The

DoubleTree DoubleTree by Hilton is an American hotel chain managed by Hilton Worldwide. DoubleTree has been the fastest growing Hilton brand by number of properties since 2007, and by number of rooms from 2007 to 2015. As of December 31, 2019, it has 587 p ...

Suites by Hilton Hotel Detroit Downtown - Fort Shelby is a restored historic high-rise

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

, located at 525 West Lafayette Boulevard (at First Street) in Downtown

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 ...

History

In 1917, a group of investors sought to build an affordable hotel near

Fort Street Union Depot The Fort Street Union Depot was a passenger train station located at the southwest corner of West Fort Street and Third Street in downtown Detroit, Michigan. It served the city from 1893 to 1971, then demolished in 1974. Today, the downtown campus ...

. They hired Schmidt, Garden & Martin of Chicago to design the 10-story, 450-room hotel which opened that year as the Fort Shelby Hotel. The hotel was so successful that in 1926 they broke ground for the first of two planned 450-room expansions, the 27-story Albert Kahn–designed addition opened in 1927. However, the Great Depression halted plans for the second addition. In 1951, the Albert Pick Hotels Company purchased the property and renamed it The Pick-Fort Shelby. An original mural by

Louis Grell Louis may refer to: * Louis (coin) * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also Derived or associated terms * Lewis ...

of Chicago was commissioned for the hotel lobby during the Albert Pick years. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, more business opted for newer suburban accommodations and the Pick-Fort Shelby struggled with low occupancy. Pick closed the hotel in 1973 and sold the building to three young investors who reopened it as The Shelby Hotel, a hotel/apartment complex geared toward youth in 1974, however, this was short-lived and it soon closed again. For many years, the Anchor Bar, a popular watering hole for workers at the nearby

Detroit News ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival ''Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' absorbed the ''Detroit Tribune'' on Februar ...

and

Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the ''Sunday Free Press''. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primari ...

remained the only tenant until it relocated in 1994. The hotel 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 1983. Preliminary preparation for renovation work began in June 2006. It consisted of structural evaluations, asbestos removal, and environmental tests. MCP & Associates, a real estate investment and development firm, started work on this hotel in the spring of 2007. At a news conference on June 26, 2007, Ann Arbor Architectural firm Hobbs + Black Associates Inc. announced it would oversee renovations to the property. The renovations were led by Detroit-based L.S. Brinker, with the first floor Bar & Grill completed by Farmington Hills-based Mccarthy & Smith Inc. The hotel reopened as the DoubleTree Guest Suites by Hilton Detroit Downtown - Fort Shelby'' on December 15, 2008. The restored hotel contains 203 guest suites, 56 apartments on the upper floors, a conference center with two ballrooms and 17 Breakout rooms. FortShelbyDoubletreeLobby

References

External links

DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Hotel Detroit Downtown - Fort Shelby
official website * {{National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Residential skyscrapers in Detroit Skyscraper hotels in Detroit Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Hilton Hotels & Resorts hotels Hotel buildings completed in 1916 National Register of Historic Places in Detroit Albert Kahn (architect) buildings 1916 establishments in Michigan