(first posted 10/24/2015) I love Detroit. This scrappy, determined and historic U.S. Rust Belt city has accomplished some amazing feats over the past five years, not limited to emerging from bankruptcy (the largest municipal filing in United States history to date), and restoring and resurrecting several downtown landmarks.
Such buildings include the Westin Cadillac Hotel (formerly the Book Cadillac, once abandoned and gutted), which features the Motor Bar pictured above. Much like this city, GM’s premier Cadillac brand has also repositioned itself as a desirable marque since its nadir, which seemed concurrent with that of Detroit.
Both the brand and the city still have a way to go to recapture all the glory of years past, but both are icons that have made great gains – seemingly almost in lockstep. It was the above scene near Grand Circus Park in the Theater District which caused me to pull over – of a 1977 (or ’78) Cadillac Eldorado street-parked a block south of the now-demolished Hotel Charlevoix. The Eldo’s condition was much like that of the Charlevoix – elegant style betrayed by an irredeemable condition. The Charlevoix came down at 7:30 AM on Sunday, June 23, 2013 via implosion, after having sat vacant for three decades. Similarly, there’s no bringing back this particular example of Cadillac’s mammoth FWD, personal luxury flagship, surely an eventual victim of its terminal rust.
You’d never know it from the title picture, but some of the establishments in this area are actually very hip and cool, with restaurants, bars, a view of the Detroit People Mover against the skyline, and perhaps best of all, the famous Cliff Bell’s jazz club, situated directly across the street from the former Hotel Charlevoix.
Cliff Bell’s is another piece of the story of downtown Detroit’s current and ongoing rebirth. This legendary live music venue was originally opened in 1935, closed in 1985, and was basically mothballed for twenty years until being dusted off and renovated in 2006. It was reopened that year, appearing very much the way it did in its heyday. I can imagine John and Horace Dodge getting smashed at the back bar, with the din of hopping jazz music, conversation and the clinking of glasses in the background. The trio pictured above played a great set at the club in June of 2014, during a friend’s Great Gatsby party that I attended.
It seems that another parallel between the Motor City and the one-time “Standard of the World” is that both found a need to downsize in some way in order to survive. Detroit still seems to be in the throes of this process, with some painfully-felt losses to some, but with the intent of the greater good of many. There is current discussion of bringing down the beautiful, Art Deco-styled Park Avenue Building, pictured above left and adjacent to the site of the Charlevoix which, like the old hotel, has been vacant for years. Similarly, CAFE and its potential penalties were no joke, and Cadillac needed to downsize (and re-engineer) its cars in the face of tightening fuel efficiency requirements.
Very admirably, Detroiters seem very protective of the city they love. When I was photographing the Eldo, a patron walking into a nearby sports bar chided me (loudly) for taking what she assumed were unflattering pictures of the Motor City. It is absolutely true that Detroit’s severe economic downturn since its 1950’s prime has been well-documented both in words and pictures. (Causes were myriad, but that may be a discussion for a different forum.)
I explained to the woman, who appeared to be roughly my age, that I meant no harm, that I am from Flint (another economically-challenged Michigan city roughly forty minutes away), and that I was only trying to capture an image of a classic, old Cadillac against the backdrop of this once-grand hotel. She was gone before I finished my sentence, but I’d like to think she understood on some level that I wasn’t dissing Detroit.
Ultimately, the sight (and site) of this Cadillac served as a reminder that there’s some truth to the saying that the only constant is change. Using my previous ’75 Chevy Impala Sport Coupe post as a reference, it can be comforting to see things still in existence as reminders of what worked well in the past. However, this old Eldorado and the demolished Hotel Charlevoix represent in my mind why reinvention is sometimes key to avoiding extinction.
All photos are as taken by the author in downtown Detroit, Michigan, in February 2011 and June 2014.
Great picture. I can imagine seeing the same scene back in late ’76, when the car was new and the hotel still in operation.
Detroit is fascinating. I read about Cliff Bell’s and its renovation in The Supper Club Book. The club looks like a very cool place.
The background almost looks like Gaylord, Michigan.
The picture was taken at Boyne Highlands, near Harbor Springs, MI.
Amazing ad!
Is that supposed to be a pair of skis that the driver strapped on to his trunk lid???
But of course. You can Brougham and ski at the same time. 🙂
Tom, if I had the software or know-how, I would have loved to photoshop that image to look like late ’76. And Cliff Bell’s is amazing. Here in Chicago, I make it occasionally to the Green Mill jazz club (where Al Capone used to hang out). Cliff Bell’s was almost (if not exactly) on par.
I’ve also been to the Boyne resort in late summer – it’s beautiful up in that part of Michigan.
Very cool Joseph, so you’ve actually been there. So many folks comment on all the bad things about Detroit–and they are there, for sure, but there are also some cool things being done as well. I was so happy when I found out the Book Cadillac Hotel was being renovated. One of the first things I got addicted to when I started checking out the Internet was the Fabulous Ruins of Detroit page, and I was quite taken with the story of the Book-Cadillac.
Sad story. The sister dealership next door to me has two low-mileage, mint condition ’76 Eldorado Convertibles that were owned by one gentleman since new. He has since passed and his wife wanted the cars removed from the garage. After nearly 40 years of preservation they are now sitting out in the elements, under pine trees no less. It saddens me to see this happen to such beautiful, well-cared for vehicles. And to know that they were lovingly cared for over the course of four decades, to see them in this state is very difficult. The chrome on them is absolutely spectacular. Hopefully they will end up in someone else’s hands soon that will appreciate them.
Tom C, if you’re on FB, join The Brougham Society and post these cars. We currently have over 5,500 members and there’s a chance someone will want to rescue these cars. https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheBroughamSociety/
Hi Tom, I’m going to join The Brougham Society. Tomorrow I will be getting more info on the Eldorados to see what they are planning to do with them. Thanks for the invite – look forward to it!
Those serve as a useful contrast to the near-derelict Eldorado in the original post–what once was. Hopefully two ’76 convertibles will find loving homes again soon!
So true Chris – that is why it makes me feel so horrible that they were preserved from the elements for so long and now in a matter of a few weeks they are being subjected to the elements.
This is the other one. Both have the exact same options and mileage – 28,000. They are even wearing the original wide-whitewall Uniroyal tires.
Please provide link for the dealership, or even post link to the specific ad. It might help to sell these eldos faster
Agreed, someone should rescue these. That one looks like it’s in Dunbarton Green. Nice color.
Detroit is one of very few American cities on my short list of must-see destinations, along with Pittsburgh and a few other once (and to some extent currently) depressed centers of industry. My loves of 20th century American history, architecture, design, and of course cars and automobilia have me fascinated. A few recent posts here highlighting the area gave me a renewed hankering to wander as soon as possible. I’m really hoping to swing a trip up that way during the warmer months of ’16.
Pittsburgh, despite the devastating loss of our steel and electrical manufcturing industries, didn’t suffer as badly as Detroit. I don’t have all the answers as to why. Maybe being smaller, there was less to lose? Perhaps emerging as a med/ed hub? IDK. Ironically we have an almost opposite problem Downtown. The construction of “beautfull” new buildings is what cost us a lot of older historic buildings. In additon much of the industrial areas were outside the city proper. (McKeesport,Braddock,Homestead) I wish Detroit the best in her recovery! We “Rust Belt” cities may never have had the “glamour” of NYC or LA, But we DID build and create much of what America was and is!
I absolutely love Pittsburgh, and in fact, since my only visit there in 2013, I’ve been meaning to research how that city was able to diversify and stay relevant and beautiful. I’d love to thing of Pittsburgh as a template for what could happen with Detroit. And I share your pride in the U.S. Rust Belt. We made stuff.
As luck would have it, many of Detroit’s gorgeous buildings were saved because nobody wanted to build anything to replace them. The Book-Cadillac, the Penobscot building, the Fox Theatre, Michigan Central Station, all will be must-sees for students of 1910s-1930s American architecture, all brought back, or being brought back, from the dead. To say nothing about the Fisher and old GM buildings, both of which have been in continuous use as office buildings (GM is now the home of State of Michigan offices in Detroit since GM decamped to the Renaissance Center).
MTN, it would be so worth your time, and I hope you can make it to both Pittsburgh and Detroit. You could add the Detroit Museum of Art to your list of things to do in the Motor City, since all of its famous artworks were *not* sold at action during the bankruptcy proceedings. There really is a lot to do and see there. Bring your camera!
Great juxtaposition of car and city.
For those interested in a great read on Detroit, I’d recommend Mark Binelli’s book, Detroit City Is The Place To Be. It is a bittersweet look at the depths of despair the city has endured, along with bright spots of fiercely proud people who will never give up.
I imagine the woman who chastised you for taking the pictures without understanding your intent would have been like many of the Detroit natives Binelli describes in his book. I have a great deal of empathy for her too, as it’s hard not to get tired of people who are looking for nothing more than a show at someone else’s expense.
I remember after Katrina how frustrated my brother was with the “lookey loos” who drove around his ruined Lakeview neighborhood as if it were some sort of tourist attraction. One example was the day he was going through his house one last time before it was to be demolished to see if there was anything left to salvage. An entire tourbus full of people with cameras saw him walking out of the flood-stained wreckage of his home with an armful of stuff, and they went crazy taking pictures of him like he was a zoo animal for their entertainment. You can imagine the earful of NOLA pride they got from him as he clearly told them where they could go.
Gawkers suck, I feel for them. I had the misfortune of losing my apartment to a building fire; the building was leveled. Crowds gathered to watch it burn, and people would stop and stare days after. Felt offended and disrespected, that my misfortune was their entertainment.
Edit: er… I feel for your Brother and such people, not the gawkers.
Recently during the Katrina 5th anniversary timeframe I heard an NPR piece mention that tour buses are banned from the Lower Ninth Ward for that very reason.
Agree. Back in the nineties the hamlet (too small for a village!) where we lived got flooded. Us locals all got so sick and tired of gawkers that I phoned up the nearby radio station and implored people to keep away and let folk salvage their lives. One family I knew well were that close to heaving a brick at the gawkers.
Oh gosh, Katrina – your brother must have felt extremely intruded upon. How awful. I completely understand why the gal in Detroit felt and reacted the way she did, and I really didn’t mean to offend her.
I am also sensitive to negative portrayals of my own hometown of Flint, Michigan. Recently, we had some trouble with lead in the water (which has recently been resolved by a switch back to Detroit-sourced water). Someone had used a picture I had taken – one for which I had actually received payment for use on the cover of the Flint Yellow Pages last year – and added a disparaging caption on it about lead from bullets and lead from water. It was infuriating.
We want the places we love to be portrayed in the most sympathetic light.
Great write-up Joseph. I’ve always wanted to visit Detroit just for the nostalgia. That black Eldo looks like it has seen better days, just like the city. Providence went through a very rough time and it now has had its renaissance. I wonder if that will ever happen in Detroit?
BTW it looks like the black featured Eldo has Fuel Injection – very expensive & rare option back then!
I had a friend who said Canada should buy Detroit. We’ll take them.
Fuel injection was a $700 option on an $11000 car. Other options were much more expensive. Fuel injection did up the horsepower rating.
I didn’t see many with fuel injection in Rhode Island. Not sure where you live if it was more popular.
Calculating it in today’s dollar, $2850 seems like a lot for an engine option, don’t you think?
I think most dealers did not order fuel injection unless someone wanted it. But the Biarritz with astroroof was $2800 extra. The fuel injection was an analog system like the Seville’s. It was to be replaced by digital fuel injection on 1980 models. Horsepower is 195 instead of 180.
Basic options for the Eldorado (not vinyl or sunroof) run the base price up to around $12000 (power seats, door locks,…)
Thank you, Tom. I am hoping that Detroit will find its new legs (and progress has been steady) and serve as a template for other cities like it to find their way back to vibrance and relevance.
You might say Detroit is turning into a Barn Find.
A very interesting piece, and very thought provoking.
Two quick angles – Cadillac and Detroit, compared with say, Munich and BMW over the same 50 year period, and what you pair with Coventry, England’s Detroit?
Thanks, Roger! Now I need to research both Munich and Coventry.
Thanks for this Joseph.
I absolutely love Detroit. I’ve read books on numerous rust belt and midwestern cities, and Detroit is the city I’ve found most fascinating. 50% of the population leaving over 50 years is some epic population shift. I can understand why the woman got mad, there’s been so many articles written by Detroiters about tourists coming to photograph “ruin porn”.
When I went to Detroit in 2012, my friend and I did go driving around some derelict neighbourhoods. But a lot of my photos were of buildings that are very much alive: Guardian Building, Fisher Building, the restored mansions of Brush Park. And people, even here in Australia, think Detroit is just some wartorn hellhole but at least downtown, I felt safe.
You’ve really touched on something I love today. Although when you said the Book Cadillac was renovated I got confused and I thought you were talking about the Book Tower, a building I absolutely LOVE! Alas, it is a different building and one that is still abandoned.
I want to go back to Detroit ASAP.
Ditto, no problems when we visited there a couple of years ago. We also did a drive to do some sightseeing in the city, eg going past the old GM HQ on our way to the Motown Museum (fantastic), and the old Packard factory on our way to the Piquette Ave Model T Museum. We also drove in to the city via Woodward Avenue, which was interesting to see with the stories of the street racing 45 years ago plus the Dream Cruise now.
William, I also really hope the Book Tower is eventually renovated. It’s a truly beautiful piece of architecture. I’m actually kind of moved by some of the comments in this thread which show interest on an international level in (and affection for) this city.
Book-Cadillac got restored? That’s fabulous.
Once a Great City by David Maraniss is a fascinating snapshot of Detroit in 1963-1964. Detroit fans should not miss this one.
I too, have held a strange fascination for Detroit. It seems to combine my love for cars and ghost towns. Living out here in BC I’ve made an effort to explore and photograph many of the abandoned ghost towns hidden in the back country, I love it. I don’t mean to say that Detroit is a “dead” town, I just find a strange beauty in the old buildings and the people that are re-building their city. I mean that in the most positive possible way. I’ve seen many of the old boom towns out here decay well beyond repair and I take comfort in the fact that Detroit will rebuild itself.
I visited Detroit five years while it was still in a bad place. My wive went to school in Windsor a decade previous and we managed to squeeze in two days in Detroit on a grand Eastern road trip. We did a quick tour taking photographs which understandably wasn’t very well received by the locals. Driving a Japanese car with BC plates certainly didn’t help. Even saw a guy riding a fender-less Model T using hand signals!
Anyway, some of my wive’s musician friends have recently moved to Detroit and are loving it. We’re hoping to do a more thorough visit soon.
A fenderless “T”…If it had a vintage ’20s “speedster” body….That would be Over the Top Awesome!….Just enlarged the pic… Still awesome! Even as a Chevy (ok, GM) guy, I still love to see Model “T”s on the road (even more than “A”s, but I’m weird that way) Great shot!
Another Eldorado in Detroit january 2014.
Great shot!
Fantastic image. I’m wondering what this scene would have looked like in the mid-70’s.
Joseph, you’ve whetted my appetite to see Detroit more than ever. Never been there, except for a quick drive through in 1964 in the family Fairlane, heading to the NYC World’s Fair via Canada. Must come to visit before too long.
Awesome, Paul. I also need to get back there and do some more exploring.
I’ve never been to Detroit but would love to see it someday–I began to take an interest in the architecture of the city from web sites/books probably 10+ years ago and it’s been fascinating to see how many things (like the Book-Cadillac) have made a turnaround and other landmarks (like the Statler Hotel) lost forever. Brush Park in particular attracts my interest, going from a very expensive address to an almost completely leveled urban wasteland. At least the few remaining homes there are being renovated (I hear they’re working on, or will soon be, the Ransom Gillis House, finally?)
Very evocative photography as usual!
So, that Cadillac belongs to a bartender at Cliff Bell’s. He’s a great guy and has been daily driving that car for at least the last 7 years. I always know he’s working when it’s parked outside.
Also, you should note that the abandoned hotel across the street is about to be renovated, which is wonderful. We (Detroiters) are all happy to it finally happen.
Best,
Jim (A native Detroiter)
PS – Thanks for not dissing Detroit.. we appreciate you!
Very cool. Cliff Bell’s got a great writeup in The Supper Club Book, a coffee table book on classic Midwestern supper clubs from the past and present. http://www.thesupperclubbook.com/
PS – Thanks to EVERYBODY who isn’t dissing Detroit in this thread.. there’s so much going on here, so much activity. Also, I work in the Guardian Building downtown and it’s a gorgeous place. Don’t give up on us, we’re strong and pushing hard for an amazing future.
We will have a rail system soon connecting downtown center to other parts of town, called the M1 Rail.. check it out if you have a moment.
Jim
Jim, thank you so much for posting this. The next time I’m back will have been too long. Nothing but *great* stuff in your updates on the Motor City!
Up until recently, a gentleman who went by the name Detroitblogger John used to have a site called Detroitblog.org. Over several years, he wrote pictorial articles chronicling Detroit’s seemingly terminal decline, but also the tough, scrappy residents determined to revitalize their community.
His early blog entries featured photographs taken inside many famous long-abandoned buildings that he was able to get into, including the now-demolished Madison-Lenox Hotel, the United Artists theater, the original Motown Records, and the massive Central Train Station.
There was some other famous hotel slated for restoration before then-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his cronies did an illegal late-night demolition.
It is now October 2021. The Park Avenue Building still stands. In 2020 plans were announced to rehabilitate it and reopen as a Hilton Hotel. Then, in mid-2021, it was sold to a new owner, with renovations not begun.
The structure survives. Probably not the Cadillac, though one never knows.
Thank you for this update. I really want great things for the Park Avenue Building, as I’m sure many others do. Grand Circus Park is really such a cool area, and even since I took these photos (I haven’t been back to Detroit since maybe 2018?), there have been so many other great things developing in the Motor City.
I had made tentative plans with a long-time Michigan friend to meet in Detroit and do a little tourism. Hopefully for 2022.
Nice to see those so often maligned bumper fillers survived at least that long.
I know! Totally agree.
Detroit Hustle, A memoir of Life, Love, and Home by Amy Haimerl, is a book about a New York couple that relocates to Detroit where they can afford to buy and renovate an abandoned vintage home. It highlights the problem of obtaining a mortgage which is almost impossible. They used savings and borrowed money to renovate the house and almost couldn’t convert all their debt into a regular mortgage. Very enlightening, I’ve read that a group of friends and family will often pool their money (savings and maxed out credit cards) to buy one of these low priced homes, many selling for under 5,000 dollars at that time.
Joseph, I grew up in Oakland Ca, and while I moved away years ago, it still remains a part of me. These Cadillacs meant a lot to me, and not just as automobiles. Mine was an extend UAW family and these cars were the products of our hands and our hearts. Auto production provided us with the key to the American Dream.
Jose, thank you for this book recommendation. As the temperatures cool down and I spend more time indoors, I’ll have more time to read. I hadn’t even thought about not being able to get a mortgage because lenders were scared of where my / their investment was located.
And RE: Oakland and GM, you and I have so much in common with regard to pride in the industry that built the communities in which we had spent so much time. Even if my own family wasn’t connected directly to the automotive industry in Flint, Michigan, I completely feel your last paragraph. Beautifully stated, friend.
Growing up on the Chicago South Side, I’m familiar with decaying industrial communities. Detroit makes me sad. Our Chicago industries supported Detroit and to this day is a manufacturer of automotive components struggling against overseas competition. To those who think that Detroit lost because it didn’t downsize, has to recognize that our US industries are still losing to overseas competition even 50 years later. It wasn’t so much that Detroit products lost their edge, it is that Americans stopped supporting domestic manufacturing in nearly every market.
