NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form

This form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations for individual properties and districts. See instructions in National Register Bulletin, How to Complete the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. If any item does not apply to the property being documented, enter "N/A" for "not applicable." For functions, architectural classification, materials, and areas of significance, enter only categories and subcategories from the instructions.

1. Name of Property Historic name: __Reeber Building______Other names/site number: ______Name of related multiple property listing: ____N/A______(Enter "N/A" if property is not part of a multiple property listing ______2. Location Street & number: __3363 Michigan Avenue______City or town: __Detroit______State: ____Michigan______County: _Wayne_____ Not For Publication: Vicinity: ______3. State/Federal Agency Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended, I hereby certify that this nomination ___ request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property ___ meets ___ does not meet the National Register Criteria. I recommend that this property be considered significant at the following level(s) of significance: ___national ___statewide _X_local Applicable National Register Criteria: _X_A ___B _X_C ___D

Signature of certifying official/Title: Date ______State or Federal agency/bureau or Tribal Government

In my opinion, the property meets does not meet the National Register criteria.

Signature of commenting official: Date

Title : State or Federal agency/bureau or Tribal Government

1

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State ______4. National Park Service Certification I hereby certify that this property is: entered in the National Register determined eligible for the National Register determined not eligible for the National Register removed from the National Register other (explain:) ______

______Signature of the Keeper Date of Action ______5. Classification Ownership of Property (Check as many boxes as apply.) Private: X

Public – Local

Public – State

Public – Federal

Category of Property (Check only one box.)

Building(s) X

District

Site

Structure

Object

Sections 1-6 page 2

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State

Number of Resources within Property (Do not include previously listed resources in the count) Contributing Noncontributing ____1______0______buildings

______sites

______structures

______objects

_____1______0______Total

Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register ___0______

6. Function or Use Historic Functions (Enter categories from instructions.) COMMERCE/TRADE: specialty store DOMESTIC: multiple dwelling ______

Current Functions (Enter categories from instructions.) VACANT______WORK IN PROGRESS ______

Sections 1-6 page 3

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State ______7. Description

Architectural Classification (Enter categories from instructions.) LATE VICTORIAN ______

Materials: (enter categories from instructions.) Principal exterior materials of the property: Brick, stone

Narrative Description (Describe the historic and current physical appearance and condition of the property. Describe contributing and noncontributing resources if applicable. Begin with a summary paragraph that briefly describes the general characteristics of the property, such as its location, type, style, method of construction, setting, size, and significant features. Indicate whether the property has historic integrity.) ______Summary Paragraph

The Reeber Building is located at 3363 Michigan Avenue, Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan. Situated on the west side of the city, the building is a two-story commercial building designed in the Late Victorian architectural style and constructed of masonry. The building is trapezium- shaped in plan, with its façade angled to meet the angle of Michigan Avenue as it radiates westward from the center of the city. The first floor is separated into two storefronts by a brick wall that runs the length of the building, the larger occupying two-thirds of the first floor on its eastern side. Historically, the second floor contained residential space but division of this area is no longer clearly defined as a result of a previous attempt at rehabilitation and a collapse of the roof into the second floor interior space. The first-floor entrances, storefronts, and all but two of the second-floor windows are now covered by wood boards and plywood. The second-story window openings are round-arch with repeating stone mouldings set below a series of decorative dental and stepped brick courses under a decorative brick cornice. A brick parapet surrounds the flat roof and six stone caps accentuate the top of decorative pilasters running the entire height of building. The face brick shows evidence of painting, including faded signage for “The Reeber Furniture Co.” The building has undergone two major alterations since its construction in 1887, occurring in 1894 and 1899. The property is in poor condition, with the roof, second floor and rear elevation having collapsed due to years of disuse and the impacts of scrapping and water infiltration. Mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems and accessories have been removed or are unusable due to exposure to water, scrapping or age. The rear alley-facing brick elevation and roof have collapsed, as well as portions of the second floor interior floor and walls. ______

Section 7 page 4

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State Narrative Description

Setting

The Reeber Building is a two-story commercial building located at 3363 Michigan Avenue, Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan. The building stands one parcel east of the southeast corner of Michigan Avenue and Twenty-Third Street two miles from downtown Detroit, west of the Corktown and south of the Chadsey Condon neighborhood, both historically ethnic, and now working-class enclaves of the city. The building footprint sits at the northern lot line, bounded by Michigan Avenue to the north and the public alley to the south, abutting the Grosfield Building at 3365 Michigan Avenue on the western elevation.

Michigan Avenue is a seven-lane roadway running west from downtown Detroit to Chicago and beyond. It is a spoke of Augustus B. Woodward’s plan for the city’s major traffic arteries, inspired by the plan for Washington, DC, created by Pierre L’Enfant, and implemented in 1806 after a disastrous fire ravaged the downtown a year earlier. Michigan Avenue intersects with Twenty-Third Street which ends one block south of Michigan Avenue at Risdon Street, closed at that point to accommodate both large-scale industrial and commercial operations and the Michigan Central Railroad tracks. South of the rail line Twenty-Third Street reopens to traffic ultimately terminating at Riverside Park along the Detroit River. North of Michigan Avenue Twenty-Third Street ends at McGraw Avenue on the city’s northwest side. Also commonly known as US-12, Michigan Avenue originates at Campus Martius, near the center of downtown Detroit, and stretches west past the city limits to New Buffalo at the southwest corner of the state where it continues beyond Michigan on its east-west trajectory. In 2004, US-12 was formally designated a Historic Heritage Route by the Michigan Legislature, and commemorated the avenue as “among the oldest road corridors east of the Mississippi River” accessing “some of the most extensive and significant historic, cultural, scenic and recreational resources in Michigan.”1 There are few trees or vegetation present along Michigan Avenue, however mature growth trees are still present along the north-south residential streets that intersect with the corridor. The primary land use along the roadway is commercial and industrial in nature, and vacancies and vacant lots are prevalent.

Commercial buildings were beginning to line Michigan Avenue at the time of the construction of the Reeber Building in 1887. A 1900 photograph of the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Twenty-Third Street shows the two- and three-story buildings that once densely occupied the south side of the street. Awnings over plate glass storefronts offered protection from the sun, and hand-painted signs and banners advertised goods and services to passersby. In this image, the Reeber Building is shown in its current three bay configuration, outfitted with retractable fabric awnings. Recessed entries flanked by large plate glass windows and signage above provide entry into the 975-977 and 979 storefronts, respectively. Busts dressed in dark jackets stand guard near the doorway, modeling the fashions available inside the store’s threshold. The streetcar rails visible in the photograph, once a common mode of transport throughout Detroit, are no longer in

1 Michigan Highways: The Great Routes of the Great Lakes State. “Historic Byways and Heritage Routes.” http://www.michiganhighways.org/other/byways_historic.html.

Section 7 page 5

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State use and were removed or buried in brick and asphalt as lanes grew to accommodate cars. The blocks opposite the Reeber Building, once as densely populated as the south side of the street, are now almost entirely vacant, occupied only by a few one-story brick or cement block commercial buildings in varying states of repair. The block on which the Reeber Building stands and the block immediately to the west are the most intact of the surrounding area. Only a handful of the nineteenth century commercial structures that once lined Michigan Avenue remain west of the downtown. Clusters of buildings are primarily concentrated in the Corktown neighborhood between the M-10 and I-75 highways, and at Twenty-Third Street and Twenty-Fourth Streets. The residential development that sprang up near the Reeber Building to meet late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century demand consisted primarily of vernacular worker housing constructed of wood. The area south of the Michigan Avenue corridor has been almost entirely replaced by industrial development. To the north, what is now known as the Chadsey Condon neighborhood has suffered from divestment and poverty resulting in multiple dilapidated buildings and vacant lots.

Exterior

The Reeber Building is situated with its façade facing northwest toward Michigan Avenue, the west elevation abutting the adjoining building, the south elevation facing a paved public alley and the east elevation facing a vacant lot and remaining block. Historically the vacant parcel was occupied by two-story building that was demolished some time ago. The building sits at the lot line at the north boundary. The Reeber Building has seventy feet of street frontage on Michigan Avenue. The Michigan Avenue (north) façade is architecturally significant.

The building is two-stories, constructed of brick and irregular in form resembling a trapezium shape. The Reeber Building façade is angled slightly to follow the lot line formed by the radial pattern of Michigan Avenue. The façade is divided into three asymmetrical bays, each flanked by brick pilasters. On the first floor the pilasters have decorative stone accents at their base and intersection with the stone belt course separating the first and second stories and running the length of the building. The second floor displays a more ornamented design treatment than that of the first floor. On the second floor the pilasters are topped by decorative stone capitals. The second story window openings have arched stone moldings with a small scroll design at the ends and small flower at meeting locations between windows. Semi-arched carved stone pieces fill the small arches above window openings bearing a flower and vine motif and with thin stone arches above that resemble eyebrows. A slim bay on the eastern end of the building contains a recessed entry which provided stairway access to the second floor, and a single double-hung window and transom above. The largest and central bay contains a recessed storefront entry framed by large plate glass windows on the first floor and three sets of paired windows above. The roofline cornice is adorned with corbeled brickwork and extends just above the flat roof. The western bay contains a recessed entry and large storefront window on the first floor and three double-hung windows above. The floral motif inserts above the second floor window transoms differ slightly from the rest of the façade, a small reminder that this portion of the building was added to the original building in 1894. Remnants of a faded painted sign reading “The Reeber Furniture Co.” is visible over the primary entry. Historic exterior images depict a large recessed entry that

Section 7 page 6

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State ushered shoppers into the store with large plate glass windows fronting Michigan Avenue for easily advertising goods.

