Whitney Building, City Hall, Mystery Tower

[wolverine]

Help me identify the locations of these sites!

Whitney Building and Theater. Possibly still in existence? It would have been the largest building in Ann Arbor after it was constructed I believe.

City Hall

This one is not about location rather, what is this?? It's the structure in the center with the red arrow. I thought it was an apartment tower or something, but what looks like "floors" appear to be too short in comparison to surrounding buildings. It is located on what is now a parking lot for the nursing school (the orange building). I'm not sure if U of M had acquired it yet from St. Joseph. Looks like an industrial structure, possibly a mega incinerator?

[jbr12]

Looks like the parking part of the Marina Towers in Chicago.....

[WALD0123]

According to Cinema Treasures:

The Whitney Theatre - 117-119 N. Main St.

The Whitney Theatre opened in a building which was constructed in 1871, and also contained the Milner (later Earle) Hotel. Its designer was Herman Pipp. The theater could seat over 1500 in its auditorium, which contained two balconies and 35 boxes.

The decor was neo-Renaissance, complete with imported French chandeliers and Italian marble floors, one of the most plush theaters in the state in the late 19th century, outside Detroit.

For much of its existence, the Whitney was a legitimate house, with actors such as Edwin Booth, John and Ethel Barrymore, Helen Hayes and Alfred Lunt appearing on its stage.

Although it showed its first movie in 1914, the Whitney didn't switch to a movies-only program until the mid-30s, when it was run by L.C. Mull, who also operated Ann Arbor's Majestic. In 1936, the Whitney was acquired by the Butterfield Theatres chain, which continued to run the theater until it closed in 1952.

Three years later, it was demolished, along with the adjacent Earle Hotel. Butterfield made plans to construct a new 1500-1800 seat theater on the site, but instead ultimately decided to build their theater, the Campus, elsewhere in Ann Arbor.

http://cinematreasures.org/theater/2843/

Old City Hall was built in 1907 and was located at Fifth and Huron, southwest corner I believe. It's across the street from the beautiful Guy C. Larcom Muncipal Building (new city hall). It was demolished right around 1963 when that modern masterpiece was constructed.

[LA Dave]

Hey Waldo -- how dare you dis that Alden Dow masterpiece??

[WALD0123]

Hey Waldo -- how dare you dis that Alden Dow masterpiece??

[wolverine]

Alden Dow created an amazming house, but the rest of his stuff is questionable. City Hall is a design failure. Who ever uses that rooftop plaza? I also don't like how you have to walk through a parking lot to reach the front door. Who the heck drives to city hall in Ann Arbor? People didn't even drive there when it was constructed. The file cabinets in the hallways are a whole other story. I find the fact that the police station is in city hall as an embarassment. I hope AA will actually go through with the construction of a new police station as soon as the residents and city stop arguing where to put it. Currently it's slated to go up across the street form the Wiliam Station development.

[WALD0123]

Wolverine, I think city council just rejected that location across from the William Station development and has decided to build adjacent to Guy Larcom. I cannot see how this will be cohesively developed around the existing building. I would have preferred that they just scrape Larcom and redevelop the whole block into a city hall/police station/courts facility.

http://www.mlive.com/search/index.ssf?/bas...?NEA&coll=2

[wolverine]

I agree, I see so many beautiful combined municipal structures going up in other cities that make me jealous.