Grand Rapids Photos

[GRDadof3]

Well, the Hammond Building may have been taller, but the Trust Building is still there.  I didn't realize it was designed by Solon Beman, a major Chicago architect of the time.  No wonder this building would have been at home in the Loop.

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Ouch! I totally missed that in his post.

[Budgie Frisket]

Thank you thank you thank you. I could just KISS you!

Budgie

[GRDadof3]

^Uhhh. OK.

Here are a couple of more photos I FOUND of buildings in the revitalized historic Heartside/Ionia Ave area. These are not my work, so they are a bit dated

Weston Apartments - 44 Ionia and 21 Weston - Just received funds to rehabilitate apartments

If the weather holds tomorrow, I'll get some of Michigan Trust, Ledyard, One Federal and the Waters Buildings.

[GRDadof3]

Downtown CBD:

Michigan Trust Company Building - 40 Pearl Street - Red Sandstone and Brick Beauty - Aldrich Building on Monroe Center in Background

Waters Building - 161 Ottawa - Grand Plaza Tower in Background

Part of the "Ledyard Block" at Ottawa and Pearl - Stretches to Monroe Center - McKay Tower in background - Sections date back to 1859

Interesting Mix of Old and New - Michigan Trust (right), New Courthouse (center), Bank One Building 200 Ottawa (center rear), Waters Building (left)

We'll just call this the Flanagans Building

180 Monroe - With Better Windows - Mojo's Piano Bar on First Floor

Old Pantlind Hotel Portion of the Grand Plaza Hotel - In Process of Getting a Street Level Facelift - (Goodbye Burger King atriums, hello more outdoor patios)

Seldom seen rear of Grand Plaza Hotel - Rumor has it the griffins in the stonework were the inspiration for the hockey team name - Go check it out at the end of Lyon Street at the new Devos Place Civic Auditorium entrance!

The B.O.B. (Big Old Building) - Old refrigerator factory (I believe) - 5 Floors of Fun with restaurants, multiple bars, comedy club, and 4 story atrium cut into the center - check out the old scale sunken into the floor at the Arena side entrance - Soon to add 1200 seat performance theatre and possible boutique hotel.

Enjoy!

[LA Dave]

Great pics. What is left of the old Civic Auditorium? I have many fond memories of that barn, Shrine Circuses and Home Shows and Grand Rapids Symphony Concerts. It was never much of a concert hall, but it was our own local Madison Square Garden.

Also, nice to see the Michigan Trust Building. You can clearly see Beman in the design. He also was responsible for the town of Pullman, Illinois, which is definitely worth visiting on the South Side of Chicago.

[GRDadof3]

LA Dave

You'll be happy to know the old Civic facade was saved, and is now part of the new Devos Place. Here is a picture:

The saved facade of the old Welsh (Civic) Auditorium, currently the entrance to the new DeVos Place Ballroom:

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GR Magazine Article about the facade and the Steelcase Ballroom.

[Nitro]

LA Dave

You'll be happy to know the old Civic facade was saved, and is now part of the new Devos Place.  Here is a picture:

GR Magazine Article about the facade and the Steelcase Ballroom.

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Did they keep just the facade or did they keep the lobby too? I thought the lobby had kind of a funky charm to it. It would be a shame if they got rid of that too.

Nitro

[GRDadof3]

Did they keep just the facade or did they keep the lobby too?  I thought the lobby had kind of a funky charm to it.  It would be a shame if they got rid of that too.

Nitro

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I grabbed this quote from the Grand Rapids Magazine article:

"The entire building was imploded except for the art deco fa

[LA Dave]

Thanks for that information. I loved the lobby -- real "ocean liner" 1930s style.

[Josh]

I was walking around there a few weeks ago and I found that one of the doors from the Civic Auditorium was open. So I went in, and it is pretty spectacular inside there; the lobby is still great. The new Steelcase Ballroom is huge. I should have had my camera with me inside there...

Oh well, here are a few more pics of the Grand Plaza Hotel that I took.

