Vanity Ballroom

Designed by local architect Charles N. Agree and built in 1929, the Vanity Ballroom Building is significant as an outstanding Art Deco styled building with Aztec theme detailing. It is also significant as containing the last remaining intact ballroom of the grand dance halls in Detroit accommodating the big bands of the 1930s and 40s. The Vanity Ballroom, which had capacity for about 1,000 couples, hosted such legendary big bands as Count Basie and Tommy Dorsey. The ballroom is a tangible reminder of a popular form of entertainment in the 1930s and 40s, dancing and enjoying big-band music.

The Vanity Ballroom, built in 1929, is located five miles from downtown Detroit at the northeast corner of Jefferson Avenue and Newport Street, on part of a vacated portion of Skinner and Moore's subdivision, formerly Presque Island Park. Designed by Charles N. Agree in an Art Deco style with Aztec theme, the building is two stories and consists of five retail store spaces on the first floor and a ballroom on the second. The nearly square plan building measures 125 feet along Newport and 121 feet along Jefferson with nearly identical facades on both streets.

The building is constructed with a steel and reinforced concrete structural system faced with orange brick with darker brick, cast stone and tile ornamentation. With the exception of minor storefront changes, the building has not been altered.