River northward. These were original land grants from the French made to Jacques Campau. These original land grants, running in narrow strips from the river into the interior, were called ribbon farms because of their great lengths but narrow widths. The farms he owned were the James Campau, Chene and Poupard farms, and the avenue named for Jos. Campau ran along the Campau farm.81 The street named for Campau runs from the Detroit River, northward through the city.

Joseph Campau was educated in Montreal, Canada and returned to Detroit and opened a general store on Rue Ste. Anne (later Atwater Street) in the 1790's. He also became a fur trader and a land speculator. Campau was a very politicallyconnected citizen as well, and he was appointed one of the city assessors and appraisers in 1803. Campau was the second-highest tax payer in Detroit in that same year. He served as a trustee of Detroit, which was an elected political post - similar to city council - in 1802. Campau learned several Indian dialects, and was known as Chemokamun (Big Shot). Joseph Campau was a slave owner, and was an early slumlord who built shoddy renta l housing with long-term leases on his property. He and his wife Adelaide Dequindre had twelve children. Campau lived on West Jefferson in a landmark home which was painted yellow. He was buried at Elmwood Cemetery in 1863 at the age of ninety-five. Campau's burial in Elmwood Cemetery was newsworthy because it followed a controversy in which he left the Catholic church over a political fight.

The street named for Joseph Campau is officially designated with an abbreviation of his name, "Jos." Campau, and it is im portant to note that the actual street name is in the abbreviated form and not the full spelling of Joseph - although it is pronounced that way: a small point, but important to note. There are other Hamtramck streets that extended from the Detroit ribbon farm properties fronting on the river: McDougall Street, Dequindre Street, and St. Aubin Street. In the city of Detroit during the 19th Century, Jos. Campau Avenue began as a residential street, with occasional farmhouses located along the street. As the 19th Century progressed, Jos. Campau became more densely built up, and commercial enterprises developed at various intersections. Th e commercial developments consisted of small-scale enterprises such as grocers, bakeries and meat markets. These types of developments spread northward into the rural

78 Ibid.

79 Ibid.

80 Madeleine, Alan R., " Hamtramck's Ce nsus Shows an Eve r-Changing Face," The Review, January 13, 2012.

81 Bai ley, M ary, " Detroit's Street Names Honor Early Leade rs," The Detroit News, February 17, 2000.

area of Hamtramck Township during the early 1900's. When Hamtramck Township was first developed, and Jos. Campau's earliest Hamtramck structures were built, they were mainly wood frame grocery stores, saloons and dry good stores constructed to serve the German farmers in the area. As the population increased, Jos. Campau developed northward. Municipal drinking water became available along Jos. Campau, Evaline and Yemans Streets in 1915.82 In 1920, the City of Hamtramck paved Jos. Campau fully from Caniff Street north to Carpenter Street (the city's northern border with Detroit). 83.

The city of Hamtramck developed from the south to the north along Jos. Campau Street, mainly after 1910. One example of an early structure that still exists (so uth of the district) is the two-story commercial brick building on the east side of Jos. Campau at Council Street (8536 Jos. Campau) constructed in 1912 and 1913 that held the Jewell Theater, an early post office branch, and various commercial businesses over the years. The intersection of Jos. Campau and Holbrook Avenues was one of the key crossroads of early Hamtramck. The area south of Holbrook Avenue on Jos. Campau is known as the South End. It is the oldest area of Hamtramck, located outside of the district to the south. This oldest area along Jos. Campau south of Holbrook was not included in the district because the area today contains only scattered early buildings with large areas of non-contributing resources between them.

Jos. Campau 's development can also be attributed to the installation of the Baker Streetcar line. In 1873 the Baker Streetcar line began as a horse-drawn line from Woodbridge Street (near the Detroit River miles south of the district) and it ran downtown along Randolph Street to Congress Street then westward on Congress to Seventh Avenue, up Seventh Avenue to Baker Street, and on Baker to Twenty-fourth Street. 84 This became a crosstown line that became known as the Detroit and Grand Trunk Junction Street Railway, and was the beginning of the well-traveled Baker Streetcar line which ran down what is now known as the Vernor Highway toward southwest Detroit. In 1875 it was renamed the Congress and Baker Street Railway, and a few years later in 1879 the operation of the line was taken over by the Detroit City Railway. The line changed over to electrical operations by 1909. The Baker Streetcar line was expanded to run north along Jos. Campau enabling Hamtramck residents on Detroit's north side to commute to the automotive plants located well southwest of downtown Detroit. The line served the Dodge Main Plant, ran to downtown Detroit, and on Baker Street and Dix Avenue to the Ford Rouge Plant located at the southwest corner of the city of Detroit. (Although the name of Baker Street was changed to Bagley Avenue in the early 1900's the streetcar line retained the "Baker Street" name until the end.) In 1922 the Detroit United Railway (D.U.R.) extended the Baker line on Dix Road and Vernor in southwest Detroit where it reached out for several blocks along the Rouge Plant's frontage. The Baker line terminated in an area of southwest Detroit at the Rouge Plant that was called the Eagle loop.85

