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 Game warden, 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 b ...

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

Archive
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 v ...

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 The Palmer Woods Historic District is a neighborhood located in Detroit, Michigan, bounded by Seven Mile Road, Woodward Avenue, and Strathcona Drive. There are approximately 295 homes in the district, which is between the City of Highland Park ...

, was once the estate of

Thomas W. Palmer Thomas Witherell Palmer (January 25, 1830 – June 1, 1913) was a U.S. Senator from the state of Michigan. He is considered to be one of the most significant figures in the history of Detroit, Michigan. Palmer was born in Detroit, where his m ...

, 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 powe ...

.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 distributed f ...

'' 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

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. 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 The Royal Oak is the English oak tree within which the future King Charles II of England hid to escape the Roundheads following the Battle of Worcester in 1651. The tree was in Boscobel Wood, which was part of the park of Boscobel House. C ...

and

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

depending on their economic abilities. The middle-class folks came to Ferndale and Pleasant Ridge, as I did." The "

Hotter Than July! Hotter Than July! is an annual week-long black LGBT Pride celebration held annually since 1996 in Detroit, Michigan, which includes events each day culminating with a large festival on the final weekend. The Detroit Black Pride Society and Kick (D ...

" 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 Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

, Spanish Colonial Revival,

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 the e ...

, 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 centur ...

represented, as well as severely plain 1930s Art Moderne and

International Style International style may refer to: * International Style (architecture), the early 20th century modern movement in architecture *International style (art), the International Gothic style in medieval art *International Style (dancing), a term used in ...

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 district. Residents are zoned to Palmer Park Preparatory Academy, formerly the Barbara Jordan School, for elementary and middle school. All residents are zoned to

Mumford High School Samuel C. Mumford High School is a public high school located on the near-northwest side of Detroit, Michigan. It was operated by the Detroit Public Schools, and had been operated by the Education Achievement Authority of Michigan (EAA). DPS re ...

. 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