The eastern elevation is constructed with common brick. A modern mural of unknown origin and date covers approximately one-third of the eastern wall near the front façade. There have been some loss of bricks at the parapet and where the rear elevation has pulled away from the building. Four window openings are positioned on the second-story, all currently without sashes. Gray paint covers areas on the brick where graffiti has been applied to the building.

The rear (south) elevation of the Reeber Building is constructed of common brick and is entirely collapsed save for a small area on the eastern side surrounding an entry with a partial wood paneled door and single rusticated stone lintel above. It faces a public alley way. The flat roof is also partially collapsed at the rear elevation. The rear elevation was originally outfitted with a wood porch and remnants of wood anchored into masonry remain. It is unknown when this was removed or if it was related to the collapse of the rear elevation.

Interior

The first floor of the Reeber Building was designed to hold commercial spaces, specifically retail operations. At the building’s construction in 1887, the first floor contained two storefronts. An addition in 1894 added the western storefront, which abuts the neighboring Grosfield Building. There are no known images depicting the interior of the Reeber Building. An interior wall runs the length of the space, and has two openings, one wood-framed near the front entry and one arched brick in the rear of the retail space allowing for passage between the shop spaces. The western storefront is the smaller of the two, encompassing half the floor space lengthwise as the larger storefront to the east. Both storefronts have unobstructed floor plans to allow versatile arrangements of goods and movement of shoppers. There appears to be little alteration to the original configuration of the first floor, however the storefront glass and entryway on the façade are boarded and not visible. The Reeber Building storefront spaces were historically constructed with wood floors and brick walls received a thin application of plaster over wood lathe to formalize the setting. Few portions of intact plaster on walls remain and the wood floors are buckled as a result of exposure to water and elements. Ornamental cast iron support columns run the length of the ground floor of the 1887 storefront space. The Phoenix Publishing Company includes a detailed description and illustration of the Reeber Brothers building in 1893’s Detroit of To-Day, the City of the Strait: Its Growth, Resources, Commerce, Manufacturing Concerns, Financial Institutions and Prospects. The pictorial representation of the façade of the Reeber Building is nearly identical to the existing building, with the exception of the western storefront which would not be constructed until the following year. The ground floor and basement spaces measure forty-nine by ninety feet in area and the building is “fully equipped with all modern appliances, including electric lights, steam heat, cash railway and handsome plate glass windows.” The basement level was used exclusively for the storage of back stock.2

2 Detroit of To-Day, the City of the Strait: Its Growth, Resources, Commerce, Manufacturing Concerns, Financial Institutions and Prospects ... Also Views of the ... World's Columbian Exposition. Detroit: Phoenix Publishing Company. 1893. p. 138.

Section 7 page 7

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State

The second floor was historically designed for dwellings, a recessed entry at the east end of the Michigan Avenue façade opens to a stairway for resident access. Little historic fabric is visible other than small areas of plaster covered walls and wood flooring. At times, various members of the Reeber family including Charles and Joseph in the late 1800s, and later George and Sylvester Reeber and their families in the 1940s, resided in the residential spaces above the store. When the Reeber family did not need to occupy the space the dwellings were let to boarders, often fellow German immigrants.

Integrity

As of 2019 there has been a significant loss of integrity as a result of prolonged vacancy. However, the deterioration is concentrated primarily to interior spaces and the rear elevation, while the Late Victorian façade remains remarkably intact. The rear elevation, including a portion of the roof, has collapsed, although fallen bricks remain in place for salvage. Much of the interior of the building has been lost to collapse, exposure to water, and age. Consequently, little historical interior fabric remains however the ornamental cast iron support columns characteristic of this building period remain in their intended upright position supporting the remaining portion of the second floor. Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems and accessories have been removed or are unusable due to exposure to water, scrapping and age. The interior of the building was inaccessible due to a loss of structural integrity. Despite this deterioration the Reeber Building, particularly the façade, continues to convey its significance exemplifying the late-nineteenth-century commercial architecture that once lined Michigan Avenue, the majority of which has been lost to demolition and urban planning. The decorative brickwork, ornamental stone and configuration of window and door openings remain intact, and convey a sense of the building as it stood first in 1887 and later in 1894 and 1899 after subsequent interventions.

Few links to late-nineteenth-century development related to the city’s westward expansion and west side ethnic German community remain along Michigan Avenue, and those buildings that do remain are represented by small pockets of buildings chiefly located to the east closer to downtown Detroit. Many of those buildings are associated with the Corktown Historic District listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, and significant for its association with the city’s early Irish community. Corktown includes only one block of commercial buildings fronting Michigan Avenue on the north and south sides between Eighth Street and Trumbull Avenue. The city block on which the Reeber Building is situated and the block immediately to the west, are virtually all that remain of a commercial corridor on Michigan Avenue that existed outside of downtown. Decades of disinvestment have ravaged this once thriving concentration of buildings east of downtown, making the Reeber Building even more significant as a link to the vibrant immigrant and commercial history of the city’s west side. The current owner plans to rehabilitate the building and the Grosfield Building immediately to the west into income- producing uses.

______

Section 7 page 8

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State 8. Statement of Significance

Applicable National Register Criteria (Mark "x" in one or more boxes for the criteria qualifying the property for National Register listing.)

X A. Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history.

B. Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past.

X C. Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction.

D. Property has yielded, or is likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history.

Criteria Considerations (Mark “x” in all the boxes that apply.)

A. Owned by a religious institution or used for religious purposes

B. Removed from its original location

C. A birthplace or grave

D. A cemetery

E. A reconstructed building, object, or structure

F. A commemorative property

G. Less than 50 years old or achieving significance within the past 50 years

Section 8 page 9

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State Areas of Significance (Enter categories from instructions.) COMMERCE ______ARCHITECTURE______

Period of Significance 1887-1916______

Significant Dates 1887 ______1894______1899______

Significant Person (Complete only if Criterion B is marked above.) ______

Cultural Affiliation ______

Architect/Builder Dederichs, Peter Jr. (architect) Mills, Joseph E. (architect) Stringer, Samuel (contractor)

Section 8 page 10

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State

Statement of Significance Summary Paragraph (Provide a summary paragraph that includes level of significance, applicable criteria, justification for the period of significance, and any applicable criteria considerations.)

The Reeber Building is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places at the local level of significance under Criterion A for its association with the Charles Reeber & Bro. company. The Reeber company operated from this building beginning in 1888 until the 1960s. The Reeber brothers established the company (informally known as Reeber Brothers and, later, Reeber Furniture Company) at a time of significant immigration to the city of Detroit. The building is located in the center of what was one of two sizeable German communities in Detroit, one on the east side of city and another on the west. It illustrates the settlement pattern of German immigrants in Detroit in which new arrivals first established enclaves not far from the central business district and over time expanded outward to newer neighborhoods on the edge of the city. The building is also one of very few examples of the physical record of German immigration in the late nineteenth century.

The Reeber Building is also eligible for the National Register of Historic Places at the local level of significance under Criterion C as a representative example of the Late Victorian era Italianate commercial buildings once prevalent along Michigan Avenue. The city block on which the Reeber Building is situated, in addition to the block immediately to the west, are all that remain of a once thriving commercial corridor along Michigan Avenue east of downtown Detroit. The Reeber Building is also significant as an example of the commercial designs of prominent local architect Peter Dederichs Jr., with later additions and alterations by Joseph E. Mills.

Despite severe deterioration to the south (rear) elevation and interior, the building retains its Late Victorian façade, and some significant interior features, notably central iron posts. ______

Narrative Statement of Significance (Provide at least one paragraph for each area of significance.)

German Immigrants in Detroit

The history of the city of Detroit can be, in some good measure, understood through the story of its immigrants. It is a microcosm of the United States itself – a melting pot. Similar to the country at large, Detroit expanded from a frontier, military outpost in its earliest days to a modern industrial-age city by 1900. Its growth was facilitated by many factors, but the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 both eased travel and resulted in the city becoming a principal point of departure for immigrants heading west.3

The city’s immigrant history began with the arrival of Europeans in 1701, chiefly French fur traders. Other French arrived and established long, narrow farms along the river. British traders

3 City Plan Commission. The People of Detroit. Detroit, Mich.: City of Detroit. 1946, p. 4.

Section 8 page 11

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State followed, and the settlement remained under British control until the end of Revolutionary War. Americans – new and old – came from the eastern states, predominantly New York and the New England states. This continued through the nineteenth century. In the middle years of the nineteenth century these Yankees were joined in the Michigan Territory by new European immigrants. In 1825 people from the modern state of Germany began to arrive in Detroit in “sizable numbers,”4 the earliest from the village of Neustadt in the Rhineland-Palatinate state in southwest Germany. Yet the population of the city number less than two thousand. They were joined a few years later by Irish immigrants. By 1836 hundreds of immigrants, mostly German and Irish, arrived in Detroit each day,5 and the city’s population had increased to more than 6,900. Though many undoubtedly intended to move still further west, hundreds and thousands of immigrants settled permanently in Detroit, transforming the city both physically and socially and both directly and indirectly.