In 1920 Henry Ford began construction of the vast Rouge auto plant on the site of the old Eagle Shipbuilding Plant in southwest Detroit. The transfer of workers from his existing Highland Park Plant in the center of the city to the new Rouge site forced thousands of workers to commute from their residences in parts of the city now far from their workplace; thousands used the Baker line, the direct connection between Hamtramck and the northeast Detroit area and the Rouge plant in southwest Detroit. In 1922 the D.U.R. was taken over by Detroit's Department of Street Railways (D.S.R.) and became a municipal operation. In just five years the traffic on the Eagle Loop at the Rouge Plant had grown so heavy that the D.S.R. and Ford Motor Company had entered into an agreement to add two new terminals on the Ford Rouge property.86 At the other end of the trip, the Baker Streetcar Line ended at Van Dyke Avenue and Nevada Street in Detroit, just about a mile northeast of Hamtramck. The unheated, noisy streetcars were not always pleasant travel, but they were the only source of public transportation to the large automotive plants in the area.

The heavily traveled Baker line passed behind the Michigan Central Depot, Detroit's train station, located just west of downtown. Thousands of people rode the Baker Streetcar line daily until it was discontinued in the early 1950's. The existence of this major streetcar route down Jos. Campau stimulated the growth of commercial development. Businesses along Jos. Campau flourished with the flow of pedestrian traffic.

82 AKT Peerless En vironmental and En ergy Services, Phase I Environmental Site Assessment: Dollar King and Former Shopper's World, 9800-04, and 9808-42 Jos. Campau Street, Hamtramck, Michigan 48212, February 26, 2008. 83 Michigan Contractor and Builder, July, 1920.

84 Farmer, Silas, The History of Detroit and Wayne County and Early Michigan, Third Edition, 1890, Gale Research, Detroit Michigan,

pp. 932. 85 Florek, Marilyn, West Vernor Highway Survey Area, Detroit, National Register of Historic Places, 2002, pp. 6.

86 Ibid.

United States Departmen t of the Interior National Park Service/ Nation al Register of Historic Places Registration Form

Jos. Campau District Wayne, Michigan Name of Property County and State

As Jos. Campau developed, it became a regional destination for entertainment as we ll as shopping. Movie theaters located on Jos. Campau began with the Jewell Theater, as mentioned above, and other movie theaters included the 900 seat Farnum Theater located at 9048 Jos. Campau and Jacob Street (1918-67, original architect Joseph J. Gwizdowski), the White Star Theater (1915) located at Jos. Campau near Hewitt Street, and largest of all, the 1,000 seat Martha Wash ington Theater, designed by Detroit movie theater specialist C. Howard Crane (1924). The Martha Washington Theater was located on the west side of Jos. Campau just south of Caniff Street. While the Martha Washington Theater showed first-run movies, the Farnum ran second and third-run films, and the White Star Theater ran second-run and children 's programming. All of the theaters included Polish-language films in their programm ing. Although most of the movie theaters have been demolished over the years, one, the former Campau Theater, now a clothing store, still stan ds at 9643 Jos. Campau at Edwin Street.

Another entertainment destination on Jos. Campau was bowling. The Playdium Bowling Alley was located on Jos. Campau at the city's South End near Farber Street, and the Northend Recreation was at the other end of Jos. Campau near Carpenter Street (12108 Jos. Campau). For decades the Playdium was the home of the Citizen Bowling Classic (run by the local newspaper, The Citizen), which drew thousands of bowlers each year to take part in the high stakes tournament. 87 Both the Playdium and Northend Recreation were two-story bowling alleys; sadly both were destroyed in fires.

