The Broadway Avenue Historic District is a historic district located on a single city block along Broadway Avenue between Gratiot and East Grand River in
downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 2004.
The Broadway Avenue Historic District joins the
Randolph Street Commercial Buildings Historic District, a rare surviving commercial area which dates from the 1840s.
Description and significance
The Broadway Avenue Historic District contains eleven commercial buildings built between 1896 and 1926.
[Rustin Quaide, Caridad Dela Vega, and National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers](_blank)
"National Register Nominations," ''Heritage Matters'', National Park Service, December 2004, pp. 9–10. Three of those buildings — the
Cary Building and the
Breitmeyer–Tobin Building at the southern end, and the
Merchants Building
The Merchants Building is a commercial building located at 206 East Grand River Avenue (at Broadway Street) in Downtown Detroit. It is also known as the Broadway Merchants Building. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1 ...
at the north end — are listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in their own right.
The architectural
terra cotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...
used on these structures unifies the appearance of the district.
The district is significant for its architecture, its commercial history, its ethnic heritage, and for its association with
Philip Breitmeyer
Philip Breitmeyer (May 13, 1864 – November 8, 1941) was a florist, one of the founders of Florists' Telegraph Delivery (now Florists' Transworld Delivery, or FTD), and the mayor of Detroit, Michigan.
Biography
Philip Breitmeyer was born in ...
, mayor of Detroit from 1909 to 1911.
History
The area where the district is located was developed in the late 1800s as a commercial area catering to the women's trade, and included businesses such as hairdressers, florists, corset makers, and fashionable clothiers.
A number of these women's trade shops were owned by ethnic immigrants. During the 1910s, the area began transforming into a banking and financial center. In the adjoining
Randolph Street Commercial Buildings Historic District, the building at 1244 Randolph St. is a rare survivor from the 1840s.
[Randolph Street Commercial Buildings Historic District](_blank)
from the state of Michigan, retrieved 01/27/11 The Breitmeyer-Tobin Building on Broadway Avenue, now called
Harmonie Centre
The Harmonie Centre, also known as the Breitmeyer–Tobin Building, is an eight-story commercial building located at 1308 Broadway Street (at the corner of Broadway and Gratiot) in Downtown Detroit. It is part of the Broadway Avenue Historic Dis ...
, opened to African-American tenants in 1936. In the 1950s, ethnic and immigrant-owned shops moved into the area, with some of them still in the districts to the present day. The ''east necklace'' of downtown links Grand Circus and the stadium area to
Greektown
Greektown is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Greeks or people of Greek ancestry, usually in an urban neighborhood.
History
The oldest Greek dominated neighborhood outside of Greece were probably the Fener in Istanbu ...
along Broadway. The east necklace contains a sub-district sometimes called the ''Harmonie Park District'' in the Broadway Avenue Historic District which has taken on the legacy of
Detroit's music from the 1930s through the 1950s and into the present.
[Harmonie Park District]
. Retrieved January 15, 2013.
See also
*
Harvard Square Centre
The Harvard Square Centre is a building located at 1344–1346 Broadway Street in Downtown Detroit, within the Broadway Avenue Historic District and next to the Merchants Building. It was built in 1925 and stands at 12 floors in height, desig ...
*
Harmonie Club
The Harmonie Club is a private social club in New York City. Founded in 1852, the club is the second oldest social club in New York. It is located at 4 East 60th Street, in a building designed by Stanford White.
History
Originally named the ...
*
Music of Detroit
Detroit, Michigan, is a major center in the United States for the creation and performance of music, and is best known for three developments: Motown, early punk rock (or proto-punk), and techno.
The Metro Detroit area has a rich musical his ...
References
External links
Broadway Avenue Historic District
{{National Register of Historic Places listings in Wayne County, Michigan
Downtown Detroit
Historic districts in Detroit
Neighborhoods in Detroit
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan
National Register of Historic Places in Detroit