For Germans particularly, this early emigration from their homeland reflected displacement caused by the beginning stages of the Industrial Revolution, primarily impacting farmers and members of the county’s lower middle class. These individuals immigrated with skills and a propensity for hard work useful to growing American cities and formed urban concentrations to a greater extent than other European predecessors.6

This influx of immigrants from Europe and migration of Americans from the east increased the population of the state past the 85,000 necessary for statehood. The process was initiated in 1835, and Michigan was formally admitted to the Union in 1837. Likewise, the population of the city of Detroit continued to increase throughout the rest of the nineteenth century: 9,192 in 1840; 21,019 in 1850; 45,619 in 1860; 79,577 in 1870; 116,342 in 1890 before crossing 200,000 in 1900.

Following typical nineteenth century settlement patterns of German immigrants in American cities, the new arrivals established enclaves not far from the central business district and over time expanded outward to newer neighborhoods on the edge of the city. Irish immigrants mainly settled to the west of Woodward Avenue, the primary north-south road in the city. Known then and now as Corktown, it was an “exceedingly lively neighborhood”7 that extended west on Michigan Avenue, as well as north and south for several blocks in each direction. Germans and German-speaking people, by contrast, initially settled on the east side of the city, in the area of the city roughly bounded by Jefferson and Gratiot Avenues, and centered on what was then German Street (changed to Waterloo Street in 1885).8

4 David Lee Poremba, ed. Detroit in its World Setting: A Three Hundred Year Chronology, 1701-2001. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2001, p. 105. 5 David Lee Poremba, ed. Detroit in its World Setting: A Three Hundred Year Chronology, 1701-2001. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2001, p. 115. 6 Bergquist, James. M. “German Communities in American Cities: An Interpretation of the Nineteenth-Century Experience.” Journal of American Ethnic History, 1984, 4, p. 9-30. 7 John Christian Lodge. I Remember Detroit. Detroit: Wayne University Press, 1940, p. 184. 8 Clarence Monroe Burton. Lists of Street in Detroit, the Names of Which Have Been Changed. Detroit: Wayne County Abstract Office, 1891, p. 10.

Section 8 page 12

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State During these decades, immigration to Detroit was dominated by Germans and Irish, though people from a great many European countries came to the city. By 1850 one of every seven foreign-born residents were Irish,9 and by 1870 almost of the city’s population was foreign-born, and the number of Germans in the city reached nearly thirteen thousand.10 This was nearly double the number of Irish, and four times the number of English, the third largest group of the city’s many nationalities.11

German immigrants who settled in urban environments tended to be from the Fatherland’s professional and intellectual classes, or were skilled workers who proved valuable to the numerous industries in the city.12 City directories and many of the histories written about the city attest to the great number of German-related businesses and organizations that flourished in this heyday of European immigration. In 1834 the first of many German Catholic parishes was established, followed shortly thereafter by those of their Protestant brothers and sisters. Detroit’s German population also established a notable secular presence by founding newspapers,13 banks, theaters, musical and choral societies, clubs, and all manner of businesses. They also created political, philanthropic, and social organizations through which they found comradeship and supported not only the German community, but the city at large. In addition to churches and temples of commerce, Germans also built halls, theaters, breweries, and other buildings. Even as late as 1914, this section of Gratiot Avenue had “a decidedly foreign aspect” to it, with “hardly an American or English name” to be found.14 Not coincidently, this area was known for a time as Germantown.15

This is illustrated by the experience of the Reeber family. From the time they arrived the Reebers remained strongly connected to their German heritage while successfully assimilating to Detroit and establishing themselves as competent and reliable businessmen. Brothers Charles and Joseph were members and supporters of Saint Boniface Roman Catholic Church (NRHP 1989; demolished 1992), a parish organized in 1867 to serve the expanding German population on the city’s west side. Charles and Joseph, along with Anthony Grosfield, another westside German businessman, were charter members of Saint Boniface’s branch of the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association and had donated a stained glass window to the building. In 1879 Charles Reeber served as secretary for the German Mercantile Benevolent Society.

By 1880 the number of Germans in Detroit exceeded seventeen thousand, making it the largest ethnic group in the city16. Statewide the population of native-born Germans numbered 88,525 or

9 David Lee Poremba, ed. Detroit in its World Setting: A Three Hundred Year Chronology, 1701-2001. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2001, p. 129. 10 Silas Farmer. The History of Detroit and Michigan. Detroit: Silas Farmer & Co. 1884, p. 336. 11 Silas Farmer. The History of Detroit and Michigan. Detroit: Silas Farmer & Co. 1884, p. 336. 12 Willis F. Dunbar and May, George S. Michigan: A History of the Wolverine State. 3rd ed. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1995, p. 246. 13 In 2019 the Detroiter Abendpost is the only surviving piece of Detroit’s German publishing history and continues operation as the Nordamerikanische Wochen-Post, a leading German language news-weekly. 14 Helen E. Keep and Burton, M. Agnes. Guide to Detroit. Detroit: Detroit News Company, 1914, p. 17. 15 George P. Graff. The People of Michigan. Lansing: Michigan Department of Education, 1972, p. 42. 16 David Lee Poremba, ed. Detroit in its World Setting: A Three Hundred Year Chronology, 1701-2001. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2001, p. 129.

Section 8 page 13

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State 5.4 percent of the total 1,636,93717. As the German population increased a second community was established on the west side of the city, beyond Corktown and west of Eighteenth Street. While not the only ethnic group to establish neighborhoods on the far west side of the city, Detroit’s Germanic citizens established a sizable presence on the west side of the city, largely west of Eighteenth Street and east of Twenty-Fifth Street. A significant commercial center developed between Twenty-Second and Twenty-Fourth Streets, in particular.

Much like on the east side of the city, the Germans on the west side also constructed buildings to suit their spiritual, social, and practical needs. These places occupied corners and corridors within walking distance to consumers’ homes and places of employment, and this section of Michigan Avenue became a center of daily life, placing jobs, goods, and entertainment within reach for the expanding immigrant community. Indeed, in one history of the city it was observed that German immigrants had an eye for “the most desirable urban properties for their businesses.”18

Sanborn maps depict both sides of Michigan Avenue between Twenty-Third and Twenty-Fourth Streets occupied by one- and two-story commercial buildings, including Fafeyta’s Opera House, with seating for one thousand patrons and “elegantly frescoed and decorated auditorium,”19 at 996-998 Michigan Avenue. Coal and lumber yards are located on what is now Twenty-Second Street and the southwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Twenty-Third Street.

Michigan Avenue Commercial Corridor

As the city’s population swelled during the nineteenth century, the expansion of Detroit’s geographic limits became necessary to accommodate the great numbers of immigrants coming to the city. The once discrete ethnic communities began to diffuse and establish enclaves in other parts of the growing city. On February 12, 1857, the westernmost city boundaries were extended to the west end of a vast farm once operated by former territorial governor, George B. Porter. The new boundary, which became Twenty-Fifth Street in 1872, was located two blocks west of the Reeber Building and two and a half miles from the city center. Expansion occurred again in 1885 advancing the boundary further west to Livernois Road, 3.8 miles from the city center. By 1900 the city consisted of about twenty-three square miles of territory, and by 1906 the western city boundary extended to the Village of River Rouge, situated along the Detroit River 5.3 miles southwest of the city center.

The City of Detroit also played a part in developing the west side of the city by opening streets, installing water and sewer lines, and making other general improvements. In 1884 the city contracted with Brush Illuminating Company to erect 133 iron light towers around the city. These towers ranged in height from 104 feet to 150 feet and were used to illuminate the surrounding environment, which allowed businesses to operate and residents to patronize those

17 John A. Russell. The Germanic Influence in the Making of Michigan. Detroit, Mich.: University of Detroit Press, 1927, p. 63. 18 George P. Graff. The People of Michigan. Lansing: Michigan Department of Education, 1972, p. 42. 19 Jno B. Jeffery. Jeffery's Guide and Directory to the Opera Houses, Theatres, Public Halls, Bill Posters, Etc. of the Cities and Towns of America. 11th Edition. Chicago: Jno B. Jeffery. 1889. p. 156.

Section 8 page 14

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State businesses at night, thus increasing the social and commercial activity in the neighborhood. In 1891, in response to an expanding population and development pressures in central business district, the city disbanded the longtime Central Market and established markets on the east and west sides of the city. Eastern Market remains a thriving retail and social destination and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Western Market, located at Michigan Avenue and Eighteenth Street, served farmers and citizens on the west side of the city until it was demolished in the 1960s. In the 1890s wooden sewers were upgraded to six-inch water pipes on Twenty- Third Street and twenty-four-inch service pipes along Michigan Avenue.