[LA Dave]

What I particularly like about the bottom picture is the little riverside park that was developed at the end of Lyon Street. When I was kid, the street just ended with a barrier. (I seem to recall that there was a little island in the middle of the street with parking on both sides of it.)

[GRguy]

They did restore the Lobby and did a great job. The detailing is awe inspiring (that we could get the budgets to do this now...) Worth a look next time you are there.

[GRDadof3]

Much overdue update.

Some of my favorites, starting on the East side and moving toward Heritage Hill:

Sacred Heart College - Dominican Sisters Home

The Marywood Campus today

The Old Lowe Estate - Fulton Street/Marywood Area

Now part of Aquinas College (Reportedly haunted)

Blodgett Memorial Hospital - Plymouth and Wealthy

Wealthy School - Lake Drive

Auditorium Entrance

Wilcox Estate Garden House - Lake Drive - 19th Century - Undergoing renovation

Leo Peters Estate - Butterball Turkey Inventor - Plymouth and San Lu Rae

Gothic Tudor built by John Heckman in 1930 - Plymouth at Franklin

Grand Rapids Public Schools Franklin Street Campus - Built in 1914 - Old Calvin College Campus

Small Sampling of Heritage Hill Favorites (Over 1300 Homes in the Association)

Friant House - 601 Cherry Street - Built in 1892

Fox House - 455 Cherry Street - "The Castle" - Built in 1888

Morris Manor - Cherry Street - Built in 1865

Morman House - Fulton Street - Built in 1886

Sweet House (Middle) - 17 Lafayette Street - Built in 1875 for his daughters - Reportedly had a tunnel to 254 Fulton

Stickley House - 60 Prospect Ave - Built in 1900

Studley House - 64 Propect Ave - Built in 1890

Fountain School - 421 Fountain - Built in 1918

Central High School

28 Lafayette

Philo C Fuller House - 44 Lafayette - Built in 1860

Central Reformed Church - 10 College Ave NE - Built 1918

Meyer May House - Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie House Style - 1908

For more information regarding Heritage Hill tours, you can go here:

http://www.heritagehillweb.org/tours.htm

[GRDadof3]

I'll keep adding my favorites over the next couple of weeks (see my previous post today ^^). It is mainly to raise awareness so that something like this doesn't happen to Grand Rapids:

Brush Park Neighborhood - Detroit

I know that Brush Park is making a comeback, but the fact that so many buildings in Detroit saw the same fate (or were and are being torn down), it just makes me sick. I know we lost a lot of buildings during the 60's, but nothing compared to what Detroit has suffered through and is still battling with (Madison Lenox Hotel). We are very fortunate.

[Nitro]

I know that Brush Park is making a comeback, but the fact that so many buildings in Detroit saw the same fate (or were and are being torn down), it just makes me sick.  I know we lost a lot of buildings during the 60's, but nothing compared to what Detroit has suffered through and is still battling with (Madison Lenox Hotel).  We are very fortunate.

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I lived in Detroit for four years and explored the Brush Park area closely. The City of Detroit was completely to blame for the delay in getting this area rehabbed. The interest was there and people were clammoring to be able to get in and redo the houses in this area. The City owned most of the property in Brush Park mostly from tax reversion. Their interest was in selling whole blocks of properties to developers rather then selling the lots piece by piece. Well, just look at them. Most of them looked very much like the house in the first picture. How much risk do you think one developer was going to take especially in the shaky Detroit economy? There is street after street after street of houses like this in Brush Park.

After moving to Georgia and subsequently back to Grand Rapids I've lost touch with the happenings in Brush Park. I know there is rehabbing going on now but I'm not sure how it all came together. I'd sure like to know.

Nitro

[GRDadof3]

I lived in Detroit for four years and explored the Brush Park area closely.

[DTDC]

...but dude, what happened to all of the trees   Just compare the Brush Park photos to my Heritage Hill photos above^^^.  Sometimes it is hard to get a picture of some of the Heritage Hill homes because of the tree growth (which I like).

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Detroit once planted hundreds of thousands of trees along almost every residential street in the city. I've seen pictures of the house my mother grew up in and the street was lined with huge, fantastic trees in every direction. They must have been a hundred feet tall.

