The Leland Hotel (Detroit, Michigan)

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Detroit-Leland Hotel
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Location 400 Bagley St.,
Detroit, Michigan
Coordinates 42°20′1.28″N83°3′15.34″W / 42.3336889°N 83.0542611°W / 42.3336889; -83.0542611 Coordinates: 42°20′1.28″N83°3′15.34″W / 42.3336889°N 83.0542611°W / 42.3336889; -83.0542611
Built 1927
Architect Rapp & Rapp
Architectural style Renaissance
NRHP reference # 05000718 [1]
Added to NRHP July 20, 2005

The Detroit-Leland Hotel is a historic hotel located at 400 Bagley Street in Downtown Detroit, Michigan. It is the oldest continuously operating hotel in downtown Detroit, [2] and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. [1] The ballroom of the Detroit-Leland has hosted a nightclub, the City Club, since 1983. [3] The hotel is now named The Leland [4] and no longer rents to overnight guests. [5]

Downtown Detroit Place in Michigan

Downtown Detroit is the central business district and a residential area of the city of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Detroit is the major city in the larger Metro Detroit region. Downtown Detroit is bordered by M-10 to the west, Interstate 75 to the north, I-375 to the east, and the Detroit River to the south. The city's main thoroughfare M-1 links Downtown to Midtown, New Center, and the North End.

Detroit Largest city in Michigan

Detroit is the largest and most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan, the largest United States city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of Wayne County. The municipality of Detroit had a 2017 estimated population of 673,104, making it the 23rd-most populous city in the United States. The metropolitan area, known as Metro Detroit, is home to 4.3 million people, making it the second-largest in the Midwest after the Chicago metropolitan area. Regarded as a major cultural center, Detroit is known for its contributions to music and as a repository for art, architecture and design.

Michigan State of the United States of America

Michigan is a state in the Great Lakes and Midwestern regions of the United States. The state's name, Michigan, originates from the Ojibwe word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake". With a population of about 10 million, Michigan is the tenth most populous of the 50 United States, with the 11th most extensive total area, and is the largest state by total area east of the Mississippi River. Its capital is Lansing, and its largest city is Detroit. Metro Detroit is among the nation's most populous and largest metropolitan economies.

Contents

History

In the early 1920s, Edward A. Loveley and Harry A. Stormfeltz formed the Detroit Properties Corporation, with the purpose of developing Bagley Street outward from Grand Circus Park. The first building constructed was the Michigan Building at Bagley and Clifford, designed by the Chicago firm of Rapp & Rapp. The Michigan Building opened in 1926. The second building project undertaken by the Detroit Properties Corporation was the Detroit-Leland Hotel. Loveley and Stormfeltz again tapped Rapp & Rapp to design the building, and the Cleveland firm of Lundoff-Bicknell as contractors. Construction began in 1926, and the building cost $4.5 million. [2]

Michigan Building office building and former movie theater in Detroit

The Michigan Building is an office building and the former Michigan Theater in downtown Detroit, Michigan. It was constructed in 1925 and stands at 13 floors in height. Today it contains a bar, restaurant, retail space, office space, a parking garage, and the shared coworking space Cowork at The Michigan.

The Detroit-Leland Hotel (named for Cadillac founder Henry M. Leland) opened its doors in April, 1927. [6] It had 800 air-conditioned hotel rooms, along with a dining room, coffee shop, ball room, and 11 stores at street level. [6]

Cadillac division of the U.S.-based General Motors

Cadillac is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that designs and builds luxury vehicles. Its major markets are the United States, Canada, and China. Cadillac vehicles are distributed in 34 additional markets worldwide. Cadillac automobiles are at the top of the luxury field within the United States. In 2017, Cadillac's U.S. sales were 156,440 vehicles and its global sales were 356,467 vehicles.

Henry M. Leland American businessman

Henry Martyn Leland was an American machinist, inventor, engineer and automotive entrepreneur. He founded the two premier American luxury automotive marques, Cadillac and Lincoln.