The Reeber Building was located in what was essentially the heart of the west side commercial district that provided goods, services, and employment for the surrounding, largely German, population. City directories at the turn of the twentieth century illustrate the variety of shops and suppliers located on Michigan Avenue near Twenty-Third Street. Dry goods, confections, clothing, furnishings, hats, hardware, cigars, shoes, a barber, a blacksmith, and even an interior designer, were all available within a short walk along Michigan Avenue. The surnames of the proprietors of these businesses demonstrate the prevalence of Germans among the west side businesses: Fellrath, Kruger, Weber, Von Mach, Waldstein, Reeber, Grimm, Kress, Reich, Goldberg, Litzenburger, Raymo, Kolbe, Paddock, Boldt, Krohn, Schechter, Schulte, Hafenfeld, Ochenfeld, Gottesman, Cobo, Ziegler, Zindler and Grosfield. These businesses lined both sides of the Michigan Avenue between Twenty-Second and Twenty-Fourth Streets, representing the core of the west side commercial district. Opportunities for engaging with one’s German heritage and countrymen were numerous; social and dance halls, saloons and churches catering to the population all were located within the west side Michigan Avenue enclave.

Some of these business owners, and likely a few developers, hired prominent local architects to design buildings for them. In 1889 grocers Willibald Schulte and Anthony Kaiser hired Reeber Building architect and fellow German Peter Dederichs Jr. to design a block of brick stores at 1015 Michigan Avenue (still extant), situated on the southeast corner of Michigan Avenue and Twenty-Fourth Street at a cost of $7,500.20 Dederichs was a noted designer of religious buildings, with examples of his work in at least six states and Canada. Several of these buildings have been listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The thousands of immigrants who settled in Detroit created an incredible demand for housing and other goods. Real estate advertisements and notices through the 1890s and through the 1910s suggest a brisk business and rapidly developing residential areas all along Michigan Avenue. The 1897 Sanborn map show Twenty-Third through Twenty-Sixth Streets south of Michigan Avenue and Williams Street to Grand Boulevard on the north side of Michigan Avenue with one- or two-story wood dwellings on nearly every available lot, often with porches and small garages situated along the alley. In 1900 the United States Census recorded forty-six percent of Detroit’s German residents owning their residence, a result of the financial independence afforded by the skilled labor positions and small business ownership most frequently demonstrated by German immigrants. Adjacent to the commercial corridor of Michigan Avenue were a number of industrial and manufacturing operations that spread

20 “A Suburban Boom – New Buildings.” Detroit Free Press. June 23, 1889.

Section 8 page 15

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State throughout Southwest Detroit. Among the products produced here were furniture, elevators, lumber, tobacco, beer, boilers, stoves, railway cars and parts, and brick.

The block where the Reeber Building stands was featured in a 1906 Detroit Free Press article that touted the expanding corridor and the variety of well-appointed commercial stores serving the immediate neighborhood. Just three images are included in the article, one of which depicts the busy north and southeast corners of Michigan Avenue and Twenty-Third Street. The “thriving center” is described as representing “practically every kind of retail business” which flourished from continuous patronage of expanding neighborhoods along the well-traveled roadway. 21

Through the first decades of the twentieth century the city continued to grow – both in terms of population and territory. At the end of the decade Detroit’s population reached 465,000, ranking ninth in the country, and spread over forty square miles. The 1914 city directory shows that the ethnic composition of the area became increasingly diverse, with significant numbers of Greek and Polish surnames mixed amongst the Irish and Germans. While still maintaining a notable presence, Germans were not as numerous as before, nor did they make up the same proportion of the population as they did between 1850 and 1900. This resulted from several factors, including a significant increase in immigrants from eastern and southern Europe, a decrease in immigrants from a now-unified Germany, and a diffusion and migration of Germans to other parts of the city and the developing northern suburbs. By the 1970s the city’s German population made up only a small proportion of the city’s ethnic groups.

The Reeber Furniture Company

Among the many Germans to settle on the west side of Detroit in the mid-1800s were several members of the Reeber family, including brothers Charles and Joseph. Born in Hessia, Germany, in 1850, Charles Anton Reeber immigrated to the United States in 1866 at age sixteen to escape mandatory military service expected of young men in Germany. Charles is also referred to in historical documents as Carl Anton Sebastian Reeber, sometimes also referenced as Karl in Reeber family documents. Joseph, five years Charles’ junior, joined his older brother in Detroit in 1870.

Connecting with those sharing familiar lines or regional commonalities already established in the city greatly aided an immigrant’s successful transition to Detroit. An Uncle to Charles and Joseph, Anthony Kirchner, was among Detroit’s early German settlers opening a branch of the family dry goods business at 18 Monroe Avenue in the city’s center. In the mid-nineteenth century the Kirchner family formed the first and largest German dry goods stores in the city, and traditionally employed fellow Germans in these shops. According to a circa 1930 booklet published by the Neustadter Kirmess Committee on the one-hundred-year history of German settlement in Detroit, most of the dry goods stores catering to Germans in Detroit were run by men who learned the business in one of the Kirchner stores. Charles obtained employment with Anthony Kirchner upon his arrival to Detroit in 1866 from the village of Neustadt in the present

21 “Michigan Avenue A Growing Retail District” Detroit Free Press. July 25, 1906.

Section 8 page 16

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State state of Hesse, Germany. Both Reeber brothers eventually worked for Kirchner and boarded at his residence on Randolph Street. In 1879 Charles and Joseph partnered to open Charles Reeber & Bro. (informally and often referred to simply as Reeber Brothers) on the rapidly growing west side corridor of Michigan Avenue. The brothers continued the tradition of employing fellow German newcomers at their dry goods and furniture stores, hiring clerks and salespeople fluent in both English and German. Advertisements the Detroit Free Press noted the requirement that male and female applicants “must speak German.”22

In August 1887, Anthony Grosfield, a west side real estate developer, contracted local architect Peter Dederichs Jr. to prepare plans and specifications for a new double brick store on Michigan Avenue, currently standing as the two eastern bays of the Reeber Building. Grosfield was born in Westphalia, Germany, in 1843, and came to Detroit by way of New York and Connecticut. Grosfield first dealt in dry goods, stoves, and hardware before turning to real estate sales and development. Detroit builder and carpenter Samuel Stringer constructed the building the same year with construction totaling $8,196. A receipt dated April 14, 1888, details Dederichs’ role in the realization of the building, furnishing plans and specifications for the design in addition to providing superintendent duties. In 1888 Charles and Joseph Reeber expanded their retail business from 967 Michigan Avenue to include the newly constructed building numbering 975- 979 Michigan Avenue and Reeber Brothers established themselves as a prominent and popular dry goods house on the city’s west side. Goods available included products sourced from domestic and foreign locales, carpets, and a wide variety of clothing fabrics and ribbon sold by the yard for home-based sewing projects. The Reebers also dealt in goose feathers, used to fill pillows and mattresses. In 1890, Charles and Joseph Reeber purchased the property and building at 975-979 Michigan from real estate developer Anthony Grosfield for the sum of $13,700.

In 1893 Grosfield commissioned a new brick building designed by architect Joseph E. Mills located at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Twenty-Third Street directly west of the Reeber Building to replace a two-story wood-frame double storefront destroyed by fire. In 1894 the Reeber Brothers commissioned Mills to design an addition to the building at 975-979 Michigan. On August 7, 1894, the City of Detroit granted Joseph E. Mills building permit #720 for a two- story brick storefront located at 979 Michigan with seventeen feet of frontage on Michigan Avenue. The recorded construction cost was $2,500. This alteration resulted in the third bay of the Reeber Building at the western lot line abutting the newly constructed Grosfield Building and created the current three-bay façade division. An illustration of the Reeber Building prior to Mills’ addition shows that he did not stray from Peter Dederichs’ original design, save for the placement of three windows on the second floor to balance the width of the addition. The 1897 Sanborn Fire Insurance Company map reflects the new configuration of the Reeber Building storefronts, with street numbers 975 and 977 Michigan Avenue consolidated in the larger storefront and 979 Michigan Avenue assigned to the 1894 addition abutting the Grosfield Building on its western elevation. In September 1899, Joseph E. Mills continued his work for the Reeber Brothers, furnishing plans for improvements to the Reeber Building including a new

22 “Help Wanted – Female” Detroit Free Press. October 3, 1909.

Section 8 page 17

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State front and remodeling of the store as well as designing a third story. The exact changes undertaken in 1899 are not known, but the third-floor addition was not built.23

After the turn of the century the Reeber Brothers stocked a larger variety of home furnishing items and were expanding away from the dry goods business. A 1906 Detroit Free Press article highlighting the retail establishments near the intersection of Michigan and Twenty-Third Street describes the Reeber firm as “one of the oldest and largest on Michigan Avenue” and stocking a selection of dry goods as well as carpets, clothing, hats, and furniture with a staff of twenty employees. As was common with shop owners and clerks in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Charles and Joseph resided above the store prior to purchasing separate homes not far from the Reeber Building for their growing families.

In 1916 the Reeber Furniture Company formally incorporated with $25,000 in capital. Charles Reeber was named as President and Albert Lutticke as Vice President. Lutticke was brother to Charles’ wife Helen and also a well-known dry goods merchant in Detroit. This same year the Reeber company ceased advertising for German-speaking staff in help wanted advertisements in the Detroiter Abend-Post.24

A 1920 advertisement in the Detroit Free Press affirms the store’s primary focus on home goods, dealing in bedroom sets, seating, metal beds, and mattresses. Stoves, ice boxes, and rugs were also available at a fair price accessible to neighborhood residents. A 1939 photograph of the Reeber Building façade shows metal paneling above the plate glass windows, suggesting the company undertook a modernization scheme in the late 1930s, and entry with signage highlighting baby cabs, lamps, mirrors, linoleums, rugs as products available at the store.

