Jeffferson-Chalmers Historic Business District

The Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District is one of only a small number of early twentieth-century neighborhood commercial districts in Detroit that have survived mostly intact. Developed largely in the 1910s and 1920s as the Detroit east side neighborhood around it grew up to house factory workers and others brought to the area by the proliferation of auto and other industrial plants nearby, the district became the center of the area's commercial, religious, social, and cultural life by the 1920s. The district's building stock contains a notable concentration of commercial, apartment and church buildings dating from the later 1910s to the 1930s, including architecturally distinguished and representative examples.

East Jefferson Avenue had its origins as an early Indian trail that ran along the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair. During the early days of Detroit in the 1700s as the French outpost, Fort Ponchartrain du Detroit, the main street of the fort was Ste. Anne Street, which ran down what is now the center of Jefferson Avenue. During this time, the King of France began granting long tracts of land along the river for use as farms to the new French settlers. These tracts continued to be granted during the 1700s and became known as the "French ribbon farms." A farm consisted of a narrow strip of land with river frontage of three hundred to nine hundred feet that provided the owner with water rights and then stretched back from the river one to three miles. An extension of Ste. Anne Street, which later became known as the River Road, connected with the former Indian trail that ran through the ribbon farms, following the course of the river.

The land surrounding the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District was originally a great marsh called Le Grand Marais by the French. The marsh extended over a vast tract of land lying between Connor Creek and the area around Cadieux Road in what is now Grosse Pointe. The marsh included a large point or grosse pointe of land which extended into Lake St. Clair, which later became known as Windmill Point. The Grande Marais was low flat, marshy country covered with "a luxurious growth of wild grass." Fox Creek flowed through the Grande Marais, but its point of origin was the Black Marsh, a vast area of land stretching from what is now St. Clair Shores and covering almost all of Grosse Pointe Woods and Harper Woods. The Native-Americans and the French took their canoes up the Milk River, or Riviere au Lait, located in what is now the southern

part of St. Clair Shores, through the Black Marsh and down the Fox Creek. It is assumed that the River Road followed the old Indian trail where it skirted around the Grand Marais. Presque Isle, "almost an island," was the name the French gave to a sandy beach area that lay at the edge of the Grand Marais, adjacent to Fox Creek near the spot where the Detroit River opens.onto Lake St. Clair. It was here in 1712 that the tribe of the Fox Indians was nearly obliterated. The Fox Indians, in company with a number of other tribes, attacked Fort Ponchartrain in an attempt to drive out the French. The attack was unsuccessful and the Fox withdrew to the banks of Lake St. Clair where they set up camp and temporary fortifications at Presque Isle. Pursued by the French and their Indian allies, the Fox were surrounded. Unwilling to surrender, the Fox tried to escape but were massacred in the attempt. French reports list the number of Indians slain at one thousand, with captive women and children driven back to the fort along the River Road. For many years afterwards, even during the early part of the 20th century, occupants in the area reported digging up bones and artifacts. Fox Creek allegedly received its name after the vanquished Fox tribe.

The Grand Marais was very sparsely settled during the 1750s, when Jean Baptiste LeDuc established his homestead on Presque Isle and erected a stone windmill on the point. The scattered French farmers and Indians living in the vicinity brought their grains to be ground here. Years later the ruins of the windmill became a local landmark and the site became known as Windmill Point. Another French homestead was established in the 1750s by the brothers, Thomas and Joseph Louis Tremble (Trombley, Tremblay) at the opposite end of the marsh, one mile inland at the Riviere du Grand Marais (later Tremble Creek, then Connor Creek). There they built a water-powered saw and gristmill.

The desolate nature and mystery of the Grand Marais led to the formation of numerous legends and superstitions. Stories abounded about Le Lutin (the goblin horseman) and Le Loup Garou (werewolf) who roamed at night looking for victims. Another popular legend centered around the windmill where mysterious lights were often seen at night. Silas Farmer in Grosse Pointe on Lake Sainte Claire concluded that the many stories relating to the Grand Marais were the result of"the miasmatic exhalations of the swampy ground which produced, on hot summer nights, a frequent occurrence of the phenomenon known as the "will-of-the-wisp" or ''feu joliet. "

Only a handful of French settlers occupied the area during the 1700s due to the unfavorable conditions of the marshland for farming. But the Grand Marais was rich in natural resources and a popular area for hunting and fishing. Windmill Point was a

favorite crossing for many Indians as they traveled back and forth from Canada. During the 1760s, the great Ottawa chief Pontiac and his band camped in the area and spent the summer of 1763 on Peche Island, just across from Presque Isle.

In January of 1805, the Territory of Michigan was created and Detroit was chosen as the new territory's capitol. Two months later, President Jefferson appointed General William Hull" of Massachusetts as the new governor of Michigan. Accompanying him to Detroit was Augustus Woodward of Virginia, one of the three territorial judges. However, Detroit was destroyed completely by fire in June of the same year. In 1806, Woodward recommended that Detroit be rebuilt according to a new plan that provided for wider streets. In 1807, Ste. Anne Street was widened and renamed Jefferson Avenue in honor of the third president of the United States. The street connected with the old River Road, which ran eastward close to the shore of the river. Near Connor Creek, the road turned inland, due to the low-lying swampy land of the Grand Marais.

In 1808, the U.S. government fixed the boundaries of the original land claims or "ribbon farms" awarded years earlier by the King of France. These claims came to be known as the "private claims." The portions of the marsh that were divided into private claims that now include the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic,Business District were: P.C. 120 granted to Jean Baptiste Aloire dit Lapierre (an Indian trader); P.C. 219 granted to Pierre Griffard; and P.C. 321 granted to Louis Griffard, Jr.

It was during these early settlement years that the shoreline along the river and the Grand Marais began to draw visitors to the area for recreational purposes. One of their destinations was the Cabaret du Grand Marais or Big Swamp Tavern, located in the vicinity of Connor Creek. During the winter the French would ride their carioles across the ice for food, libations and dance.

In 1818, Governor Cass established the Township of Hamtramck with boundaries that included the area now surrounding the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District. In 1848, the Township of Grosse Pointe was formed, reducing the size of Hamtramck Township. It was named for the point of land projecting into the water at the foot of Lake St. Clair. The township was bounded on the north by Macomb County; on the east and south by Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River; and on the west by various section lines and a portion of Connor Creek. As farms spread throughout the township, farmers gradually drained most of the Black Marsh with ditches, clearing the land for farming. The map of Grosse Pointe Township in the 1876 Wayne County atlas indicated that the River Road

(or Grosse Pointe Road) was then called Jefferson Avenue. The land to the north of the proposed historic district was farmland with a large section belonging to the Campau family. The area to the south of East Jefferson Avenue was still the marshland of the Grande Marais, but was divided into lots with the Campau family owning the western section and C. and W. Moran owning the eastern lot that contained Fox Creek. Farmland on both sides of East Jefferson Avenue at what is now Alter Road was owned by J.J. Alter.

Travel on the River Road in the vicinity of the Grand Marais was particularly difficult with many horses floundering in the mud. In 1851, a nine-mile plank road was built between Detroit and Grosse Pointe Township with bridges over Connor Creek and Fox Creek. The bridge over Fox Creek was known as the "Pont des Renarc&' or Bridge of the Foxes. This toll road was privately owned through charters issued by the state and became the center of a major controversy in later years. Many of the toll road owners were quick to charge tolls but made minimum repairs. As years went by, the planks deteriorated. Many of the owners had the planks replaced with gravel, but the roads were often still in poor condition as a result of poor maintenance by the owners. Some of the early Grosse Pointe summer residents took yachts to their offices in Detroit rather than travel on the road through the Grande Marais. Improvements were needed due to the increase of traffic along the Grosse Pointe Road. In 1872, George Hendrie, the plank road charter-holder, rebuilt the Connor Creek bridge and tollgate.

East Jefferson Avenue became known for the many roadhouses that were established for travelers along the route from Detroit to Grosse Pointe. These wayside taverns were originally formed as a stopping point for farmers traveling between their farm and market. Roadhouses were generally found every five miles along main highways for the convenience of farmers seeking food, drink and occasionally lodging for the night. As the city expanded with improved roads and the addition of streetcar lines, the patronage of the roadhouses changed from a rural clientele to city residents, many of whom were traveling to resorts or to their summer residences. The character of many roadhouses changed from tavern to inn, with dining and lodging accommodations suitable for wives and children. East Jefferson Avenue was particularly known for a number of resort-oriented roadhouses and inns. The Old Homestead, Scanlon's, Snug Harbor, and the Rusch house were among the many popular roadhouses found along East Jefferson Avenue. The earliest known roadhouse in the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District, as indicated in the 1876 Wayne County atlas, was a saloon located on the south side of East Jefferson Avenue near Fox Creek. According to the 1893 Wayne County Atlas, the Six Mile House was located

on East Jefferson at Lakeview. The Burrell Hotel.was listed on the same site during the 1910s and the Honeysuckle Inn during the 1920s. One of the most popular roadhouses was the Fox Creek House, established by John Garska sometime around 1890 and located on the north side of East Jefferson Avenue at Alter Road. The Fox Creek House was in business until 1918 when prohibition forced the roadhouse to close. (The Garska Family then donated the land behind their establishment to St. Ambrose Parish.)

The tracts of land located in the Grand Marais developed at a slower pace than other areas in Detroit due to poor transportation routes and the marshy nature of the land. In 1874, William B. Moran, a prominent Detroit attorney who owned a tract of land in the area, began surveying the Grand Marais. He concluded that the marsh could be reclaimed and began building earthen dikes. Thus began the draining of the Grand Marais. Neighboring property owners such as the Campau family soon followed draining the land. It is believed that primary drainage ditches were dug by oxen-driven plows, then windmills and pumps moved the marshwater through pipes set in lateral ditches and eventually into the Detroit River. In 1880, the Wayne County Drain Commission authorized and provided the funding for the drainage of the area surrounding Fox Creek and the conversion of the creek to a canal. Silas Farmer, in his recollection in Grosse Pointe on Lake Sainte Claire, 1886, described driving down East Jefferson Avenue to Grosse Pointe (page 18): On the left, as we cross the bridge (over Conner Creek), is the stock farm of George Hendrie, chief owner of the Detroit City Street Railway Co. Beyond, on both sides of the road, the Campau estate owns a large tract. These lands are now being drained by ditches from which the water is pumped by wind-mills; but only a few years ago the road we are now passing over was "navigable for small craft" during several months in the spring.

Friend Palmer wrote in Early Days in Detroit (page 656), "The Grand Marais, what a garden it has become! A few years yet, and it will be hard to realize that the present broad fields of com and waving grain were in the early days, one vast swamp or quagmire, the home of the muskrat and all kinds of horrid snakes." Silas Farmer also describes crossing Fox Creek and seeing an avenue lined with shade trees, planted by W.B. Moran. This avenue, now Alter Road, was known as Edgewood Road and stretched across his property to Edgewood Park, a summer resort for picnic parties at Windmill Point.

