The story
Chris and Fannie Baker opened Baker's in 1933 as a sandwich restaurant. Their son Clarence took over in 1939 after Chris had a stroke, and in 1952 the club was expanded and remodeled into the Art Deco room it still is, with a distinctive piano-shaped bar painted with a keyboard motif. Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis and Oscar Peterson are among the musicians who played here.
The club nearly closed several times in the 1970s and 1980s. Clarence Baker sold it in 1996 to John Colbert and Juanita Jackson, and after a 2010 bankruptcy it was bought in 2011 by Hugh W. Smith III and Eric Whitaker Sr. It is described as the oldest continuously operated jazz club in Detroit.
Everything that was here
- 1934–present · still open
Baker's Keyboard LoungeJazz Club
Baker's opened in 1933 as a lunchtime sandwich shop. The jazz came later, along with the piano-shaped bar painted like a keyboard.
See the map in 1935 →
Did you know?
Connected places
Gotham Hotel
Paradise Valley Entertainment District
Motown Museum
Hitsville U.S.A. (Motown Museum)
Sylvan Beach Resort
Fluky's
Explore the full web of connections on the map.
Nearby history
Marvin Gaye House
Ford Motor Company (Highland Park Plant)
Vinsetta Garage (Restaurant)
Golden World Records (Motown Studio B)
The Motown Mansion (Nels Michelson Estate)
Two Way Inn
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