The Reeber Furniture Company was recognized throughout Detroit as a trusted source for goods and furniture and a fixture of the city’s west side. A 1922 biographical sketch by Clarence Monroe Burton lauding Charles Reeber stated the Reeber name “has long stood as a synonym for business integrity and reliability” as one of the city’s oldest furniture dealers.25 Charles died in 1923 and Joseph ten years later in 1933. Leadership of the business passed down through the Reeber family who dutifully continued the enterprise. The company remained at Michigan Avenue at Twenty-Third Street until 1960, marking eighty-one years of continuous dry goods and furniture sales on the block and making the Reeber storefronts one of the longest running businesses on the Michigan Avenue corridor west of downtown Detroit.

23 “New Residences” Detroit Free Press. September 24, 1899. 24 The firm appears to have ceased such advertisements in the Detroit Free Press around 1910. 25 Clarence Monroe Burton. The City of Detroit, 1701 -1922, Vol. 3. Detroit, Mich.: SJ Clarke, 1922, p. 969.

Section 8 page 18

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State

Fig. 1 Reeber Building, 1939. Reeber Family Collection.

Subsequent History

By 1920 the population of the city had about doubled to more than 993,000 people, all within 77.9 square miles. Approximately twenty-nine percent of these individuals were foreign-born, and included many Poles, Russians, Canadians, Irish, Scots, Swedes, and Norwegians. Germans, too, continued to settle in Detroit,26 but had been surpassed in numbers by Poles, Canadians, and African Americans by 1925.27 Commercial development on Michigan Avenue near Twenty- Third Street continued to evolve, mirroring a changing Detroit. A filling station with a one- thousand-gallon-capacity holding tank occupied the southwest corner to accommodate the growing number of automobiles, a considerable change from the steel cans, pitchers, and ladles, of only a few years earlier.28 Beginning in 1921, Detroit city directories and Sanborn Fire Insurance Company maps reflect a citywide renumbering initiative effective January 1, 1921, and the Reeber Building storefronts are identified at its new street number 3347-3359 Michigan

26 David Lee Poremba, ed. Detroit in its World Setting: A Three Hundred Year Chronology, 1701-2001. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2001, p. 251. 27 Alex B. Hill. “Population Density Map 1925 Detroit City Census.” Detroitography.com. https://detroitography.com/2016/10/12/population-density-map-1925-city-census/. Accessed March 31, 2019. 28 Marc W. Melaina. “Turn of the Century Refueling: A Review of Innovations in Early Gasoline Refueling Methods and Analogies for Hydrogen.” Energy Policy. Vol. 35 June 2007.

Section 8 page 19

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State Avenue. It is unclear exactly when the building became officially renumbered to the current identification of 3363 Michigan Avenue.

In 1925, People’s State Bank constructed the “23rd-Michigan” branch at the southwest corner of the intersection to service the savings and loan needs of the local population, which ranged from small businesses to working class individuals occupying vernacular homes to white-collar professionals and business owners residing in the larger more palatial homes along West Grand Boulevard. The 1925-1926 city directory lists a branch of the Kroger Grocery and Bakery at 3326 Michigan Avenue, an arrival of a corporate entity to the small business-based atmosphere of Michigan Avenue and Twenty-Third Street. In 1926 the Wolverine Theater opened at 3301 Michigan Avenue in the space noted above as 957 Michigan Avenue, seating just over five hundred individuals. The previously mid-size industrial concentration of foundry and industry operations south and east Michigan Avenue grew into larger-scale facilities, among them General Aluminum and Brass, Acme Foundry Company, Miller-Selden Electric and Sullivan Packing Company.

The city reached its present size in 1927, covering 139 square miles. From its humble beginnings, the city had largely spread along the river. Between 1910 and 1927, however, the city increasingly expanded northward, finally reaching the southern borders of Oakland and Macomb Counties. The westward expansion along Michigan Avenue ended in approximately 1916 at the eastern boundary of Springwells, later renamed Fordson, which later merged with the city of Dearborn to the west.

The 1928-1929 Polk’s City Directory shows the area at Michigan and Twenty-Third Street is still a flourishing commercial area, and shows a diversification in the offerings of the businesses. The Reeber Furniture Company remained in the Reeber Building, as did the Grosfield Agency next door one building to the west. Paddock’s drug store and Maximillian Von Mach’s design business also remained in their buildings. These long-term businesses men were joined by a branch of the Kroger Company, a soft drink parlor operated by William Szenitis, and Chylowski Jewelry.

By the mid-1930s more significant change was planned for the western stretch of Michigan Avenue. A 1938 project to widen Michigan Avenue resulted in an extensive alteration to the streetscape, the scars of which remain visible today. In order to accommodate additional traffic lanes nearly half of the nineteenth century commercial building stock along the avenue was lost to demolition. Images taken prior to the expansion from the show the threatened building stock: a dense concentration of two- and three-story brick buildings, outfitted with plate glass storefronts on the ground floor and ornamented with attractive stone trimmings and cornice treatments. A unique effort to preserve the historic architecture occurred in 1940 with the removal of the Grimm Jewelry Store from the original location on Michigan Avenue to Henry Ford’s museum of historic buildings and structures at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. Designed by Reeber Building architect Peter Dederichs Jr. for Englebert Grimm, the two-story brick building sat less than a mile from the Grosfield Building and housed the avenue’s first jewelry store.29

29 “Daughter to End Long Vigil over Shop with Historic Past.” Detroit Free Press. February 21, 1940.

Section 8 page 20

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State

A 1949 aerial photograph shows some retention of density on the south side of Michigan Avenue with the north side of the street showing a greater building loss from the 1938 widening project. Development of the area started to shift from the dense commercial avenue and intersecting residential streets to favor industry as the primary use of the land south of Michigan Avenue. As populations migrated further north to newly-constructed suburbs and longtime residents aged, the former neighborhood to the south is replaced almost entirely by industrial uses. The residential neighborhood to the north, known as Chadsey Condon has begun a steady decline.

The favor of locating light and heavy industry on the west side of the city south of Michigan Avenue became city policy in 1958 when the City of Detroit Plan Commission unveiled the West Side Industrial District. The district was planned between the M-10 Lodge Freeway and Twelfth Street south of Michigan Avenue near the Detroit River. This district, located one mile southeast of the Grosfield Building, was the first project in Detroit in which federal urban renewal funds were used to clear a blighted area for industrial use.30 This official government undertaking encouraged the existing industrial uses to remain and grow and attracted new companies interested in being located near the Ambassador Bridge international bridge crossing with Canada and the Michigan Central Railroad. The 1958 city directory reveals the Peoples State Bank building at the southwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Twenty-Third Street remained vacant. A Michigan Secretary of State branch is located across the street at 3408 Michigan Avenue next to Paddock Drugs. The theater building at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Twenty-Second Street remained in operation (albeit under a different name), and the Union Packing House Workers of America Locals 192 and 569 shared space at 3311 Michigan Avenue. Luther’s Bar and Tavern occupied 3325 Michigan Avenue, and proprietor George Luther resided above. Max Reich’s Music Shop at 3334 Michigan Avenue advertised musical instruments rather than phonographs.

An aerial photograph from 1961 shows nearly every dwelling south of Michigan Avenue on Twenty-Third and Twenty-Fourth Streets cleared for industrial development. The construction of the freeway system throughout the city in the late 1950s and early 1960s further impacted the neighborhood near the Michigan Avenue and Twenty-Third Street by placing the Fisher and Jefferies Freeway interchange at Michigan Avenue and Twenty-First Street, effectively isolating the area from the downtown. Western Market, a commercial and social center in the neighborhood for decades, was demolished to make way for the project.

City directories published in the late 1960s and 1970s show a dwindling concentration of businesses along the avenue and a shift from retailers supplying the essentials of everyday life to businesses with limited daily customer interactions. Luther’s Bar, Claramunt Printing and Max Reich Music Shop are still operating in their spaces at 3325, 3333 and 3334 Michigan Avenue, respectively. Puritan Press is listed at 3330 Michigan Avenue. Shoe repair is available in the 3341 Michigan Avenue storefront. The theater at 3301 Michigan Avenue is vacant, joining

30 City of Detroit Plan Commission. Industrial Redevelopment, West Side Industrial District. Detroit, Mich.: City Plan Commission, 1958.

Section 8 page 21

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State vacancies at 3315, 3323, 3331 and 336 (next door to the Reeber Building). The People’s State Bank building remains vacant, joining 3419, 3421, 3425, 3443 on the block stretching west to Twenty-Fourth Street. Wholesale meat operations are listed at 3445-3349 Michigan Avenue. Water heater and transmission repair services are listed at 3430 and 3456 Michigan Avenue.