Jos. Campau Street developed into a vibrant commercial street that offered nearly every kind of goods and level of quality avai lable. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Jos. Campau Street was the commercial lifeline of Hamtramck, running directly down its length. During the 1940's, 50's and 60's it was known for its high quality products and first-rate service.88 Retailers like Dave Stober (10012 Jos. Campau ) sold men 's suits of the highest quality, and women 's clothing stores like Day's (at 9450 Jos. Campau) sold the very highest fashions bought from New York City. One unusual aspect of Jos. Campau was a trait brought from Eastern European cities: men's clothing stores were located on the west side of the street and women 's on the east. The building that formerly housed Witkowski Men 's Clothing at 9319 Jos. Campau, a men's clothing store specializing in suits, was located on the west side of Jos. Campau for 57 years. Campau Clothing (9643) was another men's clothing store on the west side of Jos. Campau - still in business at this location since the 1950's. Lucille's (10238), Paris (9410), Cody (96 00) and Day's (9450) were all examples of women 's clothing stores located on the east side of Jos. Campau during the 1940's through the early 1990's in the district. No other Detroit-area shopping district had this arrangement, but it made sense to the Polish immigrants who shopped on Jos. Campau. Lucille's (10238 Jos. Campau) and Day's (9450 Jos. Campau) are two significant examples of retail stores that retain integrity from the period of their construction - likely the 1920's through the ir later renovations in the 1950's.

Another important retail attraction on Jos. Campau was the large stores such as Kresge, Grant's, Lendzon 's and by 1939, the Federal Department Store. These were discount department stores, and they also drew large numbers of shoppers. Kresge (9542 Jos. Campau) was a Detroit-based national retailer that began as a 5 and 10 cent store at the turn-of-th ecentury. It evolved into selling a wide range of items at discount volume prices. The W. T. Grant Department Store (9520 Jos. Campau) was a national discount retailer, while Lendzon's (10302 Jos. Campau) and the Federal Department Store (97 00 Jos. Campau ) were part of local Detroit-area chains. The Federal Department Store (1939) built on Jos. Campau was one of the local chain 's large stand-alone department stores that was streamline Moderne in style. It was designed by Detroit architect Charles N. Agree. The department stores mentioned here are still standing in the Jos. Campau district, and have been renovated over time, but retain significant amounts of architectural detailing. Between 1940 and 1945 the nine-block stretch on Jos. Campau held the highest dollar volume of sales per frontage foot in Michigan, with the exception of downtown Detroit. 89

Many of the merchants and property owners on Polish commercial streets were Jewish with specializations in tailoring, jewelry, ready-to-wear clothing, dry goods and shoes. The migration of Poles to Hamtramck and Detroit brought with it a complementary migration of Jews, many of them tradesmen and shopkeepers who had also served primarily Christian customers in the Old World. The relationship was based on a familiarity with each other's customs and practices and an understandi ng of rules of a marketplace often quite different from general American practices. Many of the Jewish merchants from the Polish lands were also able to speak Polish and they were often willing to extend credit Initially, Jewish merchants often lived behind or over their stores, so early Polish neighborhoods had small Jewish populations.

87 Kowa lski, Greg, Hamtramck: The World War II Years, Arcadia Publi sh in g, Charleston, SC, 2007, pp. 86. 88 Kowa lski, Greg, Hamtramck: The n and Now, Arcadia Pub li shing, Charleston, SC, 2010, pp. 53. 89 Shine, Neal, " Hamtramck Act s t o Save Stores," The Detroit Free Press, Nove mber 28, 1957.

After one generation, most Jewish families, seeking comradeship, services, and religious institutions offered by larger concentrations of co-religion ists, relocated to the rap id ly developing northwest Detroit suburbs where much of the city's Jewish community was becoming concentrated.90

Nevertheless, for a generation or two in Detroit and Hamtramck, there wa s a presence of Jewish families amidst a much larger Polish Catholic popu lation. One example in Hamtramck was Max Rosenbaum, owner of Max's Jewelry Store at 10000 Jos. Campau at Yem ans Street. Max became legendary for his scrupulous honesty and fair dealings, his personal kindness, and his deep commitment to philanthropy and support for neighborhood and community projects with a particular emphasis on youth sports programs. 91 The building is still standing - and still a jewelry store today. Hamtramck bakeries, grocery stores and butcher shops have been in existence since the founding of the city. On Jos. Campau, Polish trad itions and customs are evident in those stores throughout the year, but especially during holidays such as Easter and Christmas when Polish grocery stores and bakeries offer special foods for the holidays, and draw patrons from surrounding areas. New Palace Bakery (9833 Jos. Campau) and New Martha Washington Bakery (10335 Jos. Campau) are long-standing examples. New Martha Washington Bakery was constructed in 1925, and is faced in porcelain enameled steel tiles. New Palace Bakery is a legendary bakery in Hamtramck that has been in business at the same site for a minim um of eighty years.

