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What used to be here

Detroit, MI

74 places · 107 businesses · since 1850
Open Detroit on the mapSlide back to 1910
Detroit history
Dwight Burdette, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
74places
107businesses
1850oldest
49still open
58gone
44with photos

Detroit on When It Was is 74 addresses and the 107 businesses that have occupied them, the oldest from 1850. 49 are still open today; 58 are gone, and 18 of the buildings themselves have been demolished. Every entry below opens a page with the full history of that address, and the map lets you slide the year and watch the city change.

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Baker's Keyboard Lounge

Baker's Keyboard Lounge

20510 Livernois Ave · 1934–present
Baker's opened in 1933 as a lunchtime sandwich shop. The jazz came later, along with the piano-shaped bar painted like a keyboard.
Detroit Masonic Temple

Detroit Masonic Temple

500 Temple St · 1926–present
When Detroit's Masons laid this temple's cornerstone in 1922, they spread the mortar with the same trowel George Washington used on the U.S.…
Fox Theatre

Fox Theatre

2211 Woodward Ave · 1928–present
The Fox opened on September 21, 1928, with the silent film "Street Angel," and it is still the largest surviving movie palace of the 1920s.
Guardian Building

Guardian Building

500 Griswold St · 1929–present
Detroit's "Cathedral of Finance" was finished in 1929 for the Union Trust Company, and within three years the Depression had pushed the prop…
Penobscot Building

Penobscot Building

645 Griswold St · 1928–present
For nearly 50 years this was the tallest building in Michigan, topped by a 12-foot red orb that one newspaper called a "blazing ball of fire…
Two Way Inn

Two Way Inn

17897 Mt Elliott St · 1876–present
A Civil War colonel founded this bar in what was then the village of Norris, and it has been pouring in the same building since 1876.
Aloft Detroit at David Whitney

Aloft Detroit at David Whitney

1 Park Ave · 2014–present · 2 businesses here
Book Tower (Restored)

Book Tower (Restored)

1265 Washington Blvd · 2022–present · 2 businesses here

Detroit, decade by decade

Still here, and gone

Still open (49)

Gone (58)

By kind of place

Office Building (9)

Fisher Building · David Whitney Building · Broderick Tower (Offices) · Book Tower (Original) · Penobscot Building · Guardian Building · Donovan Building (Motown Headquarters 1968-1972) · Donovan Building (Motown Records Headquarters 1968-1972) · and 1 more

Hotel (9)

Detroit Statler Hotel · Leland Hotel · Aloft Detroit at David Whitney · DoubleTree by Hilton Fort Shelby · Fort Shelby Hotel · Fort Pontchartrain Hotel · Gotham Hotel · Lee Plaza Hotel · and 1 more

Recording Studio (7)

United Sound Systems · Motown Records (Hitsville USA) · Hitsville U.S.A. (Motown Museum) · Hitsville U.S.A. (Motown Records Headquarters) · Golden World Records (Motown Studio B) · Golden World Studios (Motown Studio B) · United Sound Systems Recording Studios

Nightclub (5)

Willis Show Bar · Flame Show Bar · The Roostertail · The 20 Grand · Phelps Lounge

Department Store (4)

Crowley-Milner & Company · Kern's Department Store · J.L. Hudson's Department Store · J.L. Hudson Department Store

Bar (4)

Woodbridge Pub · Grand Trunk Pub · Nancy Whiskey Pub · Two Way Inn

Restaurant (4)

Cass Cafe · Caucus Club · London Chop House · Chin Tiki

Jazz Club (3)

Cliff Bell's (Revival) · Cliff Bell's (Original) · Baker's Keyboard Lounge

Every place in Detroit (74)

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