Belcrest Apartments (Detroit, Michigan) facts for kids
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Belcrest Apartments
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| Location | 5440 Cass Avenue Detroit, Michigan |
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| Built | 1926 |
| Architect | Charles N. Agree |
| Architectural style | Renaissance revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 84001851 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
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| Added to NRHP | May 31, 1984 |
The Belcrest Apartments is a cool apartment building located at 5440 Cass Avenue in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It was built in 1926 and was first known as the Belcrest Hotel. This building is special because it was one of the first places in Detroit to offer apartments that also had hotel-like services. It's also an important early design by the architect Charles N. Agree. The Belcrest was named a Michigan State Historic Site in 1983 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
History of the Belcrest Apartments
The Belcrest Apartment Hotel opened in 1926. It was designed to be a fancy place for wealthy people to live. This building was unique because it offered apartments along with services you would normally find in a hotel. Imagine having daily maid service and a restaurant right inside your building! This was a new and exciting way of living back then.
Two people, Jacob Singer and Max Hamburger, were the ones who developed the building. They hired Charles N. Agree to design it and also to be the main builder. In 1929, the Belcrest became part of the Albert Pick hotel chain.
Cool Architecture of the Belcrest
The Belcrest is a tall, twelve-story apartment building. It is shaped like the letter "T" if you look at it from above. The building is made of concrete and steel, and its outside is covered with brick and a special kind of pottery called terra cotta.
Three parts of the building stick out from the main "T" shape. These parts go all the way up to the top, ending in a decorated point called a gable. The top floor of these three sections has lots of cool details. You can see stripes of brick and terra cotta, round-arched windows, and fancy patterns made from terra cotta.
The building also has decorative ledges called cornices on the third, eleventh, and top floors. These cornices make the building look wider. The second-floor cornice is grey and cream. It has small block-like shapes (dentils), twisted rope designs, and leaf patterns. The eleventh-floor cornice is tan and dark brown with green touches. The top cornice on the twelfth floor is shaped like a series of arches and more leaf patterns.
The main entrance has a gabled roof, which looks similar to the gables at the top of the building. You enter through beautiful original gates made of wrought iron.
See also
In Spanish: Belcrest Apartments para niños
