Hudson’s was a name at the center of Detroit life for decades. And their flagship store on Woodward loomed over downtown until it was demolished in 1998. I remember that day because I worked it for a local TV station. Street after street was covered...
What can the past teach us about what we’re dealing with today? Our conversation today is with Tim Kiska, host and creator of the Detroit History Podcast. They recently put out a great special episode talking about the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic and...
On today’s show, we go to the Two Way Inn to talk about celebrating the 198th birthday this weekend of Colonel Philetus Norris. The civil war veteran who fought on the Union side built a place now known as one of the best dive bars in America...
L. Brooks Patterson, who died Saturday at age 80 at his home in Independence Township, was one of the Detroit area’s most consequential and controversial figures in local politics. To some, he represents the ascendancy of an economic...
Baker’s Keyboard Lounge and, more recently, the Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe in Grosse Pointe Farms are famed venues for jazz in Detroit. But another venue played a huge role in that scene for decades: the Blue Bird Inn. Located at 5021 Tireman on the...
Detroit’s had a long journey since it was founded as a frontier outpost by the French. There’s been a lot of books about more recent Detroit history. Think 1900 forward. But not so many that look at the first years of Detroit, ones that...
A piece of history is up for sale. The former Ford Motor Company Sales and Service Building that was part of the Highland Park Ford Plant is for sale according to a DBusiness report. The Sales and Service building offers 54,000 square feet of space...
Detroit played an important role in World War II. As the “Arsenal of Democracy,” automakers and their suppliers were refitted to build the machinery to win the war. It also was a busy time for the city, pulling it up from the depths of...
Paul Riser has played trombone, wrote songs and arranged music with some of the biggest names in popular music. As a member of the fabled “Funk Brothers,” the mostly anonymous house band for Motown Records during its heyday, he worked...
Developers on Monday took the wraps off the redeveloped Metropolitan Building, which will re-open soon as the 110-room Element Hotel by Westin after four decades of abandonment. As Dan Austin of HistoricDetroit.org tells us, she’s a...
I traveled to Los Angeles recently to cover the auto show and got to stay in a hotel in a familiar-looking building. You might recognize it from movies like “Strange Days,” “True Lies” or “Interstellar.” Or, if you’re a Detroiter, you might think...
The big news around Detroit today is the groundbreaking on the Monroe Block. That’s the two-block site adjacent to Campus Martius where Dan Gilbert and Bedrock plan an $830 million development to add 1.4 million square feet of housing, office...
Fans of Detroit watering holes of yore, take note: A documentary about the legendary Lindell AC sports bar makes its TV debut Thursday night on Detroit Public Television. It’s called “Meet Me At the Lindell: The Story of America’s First Sports Bar.”...
Crews were on the scene today making repairs at two long-blighted properties owned by the Ilitch family on Cass Avenue in Detroit. Monday was the deadline to fix code violations at the former Hotel Ansonia and the former Atlanta Apartments. Both...
We’re getting back to our boozy roots with this Daily Detroit Happy Hour conversation with barchaeologist Mickey Lyons. She’s the talent author behind a recent Hour Detroit piece, “Dry Times: Looking Back 100 Years After...