Jos. Campau 's main intersections are anchored by banks, some occupied by financial institutions today, though some are re-used for other purposes. At the northeast corner of the intersection of Jos. Campau and Caniff stands one of the most architecturally significant buildings in Hamtramck, originally constructed for the Bank of Hamtramck (1928). The bank is unique in the area because it is clad in yellow Mankato stone, and designed in the Romanesque Revival style. It was part of a W3Ve of Romanesque-inspired bank buildings across the country inspired by the Bowery Savings Bank Building on East 42 nd Street, New York, built 1923 - the building's then new styling and distinctive character made it one of the most influential bank buildings of its time. The Bank of Hamtramck became a landmark in Hamtramck, and an addition was constructed to the east along Caniff Street in the early 1950's.

Diagonally across the street from the Bank of Hamtramck, at the southwest corner of Caniff and Jos. Campau, another bank was constructed, the State Bank of America (1927). Designed in more conservative banking traditions in the Classical Revival style, it used cast concrete fluted columns at a curved corner entrance and relief sculpture of a winged wheel and banner at the parapet. Fluted pilasters along the side walls, and large windows light the building 's interior. Unfortunately, this bank did not function as a financial institution for very long. It most likely failed in the Depression and was used as a bar for the next sixty years. After that time it was renovated to become a Chinese take-out restaurant, as it functions today, with its original exterior intact.

Another distinctive bank building is located at the northwest corner of Jos. Campau and Holbrook Avenues. Constructed for the Merchants & Mechanics Bank in 1927, it, too, was designed in the Classical Revival style, and faced with grey limestone. The building faces Jos. Campau projecting a fat;:ade of a handsome bank entrance with two fluted Ionic columns at each side of the entrance door. Lettering in the frieze states "Excels in Banking Service. " The building rests on a grey granite base, which extends along the Holbrook fat;:ade as well. The Holbrook fat;:ade is also faced in grey limestone but more conservative pilasters, cornice, frieze and attic story details were added to the secondary fat;:ade. An addition was constructed west of the original bank building, over the alley, sometime in the 1950's. In 1964 a drive-through banking area was added to the west.

The building at 9539 Jos. Campau (originally home to Liberty State Bank) was designed by architect Joseph Julius Gwizdowski (1880-1940) who practiced in Detroit beginning in 1914. He was part of a small fraternity of Polish architects practicing in Detroit in the early twentieth century. Joseph Gwizdowski, born to farmers in Galicia, the southern part of Poland then occupied as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was graduated in 1900 from the State Technical Institute in Lemburg, Austro-Hungarian Empire - now Lviv, Ukraine - and worked for the Austrian government supervising the construction of railroad stations. Em igrating to the United States in 1904 and settling in Chicago, where he attended Loyola University, he was initially employed by the architectural firms of Worthman & Steinbach and then W. 8. Hartigan. Grandson Joseph P. Whistler, provided the biographical information about Gwizdowski for the "West Side Dom Polski" National Register of Historic Places nom ination (2006). Gwizdowski moved to Detroit in 1914 and married Stephania Koscinski that same year. His other area comm issions include the West Side Dom Polski (1914), the Hamtramck

90 Radzilowski, Thaddeu s C., Th e Polish Experience in Detroit, St. Mary's College of Ave Maria Univers ity, 2001, pp. 37.

