The Players Club

The Players is a superb example of private club design and architecture from the first quarter of this century in Michigan exemplifying Arts and Crafts influences. This building demonstrates the innovative and artistic uses of common materials such as cast concrete in place of cut or carved stone to create rich decorative effect at minimal expense. Incorporated into the fabric of the building are artistic works by noted Detroit and American artists including muralist Paul Honore, painting by Thomas Di Lorenzo and John S. Coppin, sculpture by Corrado Parducci, iron work by Oscar Bach, and handmade tile by the Pewabic Pottery.

One of about ten private social clubhouses built in Detroit and its suburbs during the city's years of rapid growth prior to the Great Depression, The Players is unique in that it was built to house a club whose focus was the theater. It was unusual in 1925 that a small, all-male amateur theatrical group could finance the construction and afford the maintenance of a custom-designed theater building complete with fly galleries, a trap stage door, orchestra pit, dressing rooms, workshops, meeting rooms, a lounge, kitchen, club room, and an office. It is even more remarkable that today, more than sixty years later, this building is still being used by the same organization for its original intended purpose. Players has provided an important cultural function of allowing amateur, non-professional actors to experience all aspects of theater including playwriting, lighting, costume and set design, and makeup.

As a regular feature of its monthly production, special guests from the professional theater are invited to add to the evening's entertainment in the 'Afterglow.' Among those distinguished guests who have trod the boards at Players are Otis Skinner, Eddie Cantor, W. C. Fields, Frank Craven, Edward G. Robinson, Bert Williams, and, although not an entertainer, Admiral William Bird.

The Players was organized on December 10, 1910 by a group of prominent Detroit businessmen and civic leaders for the express purpose of forming a club devoted to serious but non-professional theater for men. All of the charter members had been active with an earlier group, the Comedy Club. The Comedy Club was open to both sexes, but ceased to exist about 1900. In 1907, another group, Fine Arts, was formed along the lines of the Comedy Club.

Fine Arts is still in existence and uses The Players for their productions. The Players was strictly a male organization from its inception and members are expected to take their proper turn playing required female roles, hence the motto 'Nunquam Renig,' never say no. During the fifteen years prior to building its own club building, The Players rented various theaters including the Little Theater of the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts and other commercial theaters to stage their productions. In 1916 the club began publishing a monthly bulletin to review productions and inform members of club activities.

The Player is still published today. An integral feature of the bulletin since 1918 is a cartoon for each production drawn by a club member. The original drawings are framed and adorn the walls of the hall and lounge. In March, 1925, the membership decided to erect their own club house and theater.

Ten members including auto magnate Edsel B. Ford each pledged $10,000 to guarantee the required bank loan. H. J.

Maxwell Grylls of the architectural firm of Smith, Hinchman & Grylls agreed to prepare the necessary plans and drawings. He asked William E. Kapp of the firm to handle this task. Both Grylls and Kapp were members of the club.

Building began in June, 1925 and The Players was formally dedicated with an opening performance on December 10, 1925.

An early Florentine Renaissance-inspired structure clad in red brick with cast concrete trimmings, The Players was built in 1925 as a theater and clubhouse for the Players Club, an amateur, all-male theatrical group dedicated to 'the encouragement of amateur dramatic talent and for the presentation of stage entertainment for the benefit of its members.' The building continues to serve that same function today. While the building, inside and out, makes much use of common building materials such as cinder block and concrete in exposed locations, the interior displays Pewabic tile and stencilling, murals, wall hangings, and metalwork produced by prominent Detroit and American artists and artisans. The Players building is located on the north side of East Jefferson Avenue between McDougall and Mt. Elliott Avenues, in Detroit, Michigan.

East Jefferson Avenue serves as one of Detroit's major radial avenues and, in the early twentieth century, was lined with many of the city's finest private dwellings. Today, only a few of these historic houses remain to the west of The Players toward downtown. They are now used as offices, restaurants, and university buildings. A one-story brick medical office building was erected immediately to the east of Players, and in fact shares a portion of the facade.

Although different in architectural style from The Players, this office structure is remarkably compatible because of its scale and integrity of design. To the west of Players are two vacant lots and the Deaconess Hospital which is also compatible with The Players due to its restrained design. It should be noted that a large housing/rental/marina development is now under construction directly across East Jefferson from The Players. This development along with the various other riverfront projects reinforce The Players as a significant architectural landmark in Detroit, for overall the building is not only harmonious as a design component of East Jefferson Avenue, but is one of the avenue's major architectural features.

The two-story Players is 60 feet wide and 130 feet deep with the stage area encompassing 55 feet of the rear portion. The Players is situated on a lot that is 60 feet wide and 200 feet deep. The roof over the front and rear sections is flat, but over the auditorium it is peaked. The building is of masonry construction sheathed with dull-red common brick.

All decorative exterior elements were made of cast concrete rather than stone to reduce the building cost. These decorative elements include quoins, window surrounds, and the main entrance surround. A delicate iron balcony fronts the three arched leaded-glass windows on the Jefferson Avenue facade. The initial seriousness of the design is broken by a row of heads alternately feigning laughter and tears, satirizing the masks of classical theater.

These heads and the other decorative features were fashioned by Italian-born sculptor Corrado Parducci. Over the entrance is the even more curious image of a terra-cotta mask whose red center represents a gaping mouth beneath a mustache, nose, and deep-set eyes. The phrase on the banner is the Club's motto, Nunquam Renig- a play on words meaning 'never refuse.' The interior space is divided into three distinct areas. On the main floor are the check room, office, lounge, dressing rooms, lavatories, auditorium, and stage.

Additional dressing rooms, property room, and wardrobe room are in the partial basement. The club room, loge, and projection-sound booth occupy the second floor.