The 1968 city directory signals a new use of the vacant People’s State Bank branch as the Ambassador Club. The Michigan Secretary of State office continues operations at 3408 Michigan Avenue, next to Paddock Drugs at 3400 Michigan Avenue. Between Twenty-Second and 24th Streets moving west, vacancies or no returns are noted at 3317, 3321, 3331, 3335, 3345, 3365, 3367, 3421, 3425, 3430, 3434, 3443, 3456 and 3457 representing buildings on the north and south sides of Michigan Avenue. Next door, the Grosfield Agency closed its doors in 1972. The area surrounding the Reeber Building would continue a decline, aided by movement of urban populations to suburban communities and increased land use for industrial purposes. By 1976 the Peoples State Bank branch is listed as Liberty Baptist Church.

1981 aerial photographs show an abundance of vacant lots surrounding the block on which the Grosfield Building is situated. While the block itself retains density, the lots to the south, across the alley, have lost their buildings and structures and are being used for parked semi-truck trailers. Telephone directories show a large number of vacancies and no returns on the blocks immediately east and west of the Grosfield Building. In the early 1990s People’s State Bank building was briefly used as an alternative music venue, appropriately named “Bank.”

One of the other few remaining links to the corridor’s heyday, Paddock Drugs, remained open to customers at the northwest corner of Michigan Avenue and 23rd Street until 2002. Another longtime mainstay at 3333 Michigan Avenue Claramunt Printing, owned and operated by the Claramunt family at the location since 1958, had a telephone book listing until at least 2005. Both buildings are now vacant and doors and openings covered with painted plywood and siding.

The Reeber furniture business relocated west to 22266 Michigan Avenue in Dearborn, Wayne County, Michigan, continuing the family’s legacy as merchants on the avenue. The 1964 city directory lists the 3363 Michigan Avenue storefront occupied by Mc Laughlin Early American Shop, followed by American Flag and Banner which occupied the Reeber Building for several years until it also relocated to a new suburban location. As early as 1973 city directories mark 3363 Michigan Avenue as having no active listing. A sale in 1979 did not result in any active use, and the Reeber Building remained empty. Vacancy and disuse continued through the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Through three decades city directories simply listed the building as “No Return” or vacant.

As of 2019 the area directly south of the Reeber Building between Michigan Avenue and the Detroit River remains highly industrial in use with varying levels of vacancy. The remaining buildings on the blocks between Twenty-Fourth and Twenty-Second Streets are all vacant and storefronts concealed behind metal and wood vertical siding, painted plywood and cement block. On the north side of Michigan Avenue across from the Reeber Building between Twenty-Third and Tillman Streets only two one-story concrete block structures are standing. One is currently used as a karate school at 3364 Michigan Avenue and 3330 Michigan Avenue is a clubhouse for

Section 8 page 22

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State the Detroit Highwaymen Motorcycle Club. There are few intact examples of the nineteenth and twentieth century commercial blocks that once lined Michigan Avenue, and only a handful of which can claim any level of architectural integrity. Alterations including metal façade treatments and vertical wood siding mask remaining notable building characteristics or materials on many of the buildings in the immediate area of the Reeber Building. Recent interest and investment in the neighborhoods surrounding the Reeber Building has resulted in some examples of preservation, rehabilitation, and adaptive reuse of the building stock.

Architecture

Prior to the construction of the Reeber Building, this site was occupied by a one-story, wood- frame storefronts at 979 and 977 Michigan Avenue and a two-story, wood-frame building at 975 Michigan Avenue. Small wood-frame sheds were located behind the storefronts at 975 and 979 Michigan Avenue. In 1887, developer Anthony Grosfield contracted architect Peter Dederichs Jr. to prepare designs and specifications for a double brick storefront. Detroit builder and carpenter Samuel Stringer constructed the building the same year with construction totaling $8,196. Architect Joseph E. Mills was subsequently contracted by owners Charles and Joseph Reeber in 1894 and 1899 to design alterations to the existing 1887 building. In 2019 it is difficult to determine the various alterations as the façade presents as a unified and intact example of late- nineteenth century commercial architecture.

The design of the Reeber Building is heavily influenced by Late Victorian trends popular at the time of its construction in 1887. The Late Victorian style is generally associated with the period between 1880 and 1890, the chronologically last of three style subsets including Early Victorian (1840-1860) and High Victorian (1860-1880). These three sets fall under the broader term Victorian, which is descriptive of an age that employed highly decorative and ornate architectural styles, and are themselves comprised of additional divisions relating to stylistic influence including Victorian Italianate (1860-1885), Victorian Romanesque (1870-1890), Gingerbread (1870-1910) and Queen Anne (1880-1905). The Victorian style in the United States is a revival of the architecture and design of Europe, particularly England. While elements of the Late Victorian style were often heavily applied to residential buildings, the features were also used by architects and builders to beautify commercial architecture. Turn of the century millwork catalogs enabled easy inclusion of stylistic components such as paneled wood doors, decorative window sashes, and ornamental vergeboard, brackets and columns that could be sourced directly by the builder or owner at a reasonable price. Advancements in glass productions allowed for expansive panes to fill large storefront window openings. Prevalent availability of pre-fabricated galvanized metal provided affordable options for grand exterior ornamentation.

The design for the Reeber Building exemplifies the commercial application of Late Victorian style and retains several characteristics of the Italianate subset including bracketed cornices, tall double doors, and round or segmented arched windows with hoodmolds and flat roofs. Buildings were traditionally two- or three- story in height. The Reeber building was originally outfitted on the first floor with wood paneled entry doors set with transom windows above and large plate

Section 8 page 23

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State glass windows fronting the avenue. The second floor has double-hung windows with transom lights, framed by thin stone eyebrows.

Peter Dederichs regularly designed religious, public and commercial buildings with Late Victorian influences including Gothic, Neo-classical, Romanesque Revival, Renaissance Revival and Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Revival styles. There are several local examples of Dederichs’ employ of the Late Victorian style for commercial and religious buildings in addition to the Reeber Building. The Grimm Jewelry Store, constructed with brick in 1886 for Englebert Grimm has a galvanized ornamented cornice, stepped brickwork, ornamental arched hoods over double-hung windows and pilasters topped with decorative capitals. The building is now part of the permanent architectural exhibit The Henry Ford, having been removed from its original location on Michigan Avenue east of the Reeber Building. In 1889 grocers Willibald Schulte and Anthony Kaiser commissioned Dederichs to design a two-story block at 1015 Michigan Avenue one block west of the Reeber Building. Like the Reeber Building, the Schulte and Kaiser façade is angled to match the direction of Michigan Avenue as it stretches westward from the city center. The building is constructed of brick, with decorative treatment at the cornice and a slightly projecting parapet concealing a flat roof. In 2019 it is vacant and boarded with painted plywood. In 1891, Dederichs was commissioned by the Ekhardt and Becker Brewing Company to design a new brewing facility in Eastern Market. His Romanesque design, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, is currently occupied as the E & B Brewery Lofts an early successful adaptive reuse project in Detroit.

Architect Joseph E. Mills also employed the Late Victorian style for multiple projects constructed in Detroit and vicinity, particularly in the residential realm. Intact examples of his designs are prevalent in the Detroit’s historic residential neighborhoods built in the late nineteenth century including at least ten in the Woodbridge Neighborhood Historic District (NRHP 1980). Mills’ designs are also represented in the Boston Edison Historic District (NRHP 1975), Hubbard Farms Historic District (NRHP 1993); Indian Village Historic District (NRHP 1972); New Center Area Historic District (NRHP 1982) and West Canfield Historic District (NRHP 1971). The West Canfield Historic District was designated as the City of Detroit’s first local historic district in 1970. The influence of Late Victorian styles are evident in Mills’ designs for his residential commissions. Queen Anne details such as wood porches, brackets and vergeboard, decorative brick chimneys, steeply pitched roof lines, turrets with conical tops, oversized and ornamented dormers and bay and oriel windows are common particularly in the Woodbridge and West Canfield neighborhoods. Joseph E. Mills’ use of Richardsonian Romanesque design is shown through multiple red pressed brick buildings constructed on raised foundations with deeply recessed porches and buffed sandstone trimmings. These influences are noticed particularly in his designs located in Brush Park and a double residence constructed in 1893 at 914-918 West Willis in Detroit’s Midtown neighborhood.

The Reeber Building was planned for commercial use occupying the first floor and dwellings on the second floor. To maximize Michigan Avenue frontage, the building was constructed to the northern lot line as was common practice with buildings along commercial corridors. The Reeber Building is one of the last remaining examples of the commercial architecture erected in the late nineteenth century west of the downtown center and specifically west of the Corktown

Section 8 page 24

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State neighborhood, two- and three- story buildings primarily constructed with brick walls above stone foundations. The design employs the Italianate treatment which reached a pinnacle of popularity in the United States between 1850 and 1880 but continued to influence later construction such as the Reeber Building in 1887. It is unsurprising that the Italianate form was heavily utilized during the late nineteenth century on Michigan Avenue buildings as it is the most common style found occupying historic commercial corridors throughout the State of Michigan.31 While once an example of a prevalent architectural style, the Reeber Building is now one of a few intact late nineteenth century commercial structures along the Michigan Avenue corridor. A structural collapse localized to the rear portion of the building has impacted the roof and second floor however decorative cast iron support columns remain in position on the first floor, along with wood floors and some remaining areas of plastered walls.