91 Ibid.

United Sta tes Department of the Interior National Park Service I National Reg ister of Historic Places Regi stratio n Form

Name of Property County and State

Mun icipal Hospital (also known as St. Francis Hospital - now Hamtramck City Hall: 1927), St. Cunegu nda Parish School, and Davison Avenue Police Station (demolished). 92

Beginning in 1910, the north end of Jos. Campau, the two blocks north of Caniff Street, was dominated for decades by auto dealers, dealer suppliers, and services such as ca r washes and mechanics. At one point in time, dealers advertised themselves as being located on "Automobile Row. " Dodges dom inated, but Pontiacs and Chevrolets could be purchased on Jos. Campau as well. Even Vau xhall, a British car company and one-time subsidiary of General Motors, could be found on Jos. Campau. Northeastern Motors Sales was located on Jos. Campau and sold Ford models as well. Krajen ke Buick was one of the most venerable dealerships on Jos. Campau. Founder Stan ley F. Krajenke claimed to be the first person to own an automobile in Hamtramck. His dealership grew out of a garage he founded on Jos. Campau in 1913 to be the largest Buick outlet _in the world by the 1950's. He originally sold Hupmobiles but switched to Buicks in 1922. During the second half of the 20th century, the Hamtramck Auto Dealers Association included Edmund Olds, Krajenke Buick, Woody Pontiac, Johnny Motor Sales, and Connell Cadillac (later Chevrolet). 93 Competitors yet associates, they formed a powerful business bloc that gave northern Hamtramck an identity as a destination auto shopping district. The last remaining intact dealership structure is the Garrity Dodge Dealership at 11500 Jos. Campau; although it stands vacant today, it remains as an intact 1947-era dealership building.

Across from the Dodge Main factory, the south end of Jos. Campau contained a cluttered string of businesses that catered to the thousands of workers. They mainly consisted of lunch counters, bars, small hotels and pool halls. These were in some of Hamtramck's earlier wood-frame structures and small one-story brick buildings. The Dodge brothers died in 1920, and the Dodge brand went through a re-structuring. The Dodge Brothers Company merged with the Chrysler Corporation in 1928. The Chrysler brand changed hands several times in the 20 th century, and eventually in 1979 the factory closed.

General Motors Poletown Plant and Hamtramck With Dodge Main empty, a plan for a new auto plant developed through negotiations between the City of Detroit, City of Hamtramck and General Motors. The site for the new plant included the old Dodge Main site plus nearby existing residential areas in Detroit, including properties along Jos. Campau in Hamtramck and a part of Detroit known as "Poletown." The Dodge Main structures were completely demolished, with even the underground footings uprooted to make room for the construction of the new General Motors Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant. The Jos. Campau properties were also all demolished in 1980 for the construction of the General Motors Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant. The new plant opened in 1981 producing the Cadillac brand automobile. Today the plant has been retooled to produce the new Chevrolet Volt - a hybrid electric car.

Jos. Campau was populated with many restaurants and bars, ranging from small-scale lunch counters to substantially large restaurants. Bars ranged from small storefront "shot-and-a beer" type establishments to larger scale bars where bands played nightly. Hamtramck was said to have more bars per capita than any other city in the United States. This stemmed from the Polish heritage of the population where drinking beer at the end of a work day was an acceptable habit. On Jos. Campau, several bars exist within historic structures in the district including Capo Lounge (11625), Baker's Streetcar Bar (9817), and Celina's Sports Bar (11667). Restaurants in the district's historic properties include Campau Tower Hamburgers (10337), Chicken Shack/Hungry Howies (11401 ), Hamtramck Coney Island (97 41 ), and Golden Hill Chop Suey (10345).

One nightclub stood out from the rest as a regionally famous stop. From the 1930s to the early 1950s, the Bowery was a well known nightclub in the Midwest. Many top acts performed there, including Sophie Tucker, the Three Stooges, Danny Thomas and Jimmy Durante. Patrons signaled their approval of performers by tapping wooden "tapper" sticks on the table tops. The Bowery was a major entertainment venue, located at 12050 Jos. Campau across from Botsford Street, until owner Frank Barbaro and his wife, Dorothy, divorced. Barbara's wife received ownership of the club in the divorce, and the club closed. The building burned in 1966 and the site remains a parki ng lot. 94

Also located in the Jos. Campau district is a park kn own as Pope Park. Located at the southwest corner of Jos. Cam pau and Belmont Streets, it occupies a lot just 30' wide x 100' long, and is significant as America's first publ ic park honoring

Christensen, Robert, National Register of Historic Places nomination, West Side Dom Polski, Detroit, Wayne County, Ml, pp. 6. 93 Kowalsk i op. sit. pp. 58. 94 Kowalski, op. sit. pp. 108.