Too bad they were almost all elms.

Bark beetle + European fungus = treeless Detroit.

About that time the middle class bailed on the city and moved to the suburbs, where they planted thousands of a certain elm replacement along the streets - ash trees. Oops.

Imagine what some GR neighborhoods will look like if the next plant plague kills all the maples or sycamores.

[LA Dave]

Great pics.

A couple of comments.

The Philo C. Fuller house on Lafayette once was hidden behind a 1950s synagogue, Congregation Ahavas Israel. I guess the synagogue building incorporated the house. A pretty bleak building, thankfully destroyed after the synagogue moved out to Michigan St. NE.

The present Central Reformed Church was not built in 1918. The present building was finished in 1957 after a fire destroyed the earlier church in 1953.

The Brush Park pictures are shocking. Poor Detroit. Never my favorite city (I always preferred Chicago as our "big city"), but one that deserves better than the fate that has befallen her.

[GRDadof3]

Great pics.

A couple of comments. 

The Philo C. Fuller house on Lafayette once was hidden behind a 1950s synagogue, Congregation Ahavas Israel.  I guess the synagogue building incorporated the house.  A pretty bleak building, thankfully destroyed after the synagogue moved out to Michigan St. NE.

The present Central Reformed Church was not built in 1918.  The present building was finished in 1957 after a fire destroyed the earlier church in 1953. 

The Brush Park pictures are shocking.  Poor Detroit.  Never my favorite city (I always preferred Chicago as our "big city"), but one that deserves better than the fate that has befallen her.

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Thanks for the correction Dave. The plaque out front and some history I found on-line put at least part of the structure at 1918. I don't know how much of the original structure is still standing, but I do love the courtyard (even if it was 1957 )

[LA Dave]

GRDad: Actually none of the church there dates from 1918. The location of the church that burned in 1953 was about two blocks away, I think. Central Reformed is a beautiful example of a Virginia colonial church; I think it was loosely based on Anglican churches of the 18th century (interesting choice for a Dutch Calvinist denomination, although those Virginia churches look very "Protestant" compared with pioneer-Gothic Episcopal churches like St. Mark's).

The church may have incorporated some parts of the earlier building (probably stained glass -- I think that the fire was pretty much a total).

[twoshort]

Leo Peters Estate - Butterball Turkey Inventor - Plymouth and San Lu Rae

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Did anyone else walk through the house during the estate sale? It definately needed a lot of updating and maintanence inside. It was very cool to be able to walk through this awesome house though. My dad remembers being in the house when he was a kid (aparenlty he knew one of the younger Peters). This was for sale for a long time, but never sold. It was in the name of the Leo Peter's Trust, but is now owned by his son Mark Peters, President and CEO of Butterball Farms..

Lately I've seen blue painters tape on the insides of the windows.. I wonder what's going on...

[GRDadof3]

Does anyone know what is happening to the old Michigan Bell Telephone building? Saw scaffolding going up today above the sidewalks.

[joeDowntown]

In my dreams they are putting it up to begin knocking down the 1950s-60s addition, brick by brick...

Joe

Does anyone know what is happening to the old Michigan Bell Telephone building?  Saw scaffolding going up today above the sidewalks.

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[GRDadof3]

GRDad:  Actually none of the church there dates from 1918.  The location of the church that burned in 1953 was about two blocks away, I think.  Central Reformed is a beautiful example of a Virginia colonial church; I think it was loosely based on Anglican churches of the 18th century (interesting choice for a Dutch Calvinist denomination, although those Virginia churches look very "Protestant" compared with pioneer-Gothic Episcopal churches like St. Mark's). 

The church may have incorporated some parts of the earlier building (probably stained glass -- I think that the fire was pretty much a total).

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I've always liked the Mayflower Congregational Church on Robinson Road. That steeple has to be at least 100 ft tall.

[LA Dave]

Yes, Mayflower Congregational is another good example of the brick "Colonial" style, as is Second Congregational in the north end. It is interesting that none of the Congregational churches in town resemble the clapboard Yankee churches of New England, but instead have brick cladding or Gothic exteriors.