The Reeber Building continues to display a high level of integrity as a representative of the Late Victorian style and specifically Italianate influence of commercial buildings in the late nineteenth century, and is one of only a few existing remnants of a once thriving commercial corridor.

Peter Dederichs, Jr.

Peter Dederichs Jr. was born in Detroit in 1856. He began working as an architect in Detroit in 1874, appearing in a J.W. Weeks Detroit City Directory listing on Croghan Street, currently known as Monroe Street. In 1878 Dederichs designed a four-story commercial block for businessman Valentine Hilsendegen on Monroe Street, constructed of brick with galvanized caps and cornices. Coincidentally, after a fire destroyed a portion of the block in 1898, Joseph E. Mills was hired to prepare plans to rebuild the building and the Hilsendegen Block stood until its demolition in 1953. In 1885 Dederichs engaged on a three month tour of European architecture of churches and cathedrals that would influence later contributions to religious architecture and during a celebration commemorating his return to Detroit was serenaded by the Lyra Singing Society and the Detroit Opera House Orchestra.32 A May 4, 1885, Detroit Free Press article describes Dederichs’ design for the new Saint Joachim French Catholic Church as being of “Roman style” and constructed of brick with stone trimmings. During his early career, Dederichs completed a variety of commissions from wood frame dwellings and brick residences to commercial blocks, breweries and a hotel. In 1892, he designed a dance hall and pavilion for Detroit’s Westphalia Shuetzen Bund, a German social group. He soon became a sought-after architect for churches, rectories, and school buildings primarily for Catholic congregations. In 1893, Dederichs was appointed by President Grover Cleveland to be Superintendent in charge of constructing Detroit’s new Post Office and Customs House until 1897. He later supervised the construction of the Wayne County Court House.

Dederichs is best known for his contributions to religious architecture. He designed several prominent Catholic houses of worship in Detroit including Saint Mary Catholic Church, Saint

31 Mary Jo Byrnes. Creating Design Guidelines for the Historic Commercial District. Lansing, Mich.: Michigan Historical Center, 2007. 32 “Local Brevities” Detroit Free Press. November 18, 1885.

Section 8 page 25

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State Bonaventura Church and Monastery, Grotto of Our Lady at Lourdes for Assumption, Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church and Rectory, Saint Charles Borromeo, all listed on the National Register of Historic Places; Saint Joachim (demolished 1934 due to fire), Our Lady of Sorrows Church and School (demolished 1963) and rectories for Saint Albert and Saint Joseph. Beyond Detroit city limits, statewide commissions include Saint Augustine Church in Richmond, Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church in Ionia, Saint Joseph’s Academy, Chapel and Chapel House in Adrian, Saint John’s Sister House in Jackson and Saint Michael’s in Monroe. Dederichs also designed prominent religious buildings in Wisconsin, Tennessee, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Indiana, including Fort Wayne’s Saint Peter’s Square, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Peter Dederichs Jr. died in 1924 and is buried in Mount Elliot Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan.

Joseph E. Mills

Joseph Eldred Mills was born in 1854 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and came to Detroit in 1876 after obtaining his education in Illinois. Upon arrival in Detroit, Mills worked as a draftsman under Elijah E. Myers, famed architect of many public buildings, including the state capitols of Michigan, Colorado, and Texas.33

Among Mills’ early solo commissions were a three-story brick school for the City of Dearborn in 1893; the 1895 Levi Barbour House (currently the Prismatic Club), 86 Eliot Street; the 1899 Richard H. Macauley House, 270 East Ferry Avenue; and the 1905 Oakland County Courthouse (demolished), which was selected from among the plans submitted by “several of the greatest architects in the United States.”34 Mills also designed the 1911 Harrison County Courthouse in Logan, Iowa; a number of industrial buildings and residences in Detroit, and several buildings around the state of Michigan.

After several years in solo practice, Mills partnered with his son Byron Eldred Mills, a graduate of the University of Michigan, in 1913 to form Joseph E. Mills & Son. In 1914 the partnership relocated to the newly opened Kresge Building on Adams Avenue in Grand Circus Park as “the growth of business required more commodious quarters.”35 The firm’s public commissions in Michigan included school houses in Detroit and Dearborn, a State Asylum in Ionia, hospitals in Grosse Pointe and Pontiac, and at least one county building. Mills & Son continued to design single family residences, apartment houses and terraces, stores, and factories, in addition to the remodeling and expansion of existing buildings. Among the firm’s numerous commissions are the 1916 Lafer Brothers Building, a contributing resource in the Broadway Avenue Historic District (NRHP 2004) in downtown Detroit; and the1919 Marantha Baptist Church at 2900 East Grand Boulevard, a contributing resource in the City of Detroit Jam Handy/North End/East Grand Boulevard Local Historic District.

33 Weeks, J.W. Detroit City Directory for 1879. Detroit, Mich.: J.W. Weeks Co. 1879. p. 559. 34 Seeley, Thaddeus D. History of Oakland County, Vol. 1. Chicago, Ill: Lewis Publishing Co. 1912. p. 207. 35 “Architect Firm Moves to Kresge Building” Detroit Free Press. September 14, 1914.

Section 8 page 26

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State Joseph E. Mills died in 1919 at his home in Detroit after an extended illness. After his father’s death, Byron E. Mills retained the Kresge Building office and continued practicing architecture under his own name. He designed school buildings, commercial additions, and private homes in Detroit and surrounding suburban communities. Byron E. Mills retired after practicing architecture and working as an inspector for the Federal Housing Administration. He died in Detroit in 1969.

Section 8 page 27

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State ______9. Major Bibliographical References

Bibliography (Cite the books, articles, and other sources used in preparing this form.)

“A Suburban Boom – New Buildings.” Detroit Free Press. June 23, 1889. “Architect Firm Moves to Kresge Building” Detroit Free Press. September 14, 1914. Bergquist, James. M. “German Communities in American Cities: An Interpretation of the Nineteenth-Century Experience.” Journal of American Ethnic History, 1984, 4. Burton, Clarence Monroe. Lists of Street in Detroit, the Names of Which Have Been Changed. Detroit, Mich.: Wayne County Abstract Office, 1891. Burton, Clarence Monroe. The City of Detroit, 1701 -1922, Vol. 3. Detroit, Mich.: SJ Clarke, 1922. Byrnes, Mary Jo. Creating Design Guidelines for the Historic Commercial District. Lansing, Mich.: Michigan Historical Center, 2007. City of Detroit Plan Commission. The People of Detroit. Detroit, Mich.: City of Detroit. 1946. City of Detroit Plan Commission. Industrial Redevelopment, West Side Industrial District. Detroit, Mich.: City Plan Commission, 1958. “Daughter to End Long Vigil over Shop with Historic Past.” Detroit Free Press. February 21, 1940. Detroit of To-Day, the City of the Strait: Its Growth, Resources, Commerce, Manufacturing Concerns, Financial Institutions and Prospects ... Also Views of the ... World's Columbian Exposition. Detroit, Mich.: Phoenix Publishing Company. 1893. Dunbar, Willis F. and May, George S. Michigan: A History of the Wolverine State. 3rd ed. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1995. Farmer, Silas. The History of Detroit and Michigan. Detroit, Mich.: Silas Farmer & Co. 1884. Graff, George. P. The People of Michigan. Lansing, Mich.: Michigan Department of Education, 1972. “Help Wanted – Female” Detroit Free Press. October 3, 1909. Hill, Alex B. “Population Density Map 1925 Detroit City Census.” Detroitography.com. https://detroitography.com/2016/10/12/population-density-map-1925-city-census/. Jeffery, Jno B. Jeffery's Guide and Directory to the Opera Houses, Theatres, Public Halls, Bill Posters, Etc. of the Cities and Towns of America. 11th Edition. Chicago: Jno B. Jeffery. 1889. p. 156. “Local Brevities” Detroit Free Press. November 18, 1885. Lodge, John Christian. I Remember Detroit. Detroit, Mich.: Wayne University Press, 1940. Keep, Helen E, and Burton, M. Agnes. Guide to Detroit. Detroit, Mich.: Detroit News Company, 1914. Melaina, Marc W. “Turn of the Century Refueling: A Review of Innovations in Early Gasoline Refueling Methods and Analogies for Hydrogen.” Energy Policy. Vol. 35 June 2007. “Michigan Avenue A Growing Retail District” Detroit Free Press. July 25, 1906 Michigan Highways: The Great Routes of the Great Lakes State. “Historic Byways and Heritage Routes.” http://www.michiganhighways.org/other/byways_historic.html. “New Residences” Detroit Free Press. September 24, 1899.

Sections 9-end page 28

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State Poremba, David Lee ed. Detroit in its World Setting: A Three Hundred Year Chronology, 1701- 2001. Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, 2001. Seeley, Thaddeus D. History of Oakland County, Vol. 1. Chicago, Ill: Lewis Publishing Co. 1912. Russell, John A. The Germanic Influence in the Making of Michigan. Detroit, Mich.: University of Detroit Press, 1927. Weeks, J.W. Detroit City Directory for 1879. Detroit, Mich.: J.W. Weeks Co. 1879.