However, by 1929 the ownership was having major financial problems and declared bankruptcy. The hotel remained in bankruptcy until 1936, but kept operating throughout this period. By the 1950s, ownership had changed hands to Robert J. Sterling and his brothers Oliver and Edward. The Sterlings renovated the hotel in 1959/1960, prompted by the opening of Cobo Hall. In 1964 the hotel was again sold, this time to Robert K. and Donald Werbe, who renovated the hotel to have 473 apartments in addition to hotel rooms. [2]

The hotel changed hands again in the 1970s, with Mayer Morganroth and John R. Ferris as owners, and in the 1980s when the Leland House Limited Partnership Company, headed by Michael W. Higgins, was formed. The 1980s recession hit the hotel hard, and the Leland became part of the Ramada hotel chain in 1988. The hotel reverted to its historical name in 2006. [7] The Leland House Limited Partnership Company remains the owner of the Detroit Leland. [2]

Construction

The Detroit-Leland Hotel is a 22-story building faced with brick, granite, and terra cotta with a flat roof. [6] It was designed in the Beaux-Arts architectural style by the Chicago firm of Rapp & Rapp. The lower four floors of the hotel are rectangular in plan, with the upper floors taking on a U shape. [2]

Beaux-Arts architecture expresses the academic neoclassical architectural style

Beaux-Artsarchitecture was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorporated Gothic and Renaissance elements, and used modern materials, such as iron and glass. It was an important style in France until the end of the 19th century. It also had a strong influence on architecture in the United States, because of the many prominent American architects who studied at the Beaux-Arts, including Henry Hobson Richardson, John Galen Howard, Daniel Burnham, and Louis Sullivan.

Chicago City in Illinois, United States

Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the most populous city in Illinois and the third most populous city in the United States. As of the 2017 census-estimate, it has a population of 2,716,450, which makes it the most populous city in the Midwestern United States. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County, the second most populous county in the United States, and the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area, which is often referred to as "Chicagoland." The Chicago metropolitan area, at nearly 10 million people, is the third-largest in the United States, the fourth largest in North America, and the third largest metropolitan area in the world by land area.

Vertically, the plan of the building divides into three parts: a four-story base, the main central section, and two-story attic. The street level is faced with marble, added likely in the 1960s. The section of the base above is faced in the original terra cotta. Round-arch windows reaching two stories light the second-floor spaces ballrooms, lobby and other public spaces. The third and fourth floors both contain pairs of double-hung windows separated by decorative terra cotta details. Between the fourth floor and the attic, the building is faced in buff-colored brick. A beltcourse separates the main section from the attic. [2]

The Bagley Avenue entrance has three doorways, with a revolving door flanked by plate glass doors. The two glass doors have a sidelight, and all three have transom windows above. Original detailed metalwork divides the doors and windows. Inside, the entryway leads to a corridor accessing the commercial spaces on the ground floor. A set of six stairs leads into a wide turned staircase, which still has original wrought iron banisters and railings. The staircase leads to the main lobby on the second floor. The lobby is two stories tall, and leads to a ballroom, conference room, and associated facilities. [2]

On the upper floors are the hotel's guest rooms. These rooms have been reconfigured in varying arrangements, and all contain kitchens, sitting rooms and separate bedroom areas. Floors 5-9 contain rental apartments, floors 10-17 are used as hotel rooms, and floors 18-20 are used as apartments. The basement level contains mechanical and laundry rooms, repair shops, employee locker rooms and toilets, and a nightclub. [2]

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References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2008-04-15). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Rebecca Binno Savage, NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES REGISTRATION FORM: Detroit-Leland Hotel
  3. ↑ City Club history
  4. ↑ The Leland
  5. ↑ http://www.freep.com/story/money/business/michigan/2015/04/04/everyone-started-building-detroit-hotel/25281741/
  6. 1 2 3 Patricia Ibbotson, Detroit's Historic Hotels and Restaurants, Arcadia Publishing, 2007, ISBN   0-7385-5080-9, pp. 63-64
  7. ↑ Dan Austin, Leland Hotel, HISTORICDETROIT.ORG
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