The Eddystone Building is a former hotel located in
Midtown 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 t ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
, at 100-118 Sproat Street. 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 ...
in 2006.
History
Usage as a hotel until the 1990s
The Eddystone is one of three hotels on Park Avenue designed by
Louis Kamper
Louis Kamper (March 11, 1861 – February 24, 1953)Louis Kampeat Find-A-Grave Retrieved on July 8, 2009 was an American architect, active in and around Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan, in the United States.
Project range
In the early 20th ...
[Eric J. Hill, John Gallagher, American Institute of Architects Detroit Chapter](_blank)
''AIA Detroit'', Wayne State University Press, 2002, , , p. 60 for
Lew Tuller;
[Royal Palm Hotel](_blank)
from the State of Michigan the other two are the
Royal Palm
''Roystonea regia'', commonly known as the Cuban royal palm or Florida royal palm, is a species of palm that is native to Mexico, parts of Central America and the Caribbean, and southern Florida. A large and attractive palm, it has been planted ...
at 2305 Park Avenue and the former
Park Avenue Hotel at 2643 Park Avenue (across Sproat from the Eddystone). All three are 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 ...
. The Park Avenue Hotel was demolished in 2015.
The Eddystone was the first of these hotels to be built. Tuller had already other hotels, and by the early 1920s the northern portion of Park Avenue looked like an ideal place to expand his hotel empire. Tuller hired
Louis Kamper
Louis Kamper (March 11, 1861 – February 24, 1953)Louis Kampeat Find-A-Grave Retrieved on July 8, 2009 was an American architect, active in and around Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan, in the United States.
Project range
In the early 20th ...
to design the hotel on the corner of Park Avenue and Sproat, and the building was constructed in 1924. The hotel had 312 rooms, most of which were rented monthly.
Tuller, however, had overextended himself financially in building his hotels, and in 1928 lost all three Park Avenue hotels. Financier David P. Katz purchased the building, and owned it until 1966. However, the area surrounding the Eddystone became more impoverished, and as the neighborhood's fortunes declined so did the Eddystone's. It continued in operation as a residential hotel until the late 1990s, when it was abandoned.
Multiple failed redevelopment attempts
In 2005, plans to convert the Eddystone into 60 condominiums with street-level retail space were announced by then Michigan Governor
Jennifer M. Granholm.
[Michigan Economic Development Corporation](_blank)
''Governor Announces Support to Revamp Historic Eddystone Hotel in Detroit,'' July 15, 2005
In August 2010, work was being carried out on the site to secure the lower floors of the building by bricking up the windows.
[Updates on the state of the Eddystone Hotel](_blank)
DetroitYES forums However, the planned renovation never occurred, and the building continued to sit vacant.
In 2015,
Olympia Entertainment
Olympia Entertainment is an American sports and entertainment company headquartered in the Fox Theatre in Downtown Detroit, Michigan. Olympia is a division of Ilitch Holdings, and owned by Marian Ilitch. It owns or manages the Detroit Red Wings, ...
, the real estate segment of the
Marian Ilitch
Marian Bayoff Ilitch (born January 7, 1933) is an American billionaire businesswoman, and the co-founder of Little Caesars Pizza with her late husband, Mike Ilitch. As of March 2018, Ilitch was one of the world's seven richest women, according t ...
-owned
Ilitch Holdings
Ilitch Holdings, Inc. is an American holding company established in 1999 to provide all companies owned by Mike and Marian Ilitch with professional and technical services. Its privately held businesses include Little Caesars Pizza, the National H ...
, began construction on the
Little Caesars Arena
Little Caesars Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Midtown Detroit. Opened on September 5, 2017, the arena, which cost $862.9 million to construct, replaced Joe Louis Arena and The Palace of Auburn Hills as the home of the Detroit Red Wings of ...
near the Eddystone. As part of the development, the
Park Avenue Hotel was demolished, and Olympia was required to redevelop the Eddystone, which sits just outside the footprint of the new arena. The 2015 agreement specified that Olympia had to finish redevelopment of the Eddystone within one year of the issuance of a certificate of occupancy for Little Caesars Arena, which was issued on September 12, 2017. Olympia failed to comply with the requirement, as construction had not even started by August 2018.
Current redevelopment
After years of stagnated renovations,
Olympia signed a development agreement with the City of Detroit that would require Olympia to have a $33 million letter of credit or performance bond that could be used by the city if Olympia failed to meet the agreed redevelopment. Subsequent to this agreement, renovations began on the building into 81 rental units and 38,000 square feet of commercial space. In August 2021, Four Man Ladder Management was selected to operate a new restaurant on the ground floor of the Eddystone. Their previous projects include Grey Ghost and Second Best bar in nearby
Midtown and
Brush Park
The Brush Park Historic District, frequently referred to as simply Brush Park, is a 22-block neighborhood located within Midtown Detroit, Michigan and designated by the city. .
Description
The Eddystone Hotel is a thirteen-story, rectangular,
Renaissance Revival
Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...
steel frame building, clad with brick, limestone, and terra cotta. The first and second stories are clad with limestone, and the upper floors are clad with yellow brick. A denticulated cornice separates the second and third floors, and another terra cotta beltcourse separates the eleventh and twelfth floors. Decorative terra cotta elements are used around the windows on the third, fourth, and twelfth floors, and a terra cotta cornice caps the building.
The main facade is seven bays wide, with the five center bays containing paired windows on each floor and the end bays containing a single window in the third to thirteenth stories. On the lower floors, the center bays contain large arches, the center one of which contains the entrance. The outer bays contain storefront entrances. Through the main entrance is a small vestibule that leads to the main lobby in the center of the building. Elevators and stairwells lead to the upper floors. The upper floors still have the original room layout, with rooms located on three sides of the building and the elevators, main hallway and stairwells located on the fourth.
See also
*
Planning and development in Detroit
References
External links
Hotel Eddystoneat Detroit1701.org
at Detroiturbex.com.
{{National Register of Historic Places in Michigan
National Register of Historic Places in Detroit
Hotel buildings completed in 1924
Renaissance Revival architecture in Michigan
1924 establishments in Michigan
Louis Kamper buildings
Defunct hotels in the United States