Unite d States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Reg ister of Histo ric Places Registration Form

Name of Property County and State

Pope John Paul II. The park had been the site of a reta il building that was demolished after a fire. The park, officially called "A Tribute to Pope John Paul II," was dedicated on October 26, 1982. The park features an 18-foot tall marble base that supports a pedestal holding a bronze ten-foot high statue of the pope. Sculptor of the Pope John Paul II statue, Ferenc Varga (1906-1989), was born in Szekesfehervar in Hungary. He earned a degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest. Varga lived in several different countries but finally maintained studios in Detroit and in Delray Beach, Florida. A number of his works are on public display in the greater Detroit area, including a bust of Mikolaj Kopernik at the Main Detroit Public Library, a statue of Polish-born American Revolutionary War hero General Casimir Pulaski on Washington Boulevard in downtown Detroit and a statue of Enrico Caruso at the Detroit Opera House.

Pope Park, as it is known by Hamtramck residents, is also decorated with a mural of a Polish Festival in Krakow executed by Hamtramck-based artist Dennis Orlowski. The park is surrounded on two sides by a black wrought iron fence that was salvaged from Dodge Main, one of the only remaining items from the automotive plant to still stand in Hamtramck today.

Jos. Campau was the site of endless parades and special events throughout the history of the city - celebrating everything from Memorial Day, Labor Day and "Dodge Days" to the Polish celebration of Paczki Day. A huge festival celebration was held on Jos. Campau for the city's 50 th anniversary in 1972. Presidents Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have been driven down Jos. Campau. On September 17, 1987, Pope John Paul II returned to Hamtramck for an official papal visit. A huge stage was erected adjacent to Jos. Campau in the Hamtramck Town Center parking lot. The pope drove south on Jos. Campau in the confines of his bullet-proof "Popemobile" and then addressed the crowds from the stage. Robert Kennedy drove down Jos. Campau shaking hands and campaigning while running for president in 1968. Abbott & Costello rode a fire truck down Jos. Campau during an August, 1942 bond rally at Veterans Memorial Park. Roy Rodgers and his horse Trigger led the "Dodge Days" parade on Jos. Campau in 1954. It has been home to civil rights parades, as the NAACP (the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) marched down Jos. Campau in the 1960's. To this day, there is a Labor Day parade held every year to kick off the annual Labor Day Festival. Jos. Campau Avenue may have its origins in Detroit, but it is most well-known in metro Detroit for its place in Hamtramck.

Jos. Campau Street is a unique example of the development of early 20 th century commercial architecture in southeastern Michigan. Because Jos. Campau is entirely adjacent to a dense neighborhood of single-family homes having a strong, cultural community focus, the Jos. Campau district is still in viable use today and retains an atmosphere of a small town main street. Many brick commercial buildings of this period still exist along major streets in Detroit such as Grand River, Gratiot and Michigan, but these roads are four to six lanes wide and only have isolated sections of commercial activity. West Vernor Avenue 's historic district in southwest Detroit around the intersection with Junction is a comparable example of a commercial corridor that is similar in scale to Jos. Campau that retains its scale and integrity. However, there are no other business districts in the metropolitan Detroit area that compare to Jos. Campau and in configuration, integrity and commercial activity. Jos. Campau 's continuous streetwall of significant early 20 th century commercial structures from Holbrook to Caniff is an intriguing study of the development of early commercial architecture and the changes effected by th e styles and habits of the 20 th century.

Developmental history/additional historic context information (if appropriate )

Narrative Description (Describe the historic and current physical appearance of the property. Explain contributing and noncontributing resources if necessary. Begin with a summary paragraph that briefly describes the general characteristics of the property, such as its location, setting, size, and significant features.)

Summary Paragraph

The Jos. Campau Street Historic District encompasses a portion of the city's historic downtown located along a thirteenblock long section of Jos. Campau together with the first block of Caniff Street to both the east and west sides. It contains one hundred th irty buildings dating from 1915 to the early 1960s that range from one to four stories in height, with one and two-story buildings predominating, and from Commercial Brick and Art Deco to Mid-Century Modern in design.

