Cass Park Historic District

The Cass Park Historic District is a collection of buildings representative of the development of the area from an exclusive residential neighborhood in the late 1800s to an important cultural and commercial district during the 1920s. The district is significant because of the wide array of architectural styles and the different uses of its buildings. Located within the district are important examples of residential architecture from the late 1800s including the John H. Avery House at 457 Ledyard and the Alhambra Flats at 100-112 Temple. Later residential structures dating from the early 1900s are represented by the Ansonia Flats at 2909-23 Second and the group of three apartment buildings, The Cromwell, The Altadena and The Manhattan, at 2942 Second, 2952-2958 Second, and 2966-72 Second. This collection of buildings, together with the adjacent Vernon Murphy at 487 Charlotte and the Boulevard Hotel at 2931-2933 Second, exemplifies the density of residential structures that once existed throughout the South Cass Corridor. The district also contains buildings significant to the history of Detroit's business community including the corporate headquarters buildings for the Standard Accident Insurance Company and the Kresge Company. The district is also an important site for the location of headquarters for fraternal organizations represented by the Masonic Temple at 500 Temple and the Fort Wayne Hotel at 400-426 Temple. Many of the buildings in the district are individually significant examples of their architectural style. The Masonic Temple, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, is an outstanding example of Neo-Gothic architecture and one of the most important structures relating to Masonry in the world. The massive complex is also an engineering masterpiece, designed by the well-known Detroit architectural firm, George Mason and Company. The Alhambra Flats is a notable example of Romanesque architecture and is one of the oldest apartment buildings existing in the city of Detroit. The John H. Avery House is one of the last remaining Italianate mansions of the period located west of Woodward Avenue. The Cromwell, Altadena and Manhattan apartments are a unique grouping of buildings of similar Jacobethan design. The Alden Apartments at 145 Temple is a splendid example of the Renaissance Revival style incorporated into a smaller apartment building. The Michigan Chronicle building at 479 Ledyard is an excellent example of the Moderne style and represents later commercial development in the district during the 1930s. The district contains three buildings designed by Albert Kahn, internationally known Detroit architect, that exemplify the broad range of Kahn's commercial/office building work in his home town. The building at 2949 Cass Avenue is an example of a typical two-story commercial building designed by Kahn. The Kresge Building, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, is a beautiful monumental corporate office building from Kahn's late commercial period and an outstanding example of the Art Deco design which he incorporated into many of his buildings at this time. Just north of the Kresge Building lies the Standard Accident Insurance Building, another corporate headquarters building designed in the Classical Revival style. An observer standing in Cass Park directly in front of the Kresge Building can gaze northward up Second Avenue toward the New Center area and see one of Kahn's greatest commissions, the Fisher Building, which lies directly in the path of Second Avenue. Cass Park is the last of a group of small city parks that were formed in the city of Detroit in the mid-1800s. The park is an important connection to Detroit's early planning history with ties to Lewis Cass, one of Detroit and Michigan's most notable public figures.

The Cass Park Historic District consists of a collection of twenty-five buildings constructed around and in the vicinity of a small historic city park between the early 1860s and the late 1920s. The park, a little less than five acres in size, is the last of a group of small city parks that were formed in Detroit in the mid-1800s. The park is square in shape with its perimeters defined by Temple Avenue on the north, Ledyard Street on the south and Second Avenue on the west and east. The buildings along these streets frame the park giving it a sense of enclosure. The buildings in the district that surround the park consist of twelve apartment buildings, one single family residence, five commercial buildings, one church, two hotels, two corporate headquarters buildings and one fraternal building. About one half of the buildings sit directly facing the park, while the remainder are located on streets adjacent to it. Most of the buildings front onto the street with little or no setback. The buildings vary in size, ranging from two-story commercial buildings to the fourteen-story, twelve million cubic foot Masonic Temple. The Cass Park Historic District is located just north of Detroit's downtown business district in an area known as the South Cass Corridor. The district is cut off from downtown by the east/west passage of the I-75 freeway to the south. It lies only two blocks west of Woodward Avenue, Detroit's primary thoroughfare. Woodward Avenue, a Michigan Heritage Route and recently designated National Scenic Byway, cuts through the center of the city from north to south, dividing it into the East and West sides. The district is intersected by Cass and Second Avenues, secondary north/south transportation routes. Second Avenue loops around Cass Park before it continues northward toward Wayne State University and the New Center Area in midtown Detroit.