We went from supporting one another to selfishly supporting ourselves. Europe, to its credit, recognizes how important it is for their native industries to be protected from global vultures. We need to protect ourselves as much as our trading partners do. Our naivete has caused trillions of dollars in losses, in my opinion. Bring back fair trade.
Detroit is fighting an uphill battle and I would just love to see the losses end. It was a great city after WWII, now it looks like it lost WWII and is still losing today.
I visited Detroit once in 1995, with my soon-to-be ex-wife at the time. While I was shocked at the industrial devastation, it was the entire neighborhoods of abandoned homes and empty lots that hit me the hardest. So many people that lost not only their jobs, they lost everything. A friend of the ex had recently purchased one of these grand old houses, covered in beautiful woodwork inside and out, in a old development that was about 50% abandoned. She paid less than $20K for it but could not get a mortgage and borrowed from her folks instead. I can only hope that she and her children are still there, thriving in a rejuvenated neighborhood, but I have my doubts.
This blogger does a very good job of documenting the Big D over the last 20 or so years. He puts the buildings in historical context and makes for some interesting reading. https://www.nailhed.com/p/about.html
A few more final thoughts on Detroit following this repost (which I didn’t know was going to happen, but I’m glad it got chosen. 🙂 )
Detroit is a poster child for how systemic racism (including unchecked racist attitudes) and the exclusion of certain groups of people from enjoying it – people who made huge contributions to building its greatness – can result in catastrophe.
Yeah, Detroit isn’t what it was in the ’50s and ’60s, but what some people tend to overlook is that persons of color like me weren’t fully able to enjoy it back then, and had to deal with a lot. I much, much prefer the Detroit of 2021 – a city chock full of people of all races, colors, stripes, etc., who seemed to have learned from what the previous generations struggled with. Give me that all day over beautiful buildings I never would have been allowed to enter. Not a rant, but just a little perspective.
I don’t know who made my car. I don’t know their race, religion, gender or nationality. I don’t know the city where my car was designed, or engineered, or where the components were made, or they condition of the city where it was assembled. I don’t care about those things.
But if most people stop buying that car, all those places are negatively impacted. There are abandoned car manufacturers everywhere. How those towns handle their losses differ.
Today, former slave states are the homes of our most popular auto assembly plants. None of them look like Detroit. Good times bring good things, bad times bring bad things.
Very well said, Joseph.
To speak frankly about it, plenty of business found that it wasn’t necessary to move THAT far away from Detroit proper to be able to prosper. I’m optimistically trying to speak in a past tense when I say that you can’t imagine a more vicious hostile-to-productivity environment than old Detroit was at its worst.
An antagonistic culture, from top to bottom parasites and vultures looking to suck the life blood out of anything that looked like it might have some fight left in it.
All of the exiting people and organizations didn’t leave because it was becoming such an idyllic place to work and live.
It’s as if there was an unwritten plan to make the place inhospitable to all, even the largest taxpayers and employers. How’d that work out?
As to the downsize-or-die analogy, Eldorado’s dilemma compares nicely with the Motor City’s. Successful downsizing isn’t so easy when trying to do so while hanging on to legacy infrastructure.
In the City’s case many square miles of sparsely populated low-revenue “legacy” infrastructure was bleeding away ever dwindling resources from more viable areas. Areas that might have a chance if a bit more timely life support were administered.
The Eldorado’s case is similar. The necessity to downsize was obvious. But how, with limited resources dictating that it must be done with legacy components?
The old legacy iron north-south engines would have to “trim down” and soldier on for a few years.
It was desperately necessary for the transmission to gain a fourth gear with the downsizing. Again, being limited by legacy infrastructure, it would have to be another chain-drive cut-and-fold conversion of a rwd box.
There was no ready alternative to the archaic legacy infrastructure of body-on-frame construction. An improvised upgrade to independent rear suspension would have to be it for chassis upgrades. Gear-box steering would remain along with too-far-forward engine placement.
But then for ’86 a build with practically all-new clean-sheet infrastructure was executed – and it flopped. So who’s to say which was the right way forward?