Nice Parking If You Can Get It

[SifuPhil]

source
​

Here's something you don't see every day, that is unless you live in Dearborn, Michigan, where the stately Michigan Theater, once home to such talent as Benny Goodman, The Marx Brothers, Bob Hope and Duke Ellington, has been converted into a parking garage.

The theater, opened in 1926, started off showing silent films and serving as a live-performance venue. The introduction of the talkies saw some conversions made and the theater continued well-enough until the late '30's, when live acts were discontinued.

The theater continued as a movie theater only, closing in 1967 due to declining ticket sales (along with, I suspect, the decline of Dearborn itself). After opening and closing several times under various owners as a live-act location (among the talents performing there - Aerosmith, David Bowie, Rush), it closed for good in 1976 after extensive damage from the crowds.

Plans to demolish the building were halted when it was discovered it was structurally essential for the support of an adjoining office building, so the insides were gutted and it was turned into a parking garage. The only remaining traces of its past glory is the ceiling architecture, the projection room and the ticket booth.

*sigh* Another beautiful old building wasted.

 

[That Guy]

They could, at least, pipe some Benny Goodman for folks to enjoy while searching for where in the hell they parked the car . . .

 

[R. Zimm]

I bet the accoustics are incredible! It would make my KIA Spectra sound like a sports car.

 

[SifuPhil]

They could, at least, pipe some Benny Goodman for folks to enjoy while searching for where in the hell they parked the car . . .

I bet the accoustics are incredible! It would make my KIA Spectra sound like a sports car.

Speaking of sound ... supposedly it was included in Eight Mile, the Eminem movie, so I imagine rather than bopping to the strains of Goodman they're probably hip-hopping to Drake and Jay-Z.

And I can also imagine what the effects of the car exhausts and the vibrations from traffic are on what's left of that beautiful ceiling ...

 

[Happyflowerlady]

Wow, what a awesome old building ! What a shame for it to become a parking garage, but maybe someday, someone with vision will buy it, and make it into something better than what it is now. It is truly still beautiful, even with no more of it left, than is there anymore. I could see it remodeled in a unique restaurant though. They have made them out of all sorts of old buildings nowadays .

 

[SifuPhil]

I love reading the blogs that feature abandoned buildings / towns, such as Abandoned Places, but I am also saddened to see such beautiful work left to the pigeons and the gang-bangers.

I lost the link for it, but just yesterday I was reading about a late 19th-century hotel somewhere in West Virginia. It started off this amazing place with plenty of light pouring in, hand-carved woodwork, fireplaces ... after the town went downhill it became first a rooming house and then apartments for low-income people. By then the place was falling apart and no one was willing to fix it, least of all the owners.

Now, like so many others, it's slated for demolition.

There's a similar situation here in Wilkes Barre, PA - there's a majestic old hotel called The Sterling that has been bounced back and forth between absentee owners and the city itself. Deals were made that resulted in a few people pocketing a lot of money, but the hotel continued to disintegrate. A few floods weakened the foundation, so now they claim it cannot be saved. Once again the cycle of bidding and under-the-table deals starts up ...

Meanwhile, some urban explorers got inside and took a lot of pictures of what's left. You can almost feel how it used to be in its heyday, but between the elements, the looters and Father Time I'm afraid its days are numbered.

 

[That Guy]

What happened to the great idea of "repurposing" . . . ?

 

[SifuPhil]

What happened to the great idea of "repurposing" . . . ?

It fell victim to the "urban imperative".

This was the Sterling in 1908 ...




... and in the late '90's before it was totally water-logged and vandalized ...