In 1887, the East Detroit and Grosse Pointe Railway was formed and provided streetcar service to Grosse Pointe Township. This line ran up East Jefferson Avenue, then turned north at Cadillac Avenue near Water Works Park, then east on Mack Avenue to loop

around the marsh, jogged back to East Jefferson Avenue at St. Clare Avenue in the present day Grosse Poipte, then ran up the shoreline to Fisher Road. In 1881, railway magnate George Hendrie, who later owned extensive property along East Jefferson Avenue in the area of the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District and further north in the present day Grosse Pointe, purchased the old Hamtramck Railway Company which ran lines through nearby Hamtramck Township. This company developed into the Jefferson Avenue.Line in 1891 and became the Detroit Suburban Railway in 1892 that took over the operation of the East Detroit and Grosse Pointe Railway later that same year. The streetcar line on East Jefferson Avenue then extended from downtown Detroit to Fisher Road in Grosse Pointe. Hendrie now had a monopoly on transportation along East Jefferson Avenue, owning both the railway line and the toll road. At various times Hendrie had tollgates at Conner Creek and near the present-day Vanity Ballroom.

In 1892, Mayor Hazen Pingree started a campaign to eliminate the tollgates that stood on many of the city's major thoroughfares. Many of the toll road owners had ignored charter provisions requiring repair and maintenance of the roads but still continued to charge excessive tolls. Even after the city had repaired and paved the streets within the city limits, toll road owners would set up gates for incoming traffic. Pingree made several attempts to purchase the charters, but the toll road owners demanded exorbitant payments. The mayor then incited the citizens of Detroit to boycott the toll gates. Mayor Pingree aimed the bulk of his attack at Hendrie, the toughest and most obstinate of the toll road owners, who had obtained a court injunction that temporarily stopped the city from paving East Jefferson Avenue. After numerous court battles and with the overwhelming support of Detroit citizens, Pingree won against the toll companies. By 1896, the majority of toll companies had been eliminated from the city.

The draining of the Grande Marais and the improvement of transportation to the area finally led to the development of subdivisions. The first subdivisions to be platted were located between Jefferson and Kercheval, and between Lenox and Alter. Rusch's Subdivision was the first to be developed in the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District. It was developed in 1891 by Otto Rusch, Manager of Germania Life Insurance and the owner of the popular Rusch's roadhouse, located at Connor Creek. Others platted were the Lakeview Subdivision, Aberle's Subdivision, Skinner & Moore's Subdivision and the Pointeview Subdivision. As a result, the following north/south streets appeared in the 1893 Wayne County atlas in the following order from west to east: Lenox, Drexel, Coplin, Lakeview, Rusch (now Eastlawn), Newport, Oneida (now Lakewood),

Utica (now Chalmers), Hitchings (now Marlborough), and Philip Avenues. A small park on East Jefferson Aven_ue, called Presque Isle Park, lay between Newport and Oneida. Marshland Road (now Lakewood) was the only new road that appeared running south to the river from East Jefferson Avenue.

The area of land south of the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District, between East Jefferson Avenue.and the Detroit River, developed into a popular destination for the sports-minded enthusiast. In addition to being an ideal locality for fishing and boating, the area became the site of several well-known sporting venues including the Peoria Gun Club. The gun club, located along Marshland Road, arranged for members to be transported from downtown by boat.

In 1893, construction began on another sporting venue, the Grosse Pointe Race Track, located off East Jefferson Avenue, just a few blocks to the west of the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District. Built as a horse-racing track, it was operated by the Detroit Driving Club, whose secretary was Daniel Campau, Jr., a grandson and heir of Joseph Campau. Daniel Campau, Jr. was a successful businessman, especially in real estate, and a powerful figure in the Michigan Democratic Party. Campau soon became president of the Detroit Driving Club and spearheaded a campaign to move the track from its location in Hamtramck Township off East Jefferson Avenue near Water Works Park to land he owned in Grosse Pointe Township between Conner and Alter Roads. It was here that the new oval mile-long race track with a major grandstand and stables was built on a ninety-acre tract of land. The track was considered one of the finest in the country, located in a beautiful location with accessibility to the river. The Detroit Driving Club became a landmark site in automotive history in the early 1900s when the track was used for automobile racing. It was here that a relatively unknown Henry Ford raced an auto of his own design against the nationally famous racer from Cleveland, Alexander Winton. Ford beat Winton in an upset victory, and the following year, Barney Oldfield beat Winton in the Ford designed "999," averaging almost sixty miles per hour. These two events were successful in attracting the investors that Ford needed to finance the Ford Motor Company, which was organized one year later. Motor racing ended at the track in 1905 and it was razed soon after for a residential subdivision.

The Detroit Jockey Club operated another race course that was located just south of the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District. The 1894 Wayne County atlas indicates that the club was situated between Marshland Road (now Lakewood) and Alter Road on

land belonging to George Hendrie and W.B. Moran. There is little information regarding this second course loca.ted in such close proximity to the Detroit Driving Club.

In 1903, the Village of Fairview was incorporated from a portion of Grosse Pointe Township. The boundaries of the new village extended from the Detroit city limits near Waterworks Park to Cadieux Road, and from the river to a line 500 feet south of Mack Avenue. Vast improvements were expected in public services, road paving and residential and industrial development. Daniel Campau, Jr. and the Detroit Driving Club were instrumental in supporting the incorporation of the village, intent upon securing control of the village's entire operations. Immediately, opposing factions were arguing at town meetings regarding the paving of East Jefferson Avenue. In 1906, the road was finally repaved with brick and new bridges were built at Connor Creek and Fox Creek.

The Village of Fairview was short-lived, however, due to fear of an epidemic of typhoid fever that arose in 1904 as a result of the dumping of sewage into Connor Creek. The City of Detroit Health Department expressed concerns that this sewage would flow into Detroit's drinking water supply intake, which lay about three-quarters of a mile below the mouth of the creek. The department recommended to Detroit's Common Council that the best solution was the annexation of Fairview to the City of Detroit and the construction of an intercepting sewer. Although many of the residents ofFairview were opposed to the annexation, an act was passed by the state legislature in 1907 making Fairview a part of the city of Detroit. This annexation caused another village, Grosse Pointe Park, to be formed from that part of Fairview that lay between Fox Creek and Cadieux Road.

Although subdivisions had been platted during the early 1890s in the blocks north of the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District, residential development grew very slowly. By the early 1900s, only a handful of houses had been constructed. The annexation of Fairview to the City of Detroit resulted in the blocks south of the district, which had formerly been the site of the Detroit Jockey Club and the Peoria Gun Club, being eyed for future development. In 1907, the Van Husen Company Subdivision and the Fox Creek Subdivision were platted and by 1910 the Lakewood Park, Jefferson Park, and the Marshland Boulevard subdivisions had been laid out. Realtors enticed prospective residents by advertising the close proximity of the neighborhood to the Detroit River for recreational purposes like fishing and boating. Just after the turn of the century, canals for the access of boats were dug at the foot of Alter Road near the Windmill Point lighthouse. William C. Klenk, a prominent land owner in the area, constructed the Lighthouse Inn, a Colonial Revival building with a two-story portico and an extensive veranda that

overlooked the river. The inn was located just to the west of the lighthouse and was noted for its famous shore dinners, elegant private party rooms, a private launch from Belle Isle, and its large picnic pavilion.

Half a mile to the west of the district lay Connor Creek, a natural stream ranging from ten to fifty feet wide nding at the Detroit River. Around 1900, at the foot of Connor Creek, Joseph H. Berry, a Grosse Pointe native and one of the founders of Berry Brothers, Ltd., a leading varnish manufacturing company in the United States, built a huge facility for the production of marine varnishes. In 1906, Berry bore the preliminary expenses, including the right of way, for the eighteen mile outer-belt railway line known as the Detroit Terminal Railway which ran in a semicircle from Connor Creek on the east to the city of Ecorse on the west. Although Berry died in 1907, the railway sparked the beginning of an industrial area around Connor Creek. Before his death, Berry subdivided the Fox Creek Subdivision, where the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District is located, with his son-in-law, Edwin S. Lodge, and his granddaughter, Evangeline L. Lodge Lindbergh (mother of the aviator, Charles Lindbergh).

The Connor Creek location's amenities attracted other industries to the area, including a number of auto companies established in the early years of Detroit's boom as the "Motor City''. The first of these was the E. R. Thomas-Detroit Company that had taken twenty-two acres of land of the Campau Farm for its buildings. The E. R. Thomas-Detroit Co. produced the car called the "Thomas-Detroit" and was located on East Jefferson Avenue west of Connor Creek at what was then the Grosse Pointe border in 1905. It existed for only two years and then was reorganized as the Chalmers Detroit Company in 1908. It became so successful that in 1910, as the Chalmers Motor Car Company, it grew into a complex of sixteen manufacturing buildings with a total floor space of one million feet on a site of thirty acres. By 1912, Chalmers employed over 4,000 workers.

The district around Connor Creek and East Jefferson Avenue became known as the Connor Creek Industrial Area. The six-story, 250,000 sq. ft. Wadsworth Wooden Body Plant was established on East Jefferson at Connor Creek in 1914. This early automotive supplier produced wooden car chasses for the Ford Model T and operated until it burned in 1919 in the largest building fire in Detroit to that date.

One of the most prominent auto manufacturers was the Hudson Motor Car Company. The company's industrial complex began with a 172,000 sq. ft. plant designed by Detroit

architect Albert Kahn in 1910. Hudson grew to be the fifth largest automobile manufacturer in the world in 1949. Another major plant was the Continental Engine Company, a major supplier to Hudson, which built its two-story 225,000 sq. ft. plant near Connor Creek north of the Hudson Plant in 1912. Continental produced 25,000 engines annually for the Hudsori Motor Car Company until1949.

Other types of inqustrial plants came to the area, as 1910 marked a year of explosive industrial growth. The Armstrong Woolen Company, the Hupp-James-Halloran Foundry Company, the Anderson Forge and Steel Company, and the Fairview Foundry Company all located south of East Jefferson Avenue near the Detroit River. A reinforced concrete factory for the Metal Products Company was constructed in 1910 north of East Jefferson Avenue near Conner Road.

The Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District now began to grow rapidly as a result of the industrial development around Connor Creek to the west and the residential development of the former marshland to the south. In 1907, when the area was annexed to Detroit, the district had a roadhouse on either end; a saloon previously known as the Six Mile House stood on the north side of East Jefferson Avenue at Lakeview, just one block west of the boundary line of the proposed district. The Fox Creek House was located at the other end at the intersection of Alter Road and East Jefferson Avenue. Between these two roadhouses were a few houses and the real estate offices of the Van Husen Co., Potts and Potts (Hiram and his son, Seward), and a branch office of William. Hillger. All of these early buildings were demolished as the district later developed. By 1913, a number of commercial buildings had been constructed in the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District that included a tailor, hardware store, drug store, physicians, grocers, and dry goods. The Burrell Hotel (Six Mile House) and the Fox Creek House were still in operation as were the real estate offices ofPotts and Potts and William Hillger. New real estate offices included R.C. Larrabee and the Lakeview Real Estate Exchange (all demolished). The W.J. Hiller Building (14350-56 E. Jefferson), one of the oldest buildings in the proposed district, was constructed at this time and designed by Spier, Rohns, and Gehrke. Built in 1912, the building had one storefront with two apartments above. As development increased in the area, an additional storefront was added in 1914. The building was occupied by a pharmacy, grocery and notions store.

The subdivisions on both sides of the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District slowly began to fill with new housing after 1910. The area north of Jefferson saw construction of many two-family clapboard sided homes and small, simple single-family clapboard

homes, cheaply built for worker housing. Houses began to appear south of the district, between Jefferson and ssex. The canal area along Fox Creek attracted residents who wanted boat access to the river. The majority of these residents were of German, Belgian, English and French descent and lived along Alter Road and Ashland Avenue. By 1913, the Lighthouse Inn had become the Detroit Motor Boat Club, a private club for yachtsmen such as William Scripps, Lewis Newberry and Horace Dodge. The Woods Inn, a popular riverfront saloon owned by Dod Woods, was built at the foot of Lakeview (now the Alfred Brush Ford Park) in the mid-1900s.

In 1913, Ford Motor Company chief engineer Edward Gray created the exclusive Grayhaven Island subdivision, just west of the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District, platted for mansions with access to the Detroit River from a canal. The plan was for 175 of the canal-front lots to be built on over one million cubic yards oflandfill. Only a handful of the homes were built, includmg the mansion for boat racing legend Gar Wood, and the mansion of Edward Fisher, one of the automotive industrialist Fisher Brothers.

During the same year, Dr. William D. Maxon, rector of Christ Church in Detroit, anticipating the future growth of the neighborhoods in the area, arranged for the purchase of land at East Jefferson and Manistique. A small frame church was built on Manistique, just north of East Jefferson. The church was named after St. Columba, a Celtic missionary who had founded a monastery in 563 A.D. on the island of Iona off the coast of Scotland. During a previous trip to Scotland, Dr. Maxon was so inspired with the life of the saint that he was determined to establish a mission or parish in his name. Dr. Maxon acted as rector until 1917. In that year the church was admitted to the diocese as a parish and the Rev. Charles Ramsey was named rector. Jefferson Avenue Methodist Church was also established in 1913 in a storefront on East Jefferson and Philip Avenues. In 1914, a brick church was built on the present location, designed by Stokes and Wittingham. The church was expanded during the 1920s with the addition of a large brick Gothic Revival auditorium to the rear of the original building. (The 1914 church was demolished in 1957 and replaced with a contemporary educational building which was connected to the 1924 auditorium.)

By 1915, commercial growth in the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District had exploded in its first prime era of development. Real estate offices included Potts and Potts, William Hillger, I. C. Freud, LeJeune and Rivard and the Ford Heights Land Company: A number of the commercial buildings constructed during this time have survived including the Building at 14410 E. Jefferson, built in 1916 and designed by local architect Ernest C. Thulin who lived nearby on Lakewood Avenue. The building was first occupied by the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company. Thulin also designed the building at 14815 E. Jefferson in 1916 (later altered). A wide diversity of businesses then opened in the district, including shoe stores, barbers, grocers, drug stores, a photographer's studio and restaurant. The two story brick building at 14538 E. Jefferson was built in 1915 and occupied by Knaepple's hardware store. The building at 14127-14149 E. Jefferson was built in two phases between 1915 and 1920. It was designed by Pollmar and Ropes. The first phase of construction for a two story commercial building with two storefronts was built in 1915. An additional four stores were added to the building, matching the design of the original building so well that it is difficult to tell where the two parts meet.

The area surrounding the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District had always attracted visitors for recreational purposes. The many roadhouses along Jefferson Avenue and the location of boating, fishing and dining sites on the Detroit River gave the area a unique character. In 1915, the proposed district began its development as an entertainment destination with the construction of the Lakewood Theater at 14243-14249 E. Jefferson (demolished in 1958). The Lakewood was a large neighborhood theater that seated 1,270 patrons and was located on the northwest corner of East Jefferson and Lakewood.

The district saw the introduction of automobile-related businesses with the establishment of a Central Oil and Gas Station (demolished) and the Hergenroeder and Sons garage (demolished). In 1916, Peter J. Platte constructed a one-story public garage at 14815 E. Jefferson. In 1917, in partnership with Fred Chalmers, Platte started a full-service Ford dealership, the Platte-Chalmers Company. In 1918, Platte began construction of an additional two stories to his building, renamed Peter J. Platte Motor Sales. Platte was president of the Jefferson Improvement Association and was instrumental in promoting the development of the district. Another automotive business in the district was the Simons Sales Company, a dealership for Overland Motors, which located in 1920 in the building at 14200 E. Jefferson.

In 191 7, the pastor and several members of the First English Lutheran Church submitted a request to start a mission in the East Jefferson district. Property was purchased that same year at the corner of East Jefferson and Philip for the purpose of building a portable chapel

to hold services. The chapel was not built due to building restrictions on East Jefferson and the congregation then rented Jefferson Avenue Methodist Church for Sunday afternoon services. Construction on a new church began in 1921, now called Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church. A new auditorium addition and a new parsonage at 389 Chalmers were built in 1926. Upon completion, Faith Evangelical Lutheran had a seating capacity of about 1,200 and was one of the largest Lutheran churches in the city.

In 1918, the Presbytery of Detroit organized Eastminster Presbyterian Church for the residents living in the neighborhoods along East Jefferson. Services were temporarily conducted out of Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian until1920 when the congregation moved to Manistique near Jefferson. A new stone Tudor church, a gift of auto magnate Horace C. Dodge, was built at a cost of about $55,000.

Transportation continued to evolve along East Jefferson Avenue. Motor bus lines were running through the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District by 1920. In addition to the electric trolley street cars, motor busses provided transit to downtown Detroit and to the factories along East Jefferson. Automotive companies on East Jefferson underwrote the operation of independent bus lines when revenue failed to provide enough funds to make private operations profitable. Funding the transportation of workers was a business expense necessary in the 1910s and 20s. In addition to the bus and trolley lines, electric interurban railway lines ran along East Jefferson to the outer farmlands, encouraging suburban development. The East Jefferson interurban railway line developed as a series of individual independent companies. In 1892 the Detroit Street Railway Company electrified its Jefferson Avenue trackage which ran into Grosse Pointe. Various other interurban railway lines developed and pushed the lines out to the cities of St. Clair Shores and Mt. Clemens. In 1923 the interurbans began their routes to the suburbs from just outside of the Detroit city limit at East Jefferson on the east side of Alter Road. The interurban on East Jefferson was replaced by busses in 1928 and the route became part of the Southeast Michigan Transportation Authority bus line which continues today.

During Detroit's boom years in the 1920s, many Arts and Crafts bungalows, brick four squares, and Prairie style homes were built south of East Jefferson Avenue. Some of the homes in the subdivisions were designed to the specifications of the purchaser. They were homes for automobile company managers, professionals and small business owners. The established middle class in Detroit desired to move out from the congested inner city, and

also to get away from the large groups of new immigrants who were coming to Detroit. Windmill Point, at the (oot of Alter Road, changed during this period to a place where a houseboat colony and boathousesdotted the waterfront.

The Chrysler Motor Company came to the area in 1924 by taking over the Maxwell and Chalmers Motor Company and later constructing another huge factory building and showroom on the.south side of East Jefferson Avenue. The increase in industrial and commercial development in the area led to the construction of a number of apartment buildings to accommodate the growing number of workers. The majority of these apartment buildings were constructed along East Jefferson Avenue near the transportation lines. On East Jefferson, adjacent to the Connor Creek Industrial Area, the 524 room Savarine Hotel (now the Winston Apartments) was built in 1926, just a few blocks west of the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District, to house the men working in the nearby factories who came in from farms or other areas. The Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District saw the construction of the forty-four unit Lakewood Apartments (913 Lakewood) in 1924 and the thirty-three unit Chalmers Apartments (14436 E. Jefferson) in 1925. Many apartment buildings in the district were constructed on side-street lots adjacent to the commercial buildings, such as the Marlboro (1031 Marlborough), the Sheldor (1025 Newport), the IDAO (910 Marlborough) and the Windmill Point Manor (943 Alter).

Just west of the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District, and east of the Connor Creek Industrial Area, closer to the dirt and noise of the automotive plants, a subdivision arose that initially was settled by recent immigrants from Serbia, Croatia, Romania and Greece. With the lure of maintenance jobs at the Connor Creek factories, African Americans began settling amid the Serbian ethnic enclave in the early 1920s. By 1925 Clairpointe, Tennessee and Conner avenues housed some three thousand African- Americans. As the racial demographics of Detroit changed through the second half of the twentieth century, the majority of the residents in the neighborhoods surrounding the proposed district reflected that change.

As the residential population grew in the area, the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District became a thriving entertainment and commercial strip with storefronts serving the residents' needs. These included Winkleman's, Nash Pharmacy, E.M. Ramsay Mens' and Boys' Clothing, and Cassell's Conservatories, a florist shop. Area residents also had medical and dental offices, banks, hardware stores, grocery stores, automotive repair

shops, as well as restaurants and bars accessible along Jefferson. The district had builders who were involved in the construction of a number of structures. Frank L. St. Amour was a commercial builder, descended from a family of early French settlers. He was responsible for the construction of thousands of homes on the east side of Detroit, including the early development of East Grand Boulevard and the Berry Subdivision. He is known to have constructed three buildings in the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District, the two story, brick St. Amour Building at 14111 E. Jefferson constructed in 1920 (designed by architect E.C. Thulin), and the two story brick commercial buildings at 14418-20 E. Jefferson and 14510 E. Jefferson, both constructed in 1924.

There werea number ofbuilders and realtors who had offices in the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District during this time. One of the prominent builders was Jerry Oldenkamp who had offices in his own building at 14320 E. Jefferson (demolished) opposite the Lakewood Theatre. His advertisements offered "Complete Building Service -Plans Furnished- Buildings Financed." He was responsible for the construction of the two story commercial, brick building at 14316 E. Jefferson in 1924, the three story commercial, brick Sutton Drugs building at 14401 E. Jefferson in 1927, and the two story, brick building that housed White Sun Chop Suey in 1926 at 14521 E. Jefferson. William S. Blakeslee was another builder/realtor who lived nearby on Marlborough Avenue. In 1919, he was a partner with Jerry Oldenkamp in the real estate firm of Oldenkamp and Blakeslee. They appear to have formed separate companies in the early 1920s. Blakeslee constructed the four buildings of the Pointe Manor Apartments on Alter Road between 1925 and 1926.

The business owners on East Jefferson Avenue were intent on promoting the district as a retail destination. In October, 1924, the Jefferson Avenue Improvement Association produced its first newsletter, The Jeffersonian, which stated the chief purpose of the organization was "the welding together of the various interests on Jefferson Avenue, in order to make that Avenue the most perfect thoroughfare in the United States... " The newsletter went on to say that "it is our ambition to have Jefferson Avenue surpass Fifth Avenue (in New York City) in style, beauty and utility." The Jefferson Avenue Improvement Association even produced its own theme song titled "Jefferson, My Jefferson."

The initial business owners and retailers clearly had high ambitions for success. One East Jefferson Avenue retailer advertised that his store was "A Downtown Store In Your Neighborhood," thus emphasizing contemporary, high quality merchandise. Residents of

the area agreed - they did not need to take the streetcar downtown to purchase anything - it was all available on ast Jefferson. An article from The Detroiter, the magazine produced by the city's Chamber of Commerce, promoted the large number of branch banks and branches of downtown businesses along the street, as well as the street cars, interurban cars, busses, jitneys and regular commercial and private vehicles used for transportation.

In 1920, the congregation of St. Columba Episcopal Church appointed a building committee to draw up plans for the erection of a Parish House on East Jefferson Avenue. The decision was made to include shops as a source of revenue for the maintenance of the building. The Parish House was designed by Lancelot Sukert and completed in 1923. The auditorium on the second floor was named "HartsuffHall" in memory of Mrs. Alice E. Hartsuff, who had left the church a legacy of$25,000. During this time the "little frame church" on Manistique began to overflow with communicants during services. In 1927, the cornerstone was laid for a new English Gothic Revival church also designed by Sukert. The church was built adjacent to the frame church on Manistique, just north of the Parish House, and was completed in 1928. Future plans called for the addition of a school house and cloister which would have connected the church to the parish house, but the financial depression of the 1930s prevented the plans from being fulfilled.

It is said that in Detroit there were two major industries during the 1920s- the manufacture of automobiles and the distribution of Canadian liquor. An estimated 75% of all illegal liquor brought into the United States was smuggled through Michigan. In Michigan, prohibition began in 1917, and continued through May 1933 when the Volstead Act was repealed. Easy access to the nearby waterfront made the area around the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District a prime place for those involved in the illegal liquor trade. Fishing and pleasure boating had always been popular in the area, but the number of licensed boats increased dramatically after the Volstead Act was passed by Congress. The sheer profits from rum running, as well as the challenge of outwitting federal and local enforcement agents, proved to be an overpowering incentive for residents living along the Detroit River.

Rum running activity in the area took place on Fox and Connor Creeks, and even on the exclusive Grayhaven canal. Rum runners drove to the nearest port, whether it was privately owned or not. The majority of rum running was conducted by independent boat owners, but there was some organized gang activity. Most of the restaurants along East

Jefferson Avenue provided alcoholic beverages for their trusted patrons. Among the more popular such watering P,oles on East Jefferson from downtown to Grosse Pointe were Little Hany's, Pinkey's, Club Royale, Doc Brady's, Lefty Clark's, D'Emilio's French Club, Lidos and the Aniwa Club. In the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District, Marshall's Bar (then known as Britz's Bar) whose back door was located off the banks of Fox Creek, had an ideal location for the delivery of illegal alcohol.

In 1931, the U. S. Coast Guard discovered and confiscated a steel cable that ran from Peche Island, Ontario, to a cottage near the foot of Alter Road. A metal drum filled on each trip with 30 gallons of Canadian whiskey was attached and pulled across by a motor-driven windlass. This was photographed and written about in newspaper accounts of the day. East Jefferson Avenue was the scene of numerous high speed automobile chases between the rumrunners and the authorities. These high speed chases often resulted in serious injuries and deaths. Incidents such as these helped the cause for repeal of Prohibition as public outrage increased.

During the 1920s, the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District was also growing as an entertainment destination for east-siders. The Cinderella Theater was constructed just a few blocks west of the district in 1923. It was even larger than the Lakewood Theater with the capacity to seat 1,897. The Cinderella Theater was designed by Detroit architect Christian W. Brandt and opened on January 14, 1924, showing second-run movies until it closed and was demolished in 1969.

The Vanity Ballroom was one of the leading big-band venues in Detroit, and was known throughout the metropolitan area. The ballroom was designed by Detroit architect Charles N. Agree and built in 1929 at East Jefferson and Newport, on the same block as the Lakewood Theater. On a weekend night, over 600 couples would pack the Vanity to hear and dance to the top music acts of the big-band era. Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey all performed there, as well as local acts such as Red Nichols and his Five Pennies, Russ Weaver, Eddie Marshal and Clyde McCoy. The Vanity survives today but the building is vacant and deteriorating.

The Monticello Ballroom was constructed just a block east of the Vanity at East Jefferson and Marlborough. It opened in 1928 and was in business for a decade featuring Detroit's early black dance bands. The Billy Miner Melodians was an eleven piece African-American big band chosen as the "band in residence" at the Monticello Ballroom in late 1928. The Monticello Building is still occupied today, but the ballroom is no longer used.

The Jefferson-Chalmer Historic Business District crosses over Fox Creek, which runs between Ashland and Alter Road. Connecting to Fox Creek were three canals built by William C. Klenk in 1918 for what he called the "Motor Boat Subdivision." Homeowners purchased lots with yard access to the creek or canals, and built boathouses, spring boards and docks for their recreational use. In 1922, a storm tossed up so much sand and debris at the mouth of the creek that it became stopped up. The citizens in the neighborhood appealed to the city council for money to open the creek but an injunction was obtained by the estate of William Klenk. Klenk's heirs planned to take advantage of squatters' rights to claim the land at the end of the creek at the Detroit River. In 1924, the injunction was ordered dissolved by the State Supreme Court. Later that year, residents organized the "Grosse Pointe Flow Association" to fight fortheir property values and open the creek. They knew that as long as Fox Creek was a navigable stream it was under federal government control and was not subject to state, county or city regulation. Their intent was to take the issue to the War Department for settlement. But on August 10, 1924, the residents took matters in their own hands. Over 200 Windmill Pointers along with one horse and a single grading scoop, dug out the Fox Creek channel to restore the flow of water from the river. After a day's work, the creek's channel was 15 feet wide and two feet deep for more than 300 feet. By the next year, the City had run Fox Creek north of East Jefferson Avenue into underground drain pipes, and routed the creek to a canal south of East Jefferson Avenue.

Fox Creek continued to be a source of problems for the area. On May 2, 1929, a major storm caused flooding with water three feet deep on Ashland Avenue, and basements of the homes, churches and schools in the area flooded. The department of public works employees began to pile sandbags along the 300-foot line of Fox Creek south of East Jefferson Avenue, but the flooding continued. The flooding problem was to be resolved by the construction of the Fox Creek Backwater Gates. The gates were constructed in 1930 at a cost of$25,000 by the Detroit Department of Public Works on the north side of East Jefferson Avenue between Ashland and Alter Road at the Creek.

The Fox Creek Backwater Gates serve three main purposes; first as the place where two large sewer lines from the north and west converge into one major sewer line that runs to the Conner Creek Pumping Station, and ultimately to the City of Detroit Waste Water Treatment Plant in southwest Detroit. Secondly, the gates allow storm water to drain from points north of the area to be funneled into the system when heavy rains have caused Grosse Pointe's sewers to overflow. The third purpose the gates serve is to allow the

downstream remnant of Fox Creek, today an inlet from the Detroit River, to flow in reverse from the river nd flush out the larger sewer line which runs underneath East Jefferson Avenue.

Although the Depression put an end to the construction boom of the 1920s, business activity began to revive in the Jefferson Avenue Business District during the 1930s. Another car dealrship, Eastern Chevrolet, was established at 14800-10 E. Jefferson (demolished) and the Hergenroeder and Sons Garage became Lakeshore Motor Sales. In 1936, the S.S. Kresge Company constructed a one story, brick building at 14300 E. Jefferson. The building was designed in the signature Kresge style of streamlined Art Moderne with a red glass sign band that contained the Kresge name in bold letters. Although the building is no longer a five and ten cent store, its former use is still identifiable by its appearance. During this time, Sander's, another locally owned company, built a confectionery store next door to Kresge's at 14312 E. Jefferson (demolished). Both stores quickly became popular destinations for local residents and East Jefferson commuters. During the early 1930s, the Abrams Brothers grocery store at 14538 E. Jefferson was converted to the Peter Pan Flower Shop. In 1939, Walter J. Hiller purchased the building at 14356 E. Jefferson. He completely'remodeled the now renamed Hiller Building, and opened Hiller's Men's Wear on the first floor. Both the Peter Pan Flower Shop and Hiller's Men Wear were businesses that remained in the district for many years with customers from throughout the city of Detroit.

The Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District continued to be a thriving commercial thoroughfare during the 1940s and 1950s, but the 1954 closing of the Hudson Motors plant marked the end of an era of prosperity, and is considered by many to be the beginning of the area's decline. Just as initial development of the subdivisions paralleled industrial development in the region, the loss of residential and commercial fabric paralleled the loss of industry. As the "Big Three" automakers (Ford, Chrysler and General Motors) grew, smaller firms like the Hudson Motor Car Company began to suffer. "Big Three" auto sales bit into their small niche in the automotive market. In the 1950s, independent car companies began to invest in automation. At its peak in 1950, Hudson Motor Car Company employed 25,330 workers. All of those jobs disappeared when the plant closed in 1954. The new conglomerate American Motors, which absorbed Hudson, moved all production from Detroit. In addition, the Briggs Auto Body plant was absorbed by Chrysler in 1953 and the Motor Products plant on Mack Avenue closed in 1956.

Detroit's east side was hit the hardest by industrial changes in the 1950s, losing more than 70,000 jobs between 154 and 1960. The Michigan Employment Security Commission (MESC) reported that its Conner Avenue office was the busiest in the state, serving an area oftwenty-three plants and 2,967 workers in March of 1953. Between 1953 and 1960 the area lost ten plants and 71,13 7 jobs. By the 1960s, many homes and commercial buildings were falling into disrepair. Several businesses on East Jefferson Avenue closed never to reopen &gain.

Issues of racial tension escalated as a dominant social concern in Detroit in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Beginning in the mid 1920s "restrictive covenant" clauses prevented the sale or rental to nonwhites on Algonquin Avenue, located west of the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District, and this blocked further eastward migration by Afiican Americans into the Jefferson East Community. A notable exception was the arrival of Dr. Albert H. Johnson to Chalmers Avenue, near the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District in 1921. Dr. Johnson was a respected physician and pioneer in the Detroit Urban League, and he was accepted into the riverfront community without racial incident. The inequality in housing law was corrected when the City of Detroit's fair housing ordinance was adopted in 1967. The federal government passed the Fair Housing Act in 1968 which finally allowed for true integration in Detroit's neighborhoods.

The move to suburbia was a condition that affected the entire country during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. The Federal Limited Way Highway Act of 1944 funded the construction of I-94, just north of the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District, as well as several other interstate expressways running out of Detroit into suburbs and farmlands. Federal Housing Administration programs of the 1940s subsidized suburban housing expansion leaving a declining population in the area. During this period of decline, many long-time businesses continued to operate and struggled to survive. The White Sun Chop Suey, Sutton's Drugs, Hiller's Men's Wear, the Peter Pan Flower Shop, Sanders, Kresge's, Winkelman's, Marshall's Bar and the Deck Bar continued to remain open into the 1970s and 1980s. Although many of the churches in the area saw a decline in membership during this time, they also continued in service with the support of loyal congregations. In 1957, Jefferson Avenue United Methodist Church demolished the original church built in 1914 and constructed a new two and one-half-story contemporary entrance. In 1981, the Original Primitive Baptist Church moved into the former Eastminister Presbyterian Church on Manistique.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was involved in a scandal that would negatively affect the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District community in the 1970s. The scandal arose from a combination of factors surrounding HUD's disposal of FHA-insured home mortgages within inner cities. Since HUD guaranteed these mortgages Without thorough home inspections, many corrupt speculators, consisting ofbrokers, contractors, realtors and government officials, took advantage of the situation. After purchasing inner city buildings, speculators gained high home appraisals from HUD officials without making proper repairs and then sold their buildings to unsuspecting buyers. Unfortunately, most of these homeowners couldn't afford major building repairs on top of high mortgage payments. Eventually HUD foreclosed on thousands of FHA-insured home mortgages in Detroit.

Although the HUD scandal occurred in other major American cities, the city of Detroit was hit the hardest. By 1980, the number of HUD foreclosures within Detroit was the highest in the nation. Detroit's eastside especially felt the hit as abandoned HUD houses constituted much of the property on neighborhood streets. From 1970 to 1977, the Jefferson East Community lost 37% of their local dwellings as a result of the HUD scandal. In 1970 there were 7,300 housing units in the Jefferson East Community- by the end of the 1970s there were fewer than 4,500.

Since the scandal, Detroit has received funding from HUD for the demolition of abandoned homes, redevelopment of industrial areas, and the construction of apartments, condominiums, and single-family homes. In 1990, Grayhaven, one of Detroit's first upscale residential districts, was completed in the Jefferson East Corrrinunity with HUD funds. Grayhaven's success immediately sparked the construction of other residential developments in the area; during the early 1990s Riverbend Plaza, a large retail shopping center, and 157 residential homes in the Victoria Park subdivision were completed. Since then, the area has seen construction of Grayhaven Marina townhouses and Shorepoint homes, as well as Habitat for Humanity projects. Clairpointe, a neighborhood just outside of Victoria Park, recently finished building twenty-nine new market-rate homes. More market-rate housing and retail called "Riverbend III'' is under construction. Even the automotive industry returned to the area with the construction of the $1 billion Chrysler Jefferson North assembly plant in 1992. The new plant employs 2,500-3,000 workers making the Jeep Cherokee.

Despite the many issues that have redefined the community, Jefferson East area has remained a cohesive neighborhood. The Jefferson-Chalmers Citizens District Council was created and funded by the City in 1971 to empower and assist the community affected by urban renewal. Members planted trees, organized block clubs, formed clean-up crews, established a food co-op, as well as implemented the streetscape on Jefferson between Alter and Coplin Streets that exists today. The streetscape consists of brick paving, pedestrian scale lighting, concrete planters, street trees and guard rails. The Jefferson- Chalmers CDC also put on a musical series in the summer for the public in two venues: "Jazz by the River" at Alfred Brush Ford Park and benefit jazz concerts were held at the Vanity Ballroom in the early 80s. Another organization, the Jefferson-Chalmers Non-profit Housing Corporation, constructed the.Jefferson Square Apartments on Freud Street in the late 1970s and purchased 150 HUD homes that they rehabilitated and rented. Another local group, the Creekside Community Development Corporation, was founded by citizens in 1993 to help preserve the integrity of the area. The Creekside CDC also worked to promote the area through tours and lectures to promote reinvestment, and hosted ongoing Blues concerts and a Riverfront Concert series.

Today, the Jefferson East Business Association (JEBA), a non-profit organization founded in 1992, is dedicated to improving the quality of life by addressing the needs of the business community in a four-square-mile area bounded by St. Jean, Alter Road, Charlevoix and the Detroit River. The organization is a neighborhood satellite center for the Michigan Small Business Development Center that helps entrepreneurs by offering counseling and business planning. The organization's other two initiatives include planning and development, and clean and safe initiatives. The commercial corridor from Dickerson to Alter was recently designated as part of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Commercial Revitalization (ONCR) Re$tore Detroit! Program focusing on creating an environment for investment in the historic structures along East Jefferson.

The Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District is a collection of buildings representative of neighborhood commercial development during the 1910s and 1920s in Detroit. The district is one of the last business districts on the east side of Detroit that remains intact and retains its architectural integrity. This collection of buildings includes excellent examples of commercial, residential and religious architecture which typify the styles popular during the district's period of growth. Commercial buildings include many examples of the Commercial Brick style such as 14131 East Jefferson, 14400 East Jefferson, 14401 East Jefferson, 14418 East Jefferson, 14436 East Jefferson, and 14700

East Jefferson. The district also contains commercial buildings that display a diverse mixture of styles that range from Classical Revival such as the former People's State Bank at 14555 East Jefferson, to Art Moderne as seen in the former S.S. Kresge Building at 14300 East Jefferson. Residential architecture is represented by a number of apartment buildings reflective of popular styles commonly seen in apartment buildings throughout Detroit such as the Elizabethan-inspired Marlboro Apartments at 1031 Marlborough, the Classical Revival Century Lakewood Apartments at 14230 East Jefferson and the Spanish Colonial Revival at 950 Manistique. The district also contains four churches built for the residents of the surrounding neighborhoods including the Neo-Gothic Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Tudor Revival Original Primitive Baptist Church, the Gothic Revival Jefferson Avenue Methodist Church and St. Columba Episcopal Church.

Several of the buildings in the district are individually significant examples of the architectural style in which they were designed. The Vanity Ballroom, located at 14201 East Jefferson, is an outstanding example of Art Deco design and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Monticello Ballroom at 14421 East Jefferson is a combination of Art Deco and Spanish Colonial Revival styles that result in a handsome commercial block building. These two ballrooms are not only architecturally significant but are also historically significant as representative of the Big Band Era of the 1930s and 1940s. Only two blocks apart, the Vanity and the Monticello are two of the last remaining popular ballrooms in the Detroit area. A distinguished example of religious architecture is the English Gothic Revival St. Columba Church at 1021 Manistique. Comparable to Christ Church Cranbrook, the church is richly decorated with Pewabic tile and beautiful stained glass windows. St. Columba's Activity Hall, located at 14635 E. Jefferson, combines ecclesiastical and commercial architecture in a striking Elizabethan inspired building. Windmill Point Manor, an apartment building at 943 Alter, is an excellent example of the Spanish Colonial Revival style popular in upscale apartment buildings that had appeared throughout Detroit in the 1930s. Unfortunately, these decorative apartment buildings have rapidly disappeared.

The Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District, largely developed in the late 1910s and 1920s, is the only continuously intact commercial district remaining along East Jefferson Avenue. It retains fifty-seven buildings including four churches, two ballrooms, retail stores, banks and apartment buildings. Most of the buildings front onto East Jefferson and fill the lot line with no setback from the street, resulting in a nearly continuous streetscape. The buildings are generally two-stories high, with the exception of the churches and apartment buildings. Fox Creek, one of the few creeks remaining.from Detroit's native landscape, is a feature of the district. Today the creek originates from the "Fox Creek Backwater Gates," a structure housing large underground water gates which control the flow of water now emanating from the sewered creek. The gates lie on the north side of East Jefferson Avenue between Alter Road and Ashland Avenue. The creek runs under the roadway and appears at ground level on the south side of East Jefferson Avenue. The creek then flows into a canal that runs alongside Alter Road to the Detroit River.

The Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District is located on the lower eastern edge of the City of Detroit, near the Detroit River, and bordered on the east by the suburban city of Grosse Pointe Park. East Jefferson Avenue is one of the City of Detroit's widest streets including four lanes for traffic, two parking lanes, and a middle turn lane. It runs from downtown Detroit through the suburbs of Grosse Pointe and St. Clair Shores, and is used as a commuter highway for those working or traveling to downtown Detroit and is thus one of the high-volume traffic surface streets.

One approach to the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District is from downtown Detroit, five miles to the west. Where there was once a succession of factories, residential and commercial structures on East Jefferson Avenue from downtown to the Grosse Pointe border, today many structures have become separated by new development and demolition. Immediately adjacent to the historic district on the eastern approach are the vacant properties about to be developed for "Riverbend III," a residential and commercial project, and an existing contemporary one-story medical office building and parking lot on the north side of East Jefferson. Further outside the district to the west are the Riverbend Plaza Shopping Center and Chrysler Corporation's Jefferson Avenue Assembly Plant. At the other end of the district's border is the city of Grosse Pointe Park, one of the metropolitan Detroit area's most wealthy "old money'' communities featuring large historic homes and mansions on Lake St. Clair. East Jefferson Avenue continues as

Lakeshore Drive through the Grosse Pointes, although at the border it contains commercial buildings of the same height and scale as those in the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District.

The Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District begins at Eastlawn Avenue on the north side of East Jefferson Avenue, and at Newport Avenue, one block east, on the south side of East Jefferson Avenue. The district continues east for eight blocks to the Detroit city limits at the Grosse Pointe border. The northern boundary generally runs at the alley behind the commercial properties on East Jefferson Avenue, although this changes to include the Eastlawn Apartment Building on Eastlawn Avenue, the Marlboro Apartments on Marlborough Avenue, the church of St. Columba on Manistique Avenue, the Platte Motor Sales garage on Ashland Avenue, and-the four Pointe Manor Apartment Buildings on Alter Road. The southern boundary also generally runs at the alley line behind the East Jefferson Avenue properties, but changes to include the Windmill Point Manor Apartment Building which runs from Alter Road to Ashland Avenue, and the Eastminster Presbyterian Church on Manistique Avenue.

The district developed as a commercial area to serve the residential populations adjoining East Jefferson Avenue. The residential streets adjoining the district on the north side of East Jefferson Avenue retain scattered two-family and single-family wood frame homes. The neighborhood to the south of the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District is much more intact with single family homes of brick, fieldstone and some wood frame construction. These homes are of higher quality utilizing popular styles of the 1910s and 1920s such as Tudor, Arts and Crafts bungalows, brick four square, and Prairie style homes. This area is a potential historic district within the criteria of the National Register. A unique feature of the district is Marlborough Avenue, which is paved with brick cobbles running from Jefferson to Korte Avenue. There are four canals running through the area south of the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District, thus creating a "workingman's Venice" area of Detroit. Homes adjacent to the canals have boat launches, boat houses and shelters for recreational purposes.

The Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District is one of the few remaining commercial districts that reflect commercial architecture and suburban development on the east side of Detroit during the 1920s. The majority of the structures on East Jefferson Avenue are multiple-storefront blocks, generally two stories in height, containing offices or apartments on the second story. Because real estate was in high demand during Detroit's explosive early twentieth-century growth, most structures were built to their lot lines and shared

party walls with the buildings next to them. This creates an unbroken wall of storefronts on East Jefferson Avenue. The commercial buildings are of brick construction with cast stone trim, in the commercial style used in the first half of the twentieth Century. Most structures on East Jefferson Avenue have decorative brickwork and regularly spaced window openings along with decorative features at their cornices or parapets.

The district is exceptional in Detroit for retaining two of the city's big-band era ballrooms, the Vanity and the Monticello. Each is housed in a multiple-storefront block with retail on the first level and the ballrooms above. The ballrooms' exterior detailing reflect the jazz age by including the use of zigzag brickwork, cast stone ornament and Pewabic tiles. Because Detroit's Pewabic Pottery, a National Historic Landmark, is located just a few miles to the west of the historic district, Pewabic tiles were undoubtedly utilized in several of the commercial structures on East Jefferson Avenue.

The district retains several large multi-story apartment buildings, the largest of which, the Century Lakewood, is three stories tall and has forty-four units. This building's apartment entrance is on Lakewood Avenue, while on East Jefferson Avenue it fills half the block westward with commercial storefronts. The other apartment buildings that are adjacent to the East Jefferson Avenue commercial properties are no more than three and one half stories high and feature different classically inspired applied ornament. One exception to this is the distinctive Windmill Point Manor Apartment Building, designed in an eclectic mix of Spanish Colonial Revival, Moorish and art deco-influenced styles. Colonnades, tiled porch roofs, copper downspouts and decorative brickwork highlight the exterior of this beautifully maintained apartment building.

The four Protestant churches in the historic district are of stone and brick construction, and are still used as houses of worship - although some by new religious congregations. For example, the Tudor Revival-style Eastminster Presbyterian Church is now called the Original Primitive Baptist Church. Another house of worship, originally Faith English Evangelical Lutheran Church, is a 1921 church constructed of brick and cast stone work, a slate roof and stained glass windows. This church is built in the asymmetrical Nee- Gothic style with a bell tower on the eastern side of the structure, and the center-aisle nave to the west. One of the most outstanding structures in the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District is the St. Columba Activity Hall. The three-story Elizabethan style building houses storefronts under five stone segmental arches at street level. The slate roof, cast stone window surrounds, and striking design make the structure stand out among its brick multiple-storefront block neighbors.

LIST OF BUILDINGS - all properties contributing unless otherwise stated.

East Jefferson Avenue

14111 East Jefferson- St. Amour Building- Simply detailed, two-story, five bay, "Commercial Brick" building, 1920, E. C. Thulin, architect. This multiple-storefront building has five large window openings on the second floor, and two smaller windows centered over the two apartment entrances. There were originally five storefronts on the first floor and thirteen apartments above. The parapet wall is raised over the center bay and features a stone panel which reads "St. Amour 1920." The building was constructed by Frank St. Amour, a builder in the East Jefferson neighborhood.

14131 East Jefferson- Two-story, nine bay, "Commercial Brick" building, 1916, 1920, Pollmar & Ropes, architects. Six storefronts on the first floor, and six apartments above. This building was originally a two-story, two storefront structure. Four years later, an addition was constructed, closely matching the original building. The addition had four storefronts and four apartments. Cast stone window surrounds, and green Pewabic tiles are in a strip above each window opening. A string course separates the first and second stories. The parapet has two raised portions and a strip of green tiles and decorative brick.

14200 East Jefferson - (Non-contributing) - Small one-story, brick, commercial, 1920, facade entirely modernized. Originally constructed for the Simons Sales Co., and Willys- Overland Motor Car Company. Although significantly altered, the building commences the streetscape's setback and scale for the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District.

14201 East Jefferson- Vanity Ballroom- Two-story, six bay, brick corner commercial building, 1929, Charles N. Agree, architect, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, 1982. The Vanity Ballroom was constructed to house five storefronts on the first floor and the ballroom above. The ballroom entrance is on the Newport Avenue facade underneath an overhanging canopy. The building was designed in the Art Deco style in a vocabulary of Mayan/Aztec. A three-sided storefront entrance pavilion was placed at the corner, flanked by nearly identical facades on both axes terminating with identical entrance pavilions at each end. The pavilions rise above the rest of the building and are each accented with a patterned course of cast stone below the coping. The fiieze at the top of the building features brick "jaguars" running across, while brick chevrons decorate the

towers. Pilasters flank each pier and corner of the building, featuring capitols with Aztec figureheads. Square green tiles, attributed to the Pewabic Pottery, fill the stepped arch above each second-story window. First floor storefronts have been altered, and a large vertical sign for the Vanity has been removed. The Vanity's exterior was in the film "8 Mile" in 2002.

14214 East Jefferson -(Non-contributing)- Small one-story brick commercial building, 1925, facade entirely modernized. The building was converted to house two storefronts in 1941. In 1951 the facade was remodeled with additional changes made to the interior. Although significantly altered, the building contributes to the streetscape in setback and scale.

14229 East Jefferson- (Non-contributing)- Two-story, two bay, brick commercial building, 1915. This structure was originally sheathed in brick when it opened as the Toepel Brothers Hardware Store. The facade was probably redone in 1960 with porcelain enamel steel panels in an International Style vein. The first floor retail space was renovated to include a diagonally recessed entrance, and the second story was most likely storage and office space above.

14230-40 East Jefferson (also 913 Lakewood)- Century Lakewood Apartments- Three and one-half-story brick H-shaped commercial/apartment building, 1924, Joseph Bomstein, builder. This Classical Revival forty-four unit building, constructed at the corner of Lakewood Avenue and East Jefferson Avenue, contains seven storefronts along the East Jefferson Avenue facade. A central courtyard apartment entrance on Lakewood Avenue allowed air circulation and daylight to the apartments above. Cream-colored cast stone replicates rusticated stone work on the half-basement story of the Lakewood Avenue facade. Alternating use of cream-colored cast stone and red brick delineate the two end window bays and the three center window bays of the apartments. Classical details include quoins and decorative cast stone work centered over window bays at the parapet. This building appeared in the film "8 Mile" in 2002.

14241 East Jefferson- East Jefferson Hand Car Wash- (Non-contributing)- One-story, concrete block commercial building, 1959. White concrete block former Sun Oil Company gas station was converted to become the East Jefferson Hand Car Wash. Two garage entrance bays dominate the facade.

14300 East Jefferson- Sam's Beauty Supply IS. S. Kresge - One-story, rounded-corner, brick commercial building, 1936. Built by the S. S. Kresge Company as one of their "red front" five and dime stores in the Moderne style. Plate glass storefront windows span the pedestrian level of the storefront. At the top of the East Jefferson storefront facade, wrapping the corner at Lakewood Avenue, red pigmented structural glass blocks were originally a horizontal background for the S. S. Kresge store name. Darker red colored brick bands are used to emphasize the horizontality of the structure.

14313 East Jefferson -Crown Cleaners- (Non-contributing) -One-story, commercial building, 1948. This cinder-block building housed a branch of the Detroit Edison Company for at least twenty years. The storefront contains a large expanse of plate glass and steel surrounds.

14316-24 East Jefferson- Two-story, three bay, brick commercial building, 1924. Built by developer Jerry Oldenkamp, it was constructed to house three storefronts and three apartments above. It is considered to be a two-part commercial block, horizontally divided into residential and commercial zones. Designed in a Neo-Georgian style, the building features an off-center pedimented entrance, Federal inspiration, with fluted pilasters and a fanlight above the doorway. The second story is pierced with three, three-part window openings enframed in cast stone. Three groups of blind balustrades alternate with sections of brick above the stone cornice.

14326 East Jefferson- (Non-contributing)- One-story, concrete block commercial building, 1926, fa'Yade entirely remodeled. The building was once divided into two storefronts and then in 1957 it became a single storefront. It is likely that the upper portion of the storefront was clad with porcelain enamel steel panels around that time. Today the steel panels have been painted over by a former tenant, a beauty supply company.

14350-56 East Jefferson- W. J. Hiller Building- Two-story, "Commercial Brick" commercial building built in two parts, 1912, 1914, Spier, Rohns & Gehrke architects. Designed with a diagonal corner at the street intersection, it has plate glass storefront windows on the first floor and regular arrangement of windows on the second floor. The corner is clipped, and the cornice has been removed and bricked over. The first floor has a grey Dryvit and cement sheath. In 1941 a branch of the Walter J. Hiller men's furnishing store opened in the western storefront, and later the company purchased the

property and expanded into the corner storefront. A plaque above the second-story corner window reads "W. J. Hiller."

14400 East Jefferson- Walgreen's Drugs I Riverfront Building Supply- Vibrant two-story, brick commercial building, 1929, attributed to Charles N. Agree, architect. The angled corner is topped by a stylized sunburst projecting above the roofline. Stepped pilasters run between the second-story windows and terminate above the roofline. Each pilaster bears a two-dimensional face of"tragedy" carved in cast stone. This building richly expresses the Art Deco style with the use of chevrons and checkerboard patterned brick in two colors. The original tenant was a Walgreen's Drug Store. The building was designed with five storefronts on the East Jefferson Avenue elevation, and offices for dentists and physicians above them. The office entrance is located on the west elevation on Chalmers Avenue.

14401 East Jefferson- Platte Apartments I Sutton's Drugs- Three-story, seven bay wide, "Commercial Brick" corner commercial building, 1928, built by Jerry Oldenkamp, a real estate developer. The building originally contained five stores and eighteen apartments. It is reserved in its use of architectural ornament. Cast stone enframes the third-story windows, and second-story windows are accented with corner blocks of cast stone. Single and double window openings alternate across the upper stories; some 3/1 windows are extant. First-floor storefronts have been altered. The apartment entrance is on Chalmers Avenue, the west elevation. A large outdoor billboard rises above the roof

14410 East Jefferson- (Non-contributing)- Two-story, brick commercial building, 1916. The structure was likely altered in the 1950s with metal panels and raised seam metal cladding on the first and second floors. The building contributes to the streetscape in setback and scale but alterations obscure the original facade treatment.

14411-15 East Jefferson- Winkelman's- Two-story, four bay, brick commercial building, 1928. This brick structure has had first floor renovations, and the second story windows have been partially bricked. The second story has a scored cast stone veneer. Between the second-story windows are classical pilasters with ornate capitals. A pedimented parapet is at the roofline. There is a string course above the window openings and a cornice below the roofline. For many years, a large sign for Winkelman's dominated the far;ade.

14418 -20 East Jefferson - Two-story, four-bay wide, brick commercial building, 1924. Two storefronts comprise this four bay structure which features a center entrance for the apartments above. A stone cornice and raised center parapet are additional design features. The building was constructed by Frank St. Amour, a developer of several structures in the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District. This building is a twin to 14510 East Jefferson Avenue.

14421-29 East Jefferson- Monticello Ballroom- Three-story, eleven bay, brick commercial building, 1928, Pollmar & Ropes, architects. The Monticello Ballroom is one of the most visually prominent structures on East Jefferson Avenue. This building utilized Spanish Colonial Revival and Art Deco detailing in its exterior design. The last two bays on each end are capped by a rounded raised parapet, infilled with green tiles, probably by Pewabic Pottery. The ends of each raised round parapet are capped with decorative cast stone work. A pent roof covered in asphalt shingles fills the roofline between the two tower bays. The first floor storefronts have all been altered. The ballroom occupied the entire second story of the building during the big-band ballroom era. The "shadow" of the now-demolished building to the east remains on the eastern wall, along with a painted sign for "Allen Studio Photography," a tenant who took over the second floor of the building after the ballroom closed.

14432-36 East Jefferson -The Chalmers Building- Three-story, four broad bays wide, "Commercial Brick" commercial/apartment building, 1925. The symmetrical facade is composed of four bays, each containing three windows per floor. The entrance is centered and framed with a molded architrave and panel carved with "The Chalmers," with a medallion above. Other detail trim includes a stone stringcourse, rounded dentils, and small inset decorative square and diamond shaped panels. Raised sections of parapet rise along the roofline above the "piers" separating the window bays. The building was originally designed to contain thirty-three apartments and four storefronts. The original storefront layout appears intact.

14447 East Jefferson -Saranda's Coney Island- (Non-contributing)- One-story, concrete block commercial building, 1992. The building was centered on the lot to allow for parking on both sides of the structure.

14456 East Jefferson- Jefferson Avenue United Methodist Church and addition- Church building- stone and brick construction, c. 1923. Two and one-half-story, steel and glass addition on East Jefferson Avenue, 1957. The original church building,

constructed in 1914, was enlarged in the early 1920s with the construction of a large brick Gothic Revival auditorium onto the rear of the church. The original church was demolished in the mid-1950s and the addition became the primary church building. This Gothic Revival brick church building has a slate gabled roof and utilizes stone for window and door surrounds. A contemporary, flat-roofed addition was connected to the East Jefferson facade of the auditorium as an educational building in 1957. The addition's first story is a below-grade one-half basement floor, and the building entrance is marked by a cantilevered canopy on the East Jefferson Avenue facade. The addition is constructed of glass and steel with steel panel spandrels above the windows. A large steel cross is on the brick portion of the East Jefferson Avenue facade.

14500 East Jefferson -Two-story, three bay, brick commercial building, 1917, Frederick J. Winter, architect. The two side bays of the building each contain a triple window at the second floor level. The center bay is narrow and contains the entrance and a single double-hung window above it. Raised sections of parapet rise along the roofline above the "piers" separating the window bays. The first floor originally was built to house two storefronts, while the second story was built for two apartment units. A metal cornice runs across the building just below the parapet wall.

14507-19 East Jefferson- East Jefferson Market- (Non-contributing)- Two-story, brick commercial building, 1915, 1924. The structure on this site has been expanded and renovated over the years. Today it is covered with wood siding and all window openings have been covered. The building shares a party wall with the structure to the east at 14521 East Jefferson Avenue.

14510 East Jefferson - Two-story, four bay, brick commercial building, 1924. This four-bay building contains two stores and two apartments above. The apartment entrance is centered in the building, and is surrounded by double bands of cast stone. The two end bays contain a double set of double-hung windows on each side, while the next two bays contain a single window in each. A stone cornice and raised center parapet are at the roofline. The building was constructed by Frank St. Amour, who built several structures in the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District. This building is a twin to 14418 East Jefferson Avenue.

14521 East Jefferson- White Sun Chop Suey- Two-story, two bay brick commercial building, 1926, Jerry Oldenkamp, builder. The symmetrically arranged facade displays two large window openings on each story. The openings are now covered but it is likely that each opening contained a grouping of windows. A string course of cast stone separates the first and second stories. Dark red brick work was set in square patterns on the lower level above the bulkhead. The first floor has been ornamented with a more recent addition of multi-colored ceramic tiles - most likely Pewabic - inset into brick piers, as well as into the patterns below the windows on the first floors. A projecting neon sign of the 1950s era is centered between the second story windows. This building's exterior was in the film "8 Mile" in 2002.

14522 East Jefferson- (Non-contributing)- Two-story, four bay, brick commercial building, 1920, altered in 1958. This two-story building was designed to have a storefront on the first floor. It is flat roofed and faced with grey bricks, and the first floor has been renovated with a glass and steel panel front. The building housed various florists.

14538 East Jefferson- Two-story, four bay, "Commercial Brick" building, 1915. This two-story building housed two separate storefronts on the first floor, a hardware shop and a florist. There are four sets of windows on the second floor, the end sets are a single window, and the middle two are a double set of windows. Each window has a stone sill and a keystone at the top.

14554 East Jefferson- Faith English Evangelical Lutheran Church- Three-story, brick and stone church, 1921, Paul Kroske/Donaldson and Meier, architects. This church is constructed of brick and displays cast stone work, a slate roof and stained glass windows. The church is built in the asymmetrical Neo-Gothic style with a bell tower on the eastern side of the structure, and the center-aisle nave to the west. Designed in 1918, it was not built until 1921 and was completed in 1926. Built on concrete footings, the brick church was constructed to the edge of the lot line at East Jefferson Avenue. A second entrance is located to the western side of the nave. Above the front gable is a cross made of stone.

14555 East Jefferson- People's State Bank I National Bank of Detroit- One-story, limestone and brick commercial building, 1925, Hans Gehrke, architect. Addition, one story, three bay, 1953. This corner bank building's Classical Revival style is derived from the Greek Temple. The building is sheathed in limestone. Ionic columns flank the recessed entrance, which is capped by a pediment. Two windows flank the entrance on Jefferson and there are four windows with arched heads on the Philip Avenue facade. There are two rectangular windows flanking the rounded arched windows on Philip Avenue. The windows on both the East Jefferson Avenue facade and Philip Avenue facade have been boarded. A denticulated cornice wraps each facade. In 1953 an addition was constructed to the west of the building along East Jefferson Avenue. The addition utilized the same color materials as the original structure.

14615 East Jefferson -Jefferson Car Wash- (Non-contributing)- One-story, two bay, brick commercial building, 1969. This car wash is on the site of a former car dealership.

14628 East Jefferson -Jefferson East Business Association I Standard Federal Savings and Loan Association Bank- (Non-contributing) - One-story, modem glass and steel construction, 1962. This bank was constructed in the center of the lot in order to provide parking lot access on one side, and drive-through banking on the other.

14635 East Jefferson- St. Columba Parish Building- Three-story, five bay, brick and stone building, 1923, Lancelot Suckert, architect. One of the most outstanding structures in the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District is the St. Columba Activity Hall. The three-story Elizabethan building houses storefronts under five stone segmental arches at street level. Groupings of multi-paned windows are in the second story bays. On the third story, the windows are grouped in multi-paned window sets on the two gable end bays, and three smaller double sets of windows run between the gables. The slate roof, cast stone window surrounds, and striking design make the structure stand out among the other multiple-storefront blocks. The two end bays each contain a small attic-story window in the peak of the gabled roofline.

14700-22 East Jefferson- Two-story, twelve-bay, brick multiple storefront commercial building, 1917, Fred Swirsky, architect. This building fills the block between Fox Creek and Ashland Avenue. The two-story structure houses six storefronts and six apartments above it. The entrance to the apartments is demarked by cast stone surrounds and a classical pediment. The pent roof is tiled, and has eyebrow dormers for vents. According to permit records, the cornice of the building was removed in 1958.

14701 East Jefferson- Ned's Auto Supply I Palace Cleaners - Broad and low, one-story, brick Art Deco commercial building, 1933. The East Jefferson Avenue facade of this structure is dominated by its long roofline that extends to create a large garage bay. This would have been utilized by the original owner, Ned's Auto Supply, as they serviced automobiles under the shelter. The structure's pedestrian entrance was placed at a corner facing the garage space. Four stepped plaques, all containing the letter "N," decorate the roofline of the garage area on the East Jefferson Avenue facade, and five plaques are attached to the roofline along Manistique Avenue. Three elongated stepped plaques are attached to the corners of the pedestrian entrance. A later tenant, the Palace Cleaners, placed lettering for their name, and a date of 1946 with a clothes hangar painted above the pedestrian entrance. The building's exterior was coated with some type of skim coat and then painted a pale pink.

14727-29 East Jefferson- Two-story, four bay, brick commercial building, 1937. This building's pale yellow colored ceramic tile exterior makes it stand out from the many brick buildings on East Jefferson Avenue. The building's western bay is emphasized by the two piers on either side of the office entrance. The first floor was mainly occupied by bars/restaurants, and the upper floor by various physicians. The second story windows were bricked with masonry in 1959. The roofline is decorated with a dark green decorative tile. The first floor storefront has been painted white.

14737 East Jefferson- Fox Creek Backwater Gates- One-story, one bay, brick public works building, 1930. This one-story brick building houses the underground "gates" and operating mechanism which control the level of Fox Creek. The building is designed in a "stripped" Classical/Art Deco style. Representations of pilasters are on the Jefferson Avenue elevation, and they project slightly at the roofline. Yellow multi-tone brick was used and cast stone surrounds define the door openings on East Jefferson and Ashland Avenues. The entablature above the door on East Jefferson Avenue states "Fox Creek Backwater Gates." A flagpole is on the site.

14801 East Jefferson- Peter Platte Motor Sales I B. F. Goodrich- Three-story, brick and reinforced concrete commercial building, 1919. Constructed as an automotive sales showroom. In 1936 an addition was constructed for a two-story service center. In 1965, a permit was taken out to alter the front of the building with light blue metal sheathing that wraps around the Ashland Avenue and East Jefferson Avenue elevations. The rear portion of the building is set back from Ashland Avenue, and did not get covered in the renovation. The Ashland Avenue facade of the metal sheathing was painted with the

image of a large tire, and signage for "Tires Galore" and "B. F. Goodrich" still remain on the front of the building. In the rear of the building, at the top of the elevator shaft, a painted sign for Ford and Lincoln remains.

14815 East Jefferson- East Jefferson Super Market -(Non-contributing)- One-story, brick commercial building, 1916. Built as part of the Peter J. Platt Motor Sales buildings, it was converted to an A&P Grocery store in 1938. The building remained a grocery store until recently; renovations are now underway for a "Rent A Center." The building facade has been altered with new brick, new window openings and mansard roof

14820 East Jefferson - BP Gas Station -(Non-contributing) - 1970. Contemporary franchise building.

14900 East Jefferson- Mobile Gas Station- (Non-contributing) - 1970. Contemporary franchise building.

14901-15 East Jefferson- The Deck Bar- Two-story, brick commercial building, 1918. Located at the corner of East Jefferson Avenue and Alter Road. Three storefronts were placed on the East Jefferson elevation, and two apartments above. Elaborate cast stone enframes the windows on one bay of the first floor of the East Jefferson Avenue facade, the windows of the Alter Road facade and a corner entrance. The metal cornice is still intact. There are two oriel windows, faced with wood siding, on the East Jefferson Avenue facade's second story. There is also one oriel window on the Alter Road elevation. It appears that the oriel windows are probably alterations. A cast stone bulkhead runs down the Alter Road elevation and a portion of the East Jefferson Avenue elevation.

14917 East Jefferson - Grosse Pointe Party Shoppe- (Non-contributing)- Two-story, brick commercial building, 1920. The facade of this building has been altered, and all windows on the second story have been covered by a tall slanted shingled overhang. The first floor storefront has been altered, and the window openings changed. The building shares a party wall with 14901 East Jefferson Avenue.

Alter Road

943 Alter- Windmill Pointe Manor- Four and one-half-story, C-shaped brick apartment building, 1930, Harry Slatkin, builder. This thirty-eight-unit multiple dwelling has its primary facade on Alter Road and a secondary one on Ashland Avenue. With its Spanish eclectic/Moorish!Art Deco exterior, Windmill Pointe Manor is constructed using multi-toned yellow/orange brick on three facades and common brick on the southern elevation. Decorative details include herringbone and corbelled brick patterns, griffins, tiled pent roofs and balconies. On Alter Road, the entrance is placed asymmetrically to the north side of the building, and is emphasized by limestone trim that surrounds the entrance and a set of three windows to its right. The northern facade has a small projecting, tile roofed entrance, and a three-sided bay of windows projects forward from the facade. The Ashland Avenue facade features brick balconies for four floors of apartments, on each side of the entrance. A false front gable at the roofline rises above a three-sided bay of windows. Copper downspouts, stepped arches over windows, and elaborate brickwork are additional features of the Ashland Avenue facade.

1020 Alter- Alter Road Apartment I Pointe Manor Apartments- Two and one-half-story, three bay, brick apartment building, 1926, William S. Blakeslee, builder. This thirteen-unit Colonial Revival apartment building is faced with mottled red and brown brick and has a symmetrically arranged facade consisting of a center entrance on a shallow stoop flanked by projecting bays. The entrance has a denticulated cast stone door surround flanked by fluted pilasters. A cast stone belt course separates the upper floors from the basement. The hipped roofhas wide overhanging eaves that are pierced by gabled roofs over the projecting bays. The gables have return cornices and repeat the ornamentation of modillions and prominent fascia board utilized under the eaves of the main roof The apartment building shares a massing, design and setback similar to its three sister buildings that make up the Pointe Manor Apartments complex.

1034 Alter - Barnes Apartments I Pointe Manor Apartments - Two and one-half-story, five bay, brick apartment building, 1925, William S. Blakeslee, builder. This seventeen-unit, red and brown brick Colonial Revival apartment building has a symmetrically arranged facade consisting of a center entrance on a shallow stoop flanked by projecting bays. The entrance has a denticulated cast stone door surround flanked by fluted pilasters. The entrance is composed of full glass double doors under a divided

transom window that is obscured by a metal awning over the doorway. As in its neighbor at 1020 Alter Road, a cast stone belt course separates the upper floors from the basement. The hipped roof has wide overhanging eaves that are pierced by the gabled roofs of the projecting bays. The building shares setback, massing and design similar to its three sister buildings that make up the Pointe Manor Apartment complex.

1044 Alter- Pointe Manor Apartments- Two and one-half-story, five bay, brick apartment building, 1925, William S. Blakeslee, builder. This thirteen-unit Colonial Revival apartment building is constructed of red and brown brick, and has a symmetrically arranged facade. Differing from its neighbors to the south, it has a flat roof The center entrance is flanked by projecting bays. The cast stone door surround has had a metal overhanging awning attached. A cast stone belt course separates the upper floors from the basement. The building displays setback, massing and design similar to its three sister buildings that make up the Pointe Manor Apartment complex.

1060 Alter- Pointe Manor Apartments- Two and one-half-story, five bay, brick apartment building, 1926, William S. Blakeslee, builder. This seventeen-unit Colonial Revival apartment building is constructed of red and brown brick, and has a symmetrically arranged facade. The center entrance is on a shallow stoop flanked by projecting bays. This building also contained space for an office, and was the most visually prominent building in the Pointe Manor Apartments complex. It presents a more impressive entrance and exhibits more architectural details than the other buildings in the group. It has a flat roof and cast stone string course above the basement level, as well as at the roofline below the cornice and parapet. Again, this building displays setback, massing and design similar to its three sister buildings that make up the Pointe Manor Apartment complex.

Ashland Avenue

1038 Ashland- Peter Platte Motor Sales I Joe's Garage- One-story, brick commercial building, 1924. This auto repair garage has a rectangular footprint. The brick facade on Ashland Avenue is pierced by a garage entrance in the center and a single doorway and narrow row of windows on the south of the garage door. The windows and doors are covered with metal grating. The bays of the facade are separated by brick piers. The parapet is coped with cast stone and projects above the roof A cinder-block addition has been attached to the north side of the 1924 structure.

Chalmers Avenue

903 Chalmers- (Non-contributing)- Two-story, Prairie style single family home, 1917, remodeled 1939. This house has wide over-hanging eaves and a hipped asphalt shingle roof. An asymmetrically placed one-story wing on the Chalmers Avenue facade contains the entrance. The facades have all been covered in light pink-colored stucco. The original windows have been replaced with large three-part fixed windows.

Eastlawn Avenue

1044 Eastlawn- Eastlawn Apartments- Three and one-half-story, seven bay, residential apartment building, 1924, Charles Heffner, builder. The Eastlawn Apartment Building is a twenty three-unit Classical Revival dwelling with a raised basement. The facade is symmetrically arranged around a center entrance framed by a portico containing two Doric columns that support a deep entablature. The name "Eastlawn" is borne across the entablature. The center bay on each side of the front facade projects forward with a triple window set in each bay. The bays are each capped by a copper roof. A parapet above the cornice is raised at the center of the facade.

Manistique Avenue

937 Manistique - Eastminster Presbyterian Church I Original Primitive Baptist Church -Two and one-half-stories, Tudor Revival style, 1920. This church is rectangular in plan. The only decorated facade is on Manistique Avenue, the other elevations are faced with common brick. The Manistique Avenue facade is faced with rock-face ashlar limestone, and the piers of the structure are emphasized to resemble buttresses. The main entrance is located at one end of the facade, and projects from the building by several feet. The double doorway is topped with a segmental arch of limestone, above which is a stone parapet spaced between two rounded piers. There is a cross centered in the parapet above the door. A smaller entrance is located on the other side of the elevation, and is attached to the facade as a two-story side entrance.

950 Manistique- Two and one-half-story, three bay, brick apartment building, 1930. This thirteen-unit dwelling was constructed of dark red brick and designed with

Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival style features. The facade is dominated by a front gable which projects slightly from corbelled brickwork at the second story. A barrel tiled pent roof runs between the gable and the southern pier, disguised as a false chimney. A round brick arch fills the front gable, and it has been inset with what are most likely Pewabic tiles. The front entrance projects from the facade and is also gabled and roofed with barrel tiles. A Moorish arch and quoins of cast stone surround the entrance door. There are two insets of what appears to be Pewabic tiles on the facade, one on the false chimney, and the other centered above the stairway window over the entrance.

1021 Manistique- St. Columba Episcopal Church- English Gothic Revival style, 1927, Lancelot Sukert, architect. St. Columba Church is cruciform in plan and has its main entrance on Manistique Avenue at the south end of the nave. The large crenellated bell tower is located at the eastern side of the nave, just south of the eastern transept. This asymmetric design reflects the English Gothic Revival style favored by Protestant churches. The building is sheathed in multi-toned limestone, and the slate roof and copper gutters and bell tower louvers are intact. Stone surrounds on the windows, doors, buttresses and end piers emphasize the building's structure. Stained glass windows line the nave, and there is a large stained glass window at the apse.

Marlborough Avenue

910 Marlborough - IDAO Apartments -Three and one-half-story, seven bay, brick residential apartment building, 1927, Ernest C. Thulin, architect. The IDAO Apartments is a thirteen-unit dwelling with a raised basement. Red brick was used in the construction of this building, and Tudor Revival detail was applied to the facade, such as a string course, stone sills and quoins around the doorway. The projecting entrance is centered in the facade, and the name "IDAO" is inscribed above the door. The windows in this building have all been recently replaced. The cornice has been removed and the parapet appears to have had tuck-pointing work done.

1031 Marlborough- Marlboro Apartments- Three and one-half-story, five bay, brick residential apartment building, 1927. This nineteen-unit dwelling sits adjacent to the commercial buildings on East Jefferson Avenue, just on the north side of the alley. Yell ow brick was used on this Elizabethan-inspired apartment building. The front entrance protrudes from the center of the facade of the building, and it contains the name "Marlboro" and stylized flowers on the entablature above the door. The window

arrangement is symmetrical, and all of the windows have been replaced. The crenellated parapet is raised to a peak over the grouped window bays on each side of the front facade.

Newport Avenue

1025 Newport- Sheldor Apartments- Three and one-half-story, six bay, residential apartment building, 1925. The Sheldor Apartment Building is a Classical Revival thirty-two unit H-shaped multiple dwelling. The Sheldor is faced with buff-colored brick on the Newport Avenue facade and common brick on the other elevations. The entrance is located through a narrow central courtyard distinguishing the two identical arms of the building's facade. Underneath the denticulated cornice is a frieze of swags running across the top of the structure. Plaques containing swags are centered under each window set. There is a brass plaque on the front of the building at the courtyard entrance that states the name of the building. The raised basement level is sheathed in cast stone. Many of the original 4/1 windows have been replaced with single-pane double-hung windows.