Eddystone Building facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Eddystone Building
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Facade of the Eddystone in 2008
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| Location | 100-118 Sproat Street Detroit, Michigan |
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| Built | 1924 |
| Architect | Louis Kamper |
| Architectural style | Renaissance Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 06000588 |
| Added to NRHP | July 12, 2006 |
The Eddystone Building is a former hotel located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. You can find it at 100-118 Sproat Street. This historic building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.
Contents
History of the Eddystone Building
A Hotel for Many Years
The Eddystone is one of three hotels on Park Avenue. They were all designed by an architect named Louis Kamper. He built them for a hotel owner named Lew Tuller. The other two hotels were the Royal Palm and the Park Avenue Hotel. All three buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Sadly, the Park Avenue Hotel was taken down in 2015.
The Eddystone was the first of these hotels to be built. Lew Tuller already owned other hotels. In the early 1920s, he saw Park Avenue as a great place to build more. Tuller hired Louis Kamper to design the hotel. It was built in 1924. The Eddystone Hotel had 312 rooms. Most of these rooms were rented out by the month.
However, Tuller spent too much money building his hotels. In 1928, he lost all three of his Park Avenue hotels. A businessman named David P. Katz bought the Eddystone. He owned it until 1966. Over time, the area around the Eddystone became poorer. As the neighborhood changed, so did the Eddystone's luck. It kept working as a hotel where people lived until the late 1990s. After that, it was left empty.
Attempts to Fix It Up Didn't Work
In 2005, there were plans to turn the Eddystone into 60 apartments. It would also have shops on the ground floor. The governor of Michigan at the time, Jennifer M. Granholm, announced these plans.
In August 2010, some work was done on the building. Workers bricked up the lower windows to make it secure. But the planned renovation never happened. The building stayed empty.
In 2015, a company called Olympia Entertainment started building the Little Caesars Arena. This new sports and entertainment center was built near the Eddystone. As part of this big project, the Park Avenue Hotel was torn down. Olympia Entertainment was then required to fix up the Eddystone. The Eddystone building is just outside the area of the new arena. The agreement from 2015 said Olympia had to finish fixing up the Eddystone within one year. This was from the day they got official permission to use Little Caesars Arena. That permission was given on September 12, 2017. But Olympia did not follow this rule. Construction had not even started by August 2018.
What the Eddystone Building Looks Like
The Eddystone Hotel is a thirteen-story building. It is tall and rectangular. It is made of a steel frame. The outside is covered with brick, limestone, and terra cotta. Terra cotta is a type of baked clay.
The first two floors are covered with limestone. The upper floors are covered with yellow brick. There is a decorative border between the second and third floors. Another terra cotta border is between the eleventh and twelfth floors. Fancy terra cotta designs are around the windows on the third, fourth, and twelfth floors. A terra cotta border also sits at the very top of the building.
The front of the building has seven sections. The five middle sections have two windows on each floor. The sections on the ends have one window on each floor, from the third to the thirteenth story. On the lower floors, the middle sections have large arches. The main entrance is in the middle arch. The outer sections have entrances for shops.
When you go through the main entrance, you enter a small hallway. This leads to the main lobby in the center of the building. Elevators and stairwells take you to the upper floors. The upper floors still have their original room layout. Rooms are on three sides of the building. The elevators, main hallway, and stairwells are on the fourth side.
See also
In Spanish: The Eddystone para niños
