The Palmer Park Apartment Building Historic District is a

neighborhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...

located in

Detroit, Michigan 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 ...

, bounded by Pontchartrain Boulevard on the west, McNichols Road on the south, and Covington Drive on the northeast. A boundary increase pushed the eastern boundary to

Woodward Avenue A woodward is a warden of a wood. Woodward may also refer to: Places ;United States * Woodward, Iowa * Woodward, Oklahoma * Woodward, Pennsylvania, a census-designated place * Woodward Avenue, a street in Tallahassee, Florida, which bisects th ...

. The district showcases some of the most ornate and most varied examples of apartment building design in Michigan,Palmer Park Apartment Buildings Historic District

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from the city of Detroit and 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 (with a boundary increase in 2005).

History

The land that this historic district sits on, like the adjacent '' Palmer Park'' and nearby Palmer Woods Historic District, was once the estate of Thomas W. Palmer, a wealthy Detroiter and one-time

US Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and power ...

.Palmer Park Apartment Building Historic District
from the city of Detroit Palmer had intended to develop this area into a subdivision, but died in 1913 before bringing the idea to fruition. After Palmer's death, this portion of the estate was purchased by Walter Briggs. In 1925, Briggs hired Albert Kahn to design an apartment building in the area (this building, at 1001 Covington, was converted to condos in 2005Detroit Development News
Nov 15, 2005, ModelD). Forty buildings total were constructed in the district by multiple architects, including Weidmaier and Gay, Robert West, and William Kapp.
from Detroit1701.org Most of the buildings were constructed in the 1920s and 1930s, but development continued until 1965. At one time Palmer Park had a large LGBT community and had numbers of bars, bookstores, and restaurants owned by gay people. At that time, the only way one could acquire an apartment in the area is if one already knew another resident in the complex. Crime and police harassment increased in the 1980s, and gay people began leaving. Wendy Case of ''

Metro Times The ''Detroit Metro Times'' is a progressive alternative weekly located in Detroit, Michigan. It is the largest circulating weekly newspaper in the metro Detroit area. History and content Supported entirely by advertising, it is distribute ...

'' said "Ask three different people what happened to Palmer Park and you'll get three different answers. But all will eventually agree that crime is what dismantled Detroit's opportunity to have a gay renaissance akin to those of

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and

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. The glorious art deco apartment buildings that were once at such a premium in this neighborhood are still there — but you no longer have to "know somebody" to get one. You just have to have to pony up about 300 bucks and be willing to live between a beautiful park and ungodly urban squalor."Case, Wendy.
Affirming Ferndale
"
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''

''. May 30, 2007. Retrieved on January 24, 2013. Craig Covey, formerly a member of the city council of Ferndale, and now Oakland County Executive, said that most of the former gay residents of Palmer Park "tended to move up

and they settled in Ferndale, Royal Oak and

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depending on their economic abilities. The middle-class folks came to Ferndale and Pleasant Ridge, as I did." The " Hotter Than July!" annual LGBT festival is held in Palmer Park; the festival states that it caters to the "black same-gender-loving".

Description

The buildings within the district were designed primarily for middle- and upper-middle-class residents. They are primarily five- and six-story structures, and incorporated the latest residential technology. The architecture, however varies into the realm of the exotic, with styles such as Egyptian,

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archit ...

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

, Venetian, Tudor, and

Moorish Revival Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-19th centu ...

represented, as well as severely plain 1930s

Art Moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...

and International Style buildings.Detroit Historic Districts
from CityScape Detroit

Notable buildings in the district

* Temple Israel * Palmer Park Chapel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, originally built for a Greek Orthodox Church.

Education

Palmer Park is within the

Detroit Public Schools Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) is a school district that covers all of the city of Detroit, Michigan, United States and high school students in the insular city of Highland Park. The district, which replaced the original Detr ...

district. Residents are zoned to Palmer Park Preparatory Academy, formerly the

Barbara Jordan Barbara Charline Jordan (February 21, 1936 – January 17, 1996) was an American lawyer, educator, and politician. A Democrat, she was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction and the first Southern African-A ...

School, for elementary and middle school. All residents are zoned to Mumford High School. Palmer Park is operated by teachers and not by a principal administrator.Winerip, Michael.
For Detroit Schools, Mixed Picture on Reforms
" ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. March 13, 2011. Retrieved on November 9, 2012.

Gallery

File:Palmer Park Apartment Building Historic District Detroit 3.jpg, Apartment Building at Whitmore and Manderson File:I Palmer Park Apartment Building, Detroit, MI, USA (2).jpg, Alwyne Lane Apartments File:Palmer Park Apartment Building Historic District 2016 612.jpg, Palmer Park Apartment Building Historic District File:Palmer Park Apartment Building Historic District 2016 613.jpg, Boyce Apartments

References

External links

1001 Covington
an Albert Kahn-designed building. {{Architecture of metropolitan Detroit Historic districts in Detroit National Register of Historic Places in Detroit Neighborhoods in Detroit Populated places established in 1925 Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan