El Tovar Apartments

The El Tovar Apartments is among the best examples of the Spanish Moorish/Art Deco style apartment buildings in Detroit. It represents the change in development patterns along major thoroughfares from low density to higher density that took place in the decade before the Great Depression. Grand Boulevard was established by the Michigan State legislature in 1879 as a result of a city planning effort to create a boulevard similar to Baron Haussman's boulevards of Paris and the Ringstrasse in Vienna. By 1913, Grand Blvd. encircled the center of the city, and was generally recognized as the city's chief adornment. At that time, Grand Blvd. was locally described as the longest continuous boulevard in the world, and was thought to be more gracious than the boulevards of Paris and Berlin. In the 1910's and 20's in Detroit, the replacement of single or double housing units with large apartment buildings was a common occurrence. The boom town atmosphere in Detroit was largely the result of the burgeoning automobile industry, and there was a considerable demand amongst the middle and upper classes for apartment units in desirable neighborhoods.

The El Tovar apartment building is located on the east side of East Grand Blvd. in the fourth block north of E. Jefferson Ave. and approximately three miles east of downtown Detroit. It is the largest apartment building on East Grand Blvd., Detroit's wide boulevard that rings the central city culminating at Belle Isle. This richly decorated orange brick four and one-half story apartment building originally contained 68 units. It is an excellent example of the Moorish Spanish style of apartment building architecture so popular in the late 1920's when Art Deco and its exotic substyles were in vogue. The exterior of the El Tovar is in its original condition. Its orange-yellow face brick, limestone trim, deep orange terra cotta accents and Spanish tile roof have been remarkably preserved. U-shaped in plan, the entrance is reached by a sidewalk flanked by brick piers supporting figures of lions. The building is entered through a recessed central pavilion with a round-arched opening and recessed brick archivolts. Above this opening is a scroll that bears the name 'EL TOVAR' set in a field of narrow parallel sticks of tile resembling a large stylized keystone.