Narrative Description

Jos. Campau Street runs in a north-south direction through Hamtramck, cutting the city in half as it continues into Detroit on both the north and the south ends of the city. The Jos. Campau District is bounded by Lehman Street on the east side of Jos. Campau Street, at its southern end; on its south side Lehman Street is bounded by a fast food restaurant. On the west side of Jos. Campau, the district begins at Holbrook Street, north of a large shopping plaza developed in the late 1980s. The district continues uninterrupted on the west side to its northern boundary at Pulaski Street, where there is a large vacant parcel on the north side of Pulaski Street. The northern boundary on the east side of the district is the vacant lot north of 11410 Jos. Campau (Custom Cleaners) which is located about half-way between Caniff and Casmere Streets. Also included in the district are three properties on Caniff Street - one on Caniff west of Jos. Campau at 2733 Caniff (A/- Isiah Jame Masid Mosque) and two on Caniff east of Jos. Campau at 2933 Caniff (Hamtramck Post Office) and 3005 Caniff (former Bank of Hamtramck). East of the former Bank of Hamtramck building is a large municipal surface parking lot.

The Jos. Campau Street Historic District runs through a dense area of housing, developed at the same time as the commercial historic district. The housing consists of one, two and three-family homes, situated on thirty by one-hundred foot lots, in blocks set perpendicular to Jos. Campau. An alley runs behind the commercial district, the only division separating the commercial from the residential areas. Occasionally in the middle of the residential blocks stand churches, schools and sometimes small-scale factories. On the west side of Jos. Campau, between Florian and Poland Streets, and between Edwin and Yemans Streets, set behind the alleys of the commercial properties in the district, are small parking lots set perpendicular to the side streets. These small metered lots only can accommodate about six cars each. The one exception in the Jos. Campau district is the parking area behind the former Federal Department Store at 9700 Jos. Campau. Set to the east behind the block-long store is a surface parking lot, entered from either Yemans or Evaline Streets, and a low brick wall and shrubbery is at each street side of the lot. At the east end of the parking lot is a res idential home.

The topography of Hamtramck is sim ilar to that of the city of Detroit, in that it is mainly flat. There is one important fact to note about the street plan of Jos. Campau in Hamtramck, and that is the different width of the street south of Caniff and north of Caniff. South of Caniff Street, Jos. Campau is four lanes wide: two parking lanes and two driving lanes. There is no cente r turn lane. North of Caniff Jos. Campau widens to six lanes. There is a center turn lane, and a right turn lane for south-bound traffic turning onto west-bound Caniff Street. That is in addition to the lane of parking on each side of the street, and a lane of traffic on each side as well.

In 2000planning began for the renovation of the streetscape on Jos. Campau. A $2.5 million project encompassed renovation of nine blocks between Can iff and Holbrook, including the parking lot east of the former Federal store. The project comp letely re-paved the street and installed new aggregate sidewa lks, landscaped planters, and pedestrian-scaled lights. Street trees and trash cans were part of the project as well. The project start was delayed, and it was finally completed in July of 2004. North of Caniff, the older style of streetscape exists, and the older sidewalks are wider, and cracked and broken. No trash cans, street trees, or other street furniture exists north of Caniff. Sometime in the early 1980s Mayor Kozaren installed eight flag poles along Jos. Campau north of Caniff, south of Casmere Street. When the flagpoles were installed, international flags were flown, but since that time no flags have flown for at least twenty years.

The buildings in the Jos. Campau historic district date mainly from 1915-1925. They were constructed mostly as one and two-story buildings, set directly to the sidewalk, and filling the property line to the alley. Most of the historic buildings are a standard size of 30' x 100' although some businesses purchased two lots to construct a bigger build ing, and others constructed a larger complex as a retail block. There are other exceptions, a larger building such as the four-and-a halfstory former furniture building at 10201 Jos. Campau, which is a landmark in the middle of the district. The buildings in the Jos. Campau district form a continuous street wall with very few demolished properties or vacant lots. An alley runs northsouth along the rea r property line of all of the build ings. The Jos. Campau district is occupied with various types of businesses ranging from record sto res to clothing shops to ethnic grocery stores and specialty shops.

The district's oldest buildings date from circa 1915, are of brick construction, and are found in scattered locations along Jos. Campau throughout the entire district. The former Liberty State Bank Building at 9539 Jos. Campau is one of the build ings of 1915 where an exact date and architect are known. It is a two-story Commercial Brick building that retains some of the most elaborate architectural detailing on Jos. Campau including a cartouche topped by an eagle at the roofline. Another building, dated 1918, is the former Tyszka Savings Bank Building at 11401 Jos. Campau. It is a onestory yellow Commercial Brick bu ilding that also retains a crest in the center of the parapet that contains the initials BF. These early commercial properties are now part of the continuous streetwall of Jos. Campau.