______

Previous documentation on file (NPS):

____ preliminary determination of individual listing (36 CFR 67) has been requested ____ previously listed in the National Register ____ previously determined eligible by the National Register ____ designated a National Historic Landmark ____ recorded by Historic American Buildings Survey #______recorded by Historic American Engineering Record # ______recorded by Historic American Landscape Survey # ______

Primary location of additional data: ____ State Historic Preservation Office ____ Other State agency ____ Federal agency ____ Local government ____ University ____ Other Name of repository: ______

Historic Resources Survey Number (if assigned): ______

______10. Geographical Data

Acreage of Property _0.207______

Use either the UTM system or latitude/longitude coordinates

Latitude/Longitude Coordinates (decimal degrees)

Sections 9-end page 29

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State Datum if other than WGS84:______(enter coordinates to 6 decimal places) 1. Latitude: 42.331332 Longitude: -83.089722

2. Latitude: Longitude:

3. Latitude: Longitude:

4. Latitude: Longitude:

Or UTM References Datum (indicated on USGS map):

NAD 1927 or NAD 1983

1. Zone: Easting: Northing:

2. Zone: Easting: Northing:

3. Zone: Easting: Northing:

4. Zone: Easting : Northing:

Verbal Boundary Description (Describe the boundaries of the property.)

South Michigan triangle portion beginning West 4 feet on North line, and North 8.94 Feet on West line Lot 1, All of Lot 2, and east 10.61 Feet of Lot 3 Fishers Subdivision of the Eastern Part of Lots 62 and 63 Porter Farm according to the plat thereof. Recorded in Liber 1, Pag38, Plats, Wayne County Register 12/39.

Boundary Justification (Explain why the boundaries were selected.)

The boundary is the legal boundary of the parcel on which the building is situated.

______11. Form Prepared By

name/title: ___Dawn Bilobran______organization: _313 Historic Preservation______

Sections 9-end page 30

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State street & number: _P.O. Box 32853______city or town: Detroit______state: _MI_ zip code:_48232___ [email protected]______telephone:_ (313) 355-3479______date: February 15, 2019 ______

______

Additional Documentation

Submit the following items with the completed form:

• Maps: A USGS map or equivalent (7.5 or 15 minute series) indicating the property's location.

• Sketch map for historic districts and properties having large acreage or numerous resources. Key all photographs to this map.

• Additional items: (Check with the SHPO, TPO, or FPO for any additional items.)

Photographs Submit clear and descriptive photographs. The size of each image must be 1600x1200 pixels (minimum), 3000x2000 preferred, at 300 ppi (pixels per inch) or larger. Key all photographs to the sketch map. Each photograph must be numbered and that number must correspond to the photograph number on the photo log. For simplicity, the name of the photographer, photo date, etc. may be listed once on the photograph log and doesn’t need to be labeled on every photograph.

Photo Log

1 of 8 Name of Property: Reeber Building City or Vicinity: Detroit County: Wayne State: Michigan Photographer: Dawn A. Bilobran Date Photographed: June 28, 2018

Sections 9-end page 31

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State Description: View facing southwest showing front façade of Reeber Building/Michigan Avenue streetscape

2 of 8 Name of Property: Reeber Building City or Vicinity: Detroit County: Wayne State: Michigan Photographer: Dawn A. Bilobran Date Photographed: June 28, 2018 Description: View facing southwest showing front façade of Reeber Building

3 of 8 Name of Property: Reeber Building City or Vicinity: Detroit County: Wayne State: Michigan Photographer: Dawn A. Bilobran Date Photographed: June 28, 2018 Description: View facing southwest showing “The Reeber Furniture Co.” ghost sign detail

4 of 8 Name of Property: Reeber Building City or Vicinity: Detroit County: Wayne State: Michigan Photographer: Dawn A. Bilobran Date Photographed: June 28, 2018 Description: View facing southwest showing front façade/east elevation of Reeber Building

5 of 8 Name of Property: Reeber Building City or Vicinity: Detroit County: Wayne State: Michigan Photographer: Dawn A. Bilobran Date Photographed: June 28, 2018 Description: View facing north showing rear elevation of Reeber Building

6 of 8 Name of Property: Reeber Building City or Vicinity: Detroit County: Wayne State: Michigan

Sections 9-end page 32

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018

Reeber Building Wayne County, Michigan Name of Property County and State Photographer: Dawn A. Bilobran Date Photographed: June 28, 2018 Description: View facing northwest showing rear elevation/exposed interior wall

7 of 8 Name of Property: Reeber Building City or Vicinity: Detroit County: Wayne State: Michigan Photographer: Dawn A. Bilobran Date Photographed: June 28, 2018 Description: View facing north showing first floor interior/decorative cast iron structural columns

8 of 8 Name of Property: Reeber Building City or Vicinity: Detroit County: Wayne State: Michigan Photographer: Dawn A. Bilobran Date Photographed: June 28, 2018 Description: View facing north showing first floor interior

Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This information is being collected for applications to the National Register of Historic Places to nominate properties for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listings. Response to this request is required to obtain a benefit in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended (16 U.S.C.460 et seq.). Estimated Burden Statement: Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 100 hours per response including time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form. Direct comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of this form to the Office of Planning and Performance Management. U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 1849 C. Street, NW, Washington, DC.

Sections 9-end page 33

Reeber Building 3363 Michigan Avenue, Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan

Lat./Long.: 42.331332 / -83.089722

Map Source: ArcGIS Earth 1.8 Reeber Building 3363 Michigan Avenue, Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan

Lat./Long.: 42.331332 / -83.089722

Map Source: ArcGIS Earth 1.8 6 2 11 1 6 2 11 1

1 1 A5.00 A5.00

I I

67'-11 3/4" 67'-11 3/4"

3 3 A5.00 A5.00

UP

I I 110'-0 1/4" 110'-0 110'-0 1/4" 110'-0 82'-5" 82'-5" 74'-4 3/4" 74'-4 3/4" 74'-4

4 4 A5.00 A5.00

17'-10 3/4" 38'-8 1/2" 17'-10 3/4" 38'-8 1/2"

A A A A

58'-0 1/4" 60'-10"

04/04/17 Stabilization Permit 6 2 11 1 6 2 11 1 Date: Issued For:

2 2 Grosfield Lofts A5.00 A5.00 3363-3365 Michigan Avenue Detroit, Michigan

350 Madison Avenue Detroit, Michigan 48226 4th Floor 313 549 2790 voice http://www.studiozonedetroit.com 313 872 5638 fax

Project Number: 2017-05 Sheet Title: 3363 MICHIGAN EXISTING BASEMENT FLOOR PLAN 2 3363 MICHIGAN EXISTING 1ST FLOOR PLAN 3363 MICHIGAN SCALE: 1/8" = 1'-0" 1 EXISTING BASEMENT SCALE: 1/8" = 1'-0" & 1ST FLOOR PLANS

0' 4' 10' 20' 40' 50' Sheet Number: 0' 4' 10' 20' 40' 50' A3.01

© 2019 studiozONE, llc DEMOLITION NOTES:

1 REMOVE EXISTING WINDOWS

2 REMOVE EXISTING DOORS

3 COLLAPSED WALL

6 2 11 1

I

67'-9 1/2"

I 109'-11" 82'-5"

3

18'-7 1/4" 38'-0"

A A 3 60'-10"

04/04/17 Stabilization Permit 6 2 11 1 Date: Issued For:

Grosfield Lofts

3363-3365 Michigan Avenue Detroit, Michigan

3363 MICHIGAN EXISTING 2ND FLOOR PLAN 1 SCALE: 1/8" = 1'-0"

350 Madison Avenue Detroit, Michigan 48226 4th Floor 313 549 2790 voice http://www.studiozonedetroit.com 313 872 5638 fax 0' 4' 10' 20' 40' 50' Project Number: 2017-05 Sheet Title: 3363 MICHIGAN EXISTING 2ND & 3RD FLOOR PLANS

Sheet Number: A3.02

© 2019 studiozONE, llc LEGAL DESCRIPTION: 3363 3363 MICHIGAN AVENUE PARCEL ID 12000321 S MICHIGAN TRIANG POR BG W 4 FT ON N LINE & N 8.94 FT ON W LINE 1 2 E 10.61 FT 3FISHERS SUB L1 P38 PLATS, W C R 12/39 71 IRREG

In: Central Southwest, 48216, Census Tract 5213, Council District 6, Detroit, MI, Wayne County, MI

3363 MICHIGAN AVENUE PARCEL ID 12000321

ALLEY (20' ROW)

07/15/18 NEZ/OPRA Application REV 07/03/18 NEZ/OPRA Application 04/04/17 Stabilization Permit

Date: Issued For:

Grosfield Lofts

3363-3365 Michigan Avenue Detroit, Michigan

350 Madison Avenue Detroit, Michigan 48226 4th Floor 313 549 2790 voice http://www.studiozonedetroit.com 313 872 5638 fax

Project Number: 2017-05 Sheet Title: 3363 MICHIGAN EXISTING 3363 MICHIGAN EXISTING SITE PLAN 1 SITE PLAN SCALE: 1" = 40'-0" Sheet Number:

0' 5' 10' 20' 50' 60' A2.00

© 2019 studiozONE, llc