Discuss Detroit » Archives - January 2008 » Skeleton Building « Previous Next »
Top of pageBottom of page

Bbq1945
Member
Username: Bbq1945

Post Number: 35
Registered: 10-2007
Posted on Thursday, January 31, 2008 - 12:13 