Later Commercial Brick buildings include such long commercial structu res as the Sosensky Block at 11647-11667 Jos. Campau. This red brick two-story structure houses several commercial storefronts on the first floor and rental apartments above. Other blocks include the T. T. Dysarz Building at the southeast corner of Jos. Campau and Caniff (10316 Jos. Campau). This prominent corner property was developed to have a major retailer set to occupy the corner space, and other retailers in the storefronts on both streets. The upper floors in the property were originally used as office space. Just south of the T. T. Dysarz Building was another block-long property which occupies a corner at Trowbridge Street (10300 Jos. Campau). It is constructed of light yellow brick with cast stone details. Apartments occupy the second story. This property did not have a name, but the letters "MA" appear in crests at the top of the building in several places.

Anchoring the southern blocks of the district are several banks. At Holbrook and Jos. Campau (9252) is the former People's State Bank, a 1922 two-and -a-half-story structure renovated in the 1960s with a cast concrete, granite, and glass fac;ade that reflected the new image of bank architecture of the mid-century era. Directly across the street at the northwest corner of Holbrook and Jos. Campau (9301) is the former Merchants & Mechanics Bank (1927) which retains its original granite and limestone Classical Revival exterior. Two fluted Ionic columns stand at each side of the entrance doors of the bank. The fac;ade contains the cornice, frieze and attic story of a classical building. At the intersection of Jos. Campau and Caniff are two more banks. The former State Bank of America (1 927) was constructed more cheaply than the Merchants & Mechanics Bank and had a grey painted concrete exterior that included fluted Ionic columns flanking the corner-facing entrance. Some of the building's classical details have been obscured over time and the bank now serves as a Chinese takeout restaurant today. The last and most elaborate bank at 11300 Jos. Campau (northeast corner of Caniff) is the former Bank of Hamtramck (1928), a two-story building faced with yellow-buff Mankato stone. The entrance on Jos. Campau is marked by a deeply arched portal with recessed rope molded columns. Relief carvings of griffins, buffalo and dragons surround the arch over the door. A two-sided stainless-steel clock from the mid-century era was added to the corner of the bank, and addresses the intersection of Jos. Campau and Caniff.

Other significant buildings include the Art Moderne Federal Department Store (1939), the largest building on Jos. Campa u, a two-story steel frame, brick building faced with light blue and green porcelain enamelled steel tiles. The building has very few windows, with the exception of display windows, and takes up almost the entire block. Unfortunately it has been vacant since 2007. One of the most distinctive bu ildings in the district is the Al-Isiah Jame Masid Mosque at 2733 Caniff ( 1936). It is Art Deco in style, and faced with the same yellow-buff Minnesota Mankato stone that is on the former Bank of Hamtramck build ing. The two-story rectangular building is unusual in that the entrance is set back from the street, and raised by three stairs up to a short porch. An Art Deco zigzag detail is at the transom of the doorway. A yellow brick curved two-story addition is to the east of the original structure. The Hamtramck Post Office at 2933 Caniff (1 935) is another building with Art Deco design influences, although its brick piers and narrow windows and copper canopied entrance also fit within a simplified Classical Revival idiom. Also significant to the Hamtramck Post Office are the three murals in the lobby by Schomer Lichtner (1905-2006) installed in 1940.

One of the distinctive features of the Jos. Campau district is a pocket park created in 1982. It is known as Pope Park, and was created at the site of a former business at the corner of Jos. Campau and Belmont Streets. The park is just 30' wide x 100' deep. A ten-foot bronze statue of Pope John Paul II designed by scu lptor Ferenc Varga (1906-1989) stands on a pedestal designed by Detroit area artist Bruno Nowicki (1908-2008). A large mural in the park was executed by

Un ited States Department of the Interior Natio nal Park Service/ National Register of Historic Places Reg istration Form

Name of Property County and State

Hamtramck artist Dennis Orlowski (b.1944 ). A black wrought iron fence surrounds the park on two sides, and various planters, composite benches and two chess-board tables sit in the park.