Sugar Hill Historic District

The Sugar Hill Historic District is significant due to its association with jazz music, an important aspect of Detroit's music history between 1920 and 1960, and with the associated lifestyle within Detroit's African American community. Called 'Sugar Hill' by some of its residents and patrons, the district was akin to the nation's music capitals of New York and Chicago. Between the years of 1940 and 1960, Sugar Hill's collection of nightclubs, hotels, apartment buildings, and businesses was home to a unique lifestyle that grew out of and fed into the local jazz scene. Sugar Hill's significance is further enhanced because it is one of the only remaining neighborhoods associated with jazz in the city of Detroit. The loss of buildings within the proposed district is evidence of the direct and indirect impacts of the mid-twentieth century urban renewal movement on Detroit's African American neighborhoods. The Sugar Hill Historic District is also significant for its contribution to the social history of Detroit, specifically as related to the development of a new settlement pattern for African Americans. This neighborhood represented a departure from the strict racial barriers and segregation that existed in the city at this time, signaling a small but significant change that allowed black and white musicians and patrons to mingle in the only socially integrated section of Detroit. Integration was not accepted in housing and until 1940 blacks were largely confined to the Near East Side, (a strip of land located north of Jefferson to Medbury between John R and Russell), and a few pocketed areas in the city such as Conant Gardens and the 'west siders.' The Sugar Hill district is on the western-most edge of the Near East Side. Sugar Hill was not only a place where African Americans could live but it was an entertainment district for both blacks and whites. Perhaps most importantly, a newly formed cultural identity emerged from this district that shed the degrading image of blacks as menial service workers for a middle-class lifestyle, shaped by music, which emulated glamour and created new wealth. Out of this neighborhood sprung the musicians and genius that would eventually forge the Motown empire.

The Sugar Hill Historic District consists of fourteen structures located within a two-block area bounded by E. Forest Avenue on the north, E. Canfield on the south, John R. on the east, and Woodward on the west. It is located approximately two miles north of downtown Detroit. The district is in Detroit's mid-city cultural center which is home to numerous museums and other public structures. Directly east of the district is Detroit's medical center. To the west across Woodward Avenue is the Cass Farm Historic District. Two national register-listed buildings are adjacent to the district: the Congregational Church at the northeast intersection of Woodward and Forest, and the Garfield Building at the northeast intersection of Woodward and Garfield. The district is the largest remnant of a neighborhood that flourished in the 1940s and 1950s with a concentration of black-owned or operated jazz venues and related residential/commercial activities. The district includes single-family houses, apartment buildings, a church, and commercial buildings. Historically, the proposed district has been an area of evolving uses, reflective of the changing economy, auto industry, population, and housing trends. Its remaining buildings reflect the architectural evolution of the area from 1885 through the 1950's. All retain their original location and appearance with minor alterations. The buildings maintain a common setback and are constructed of similar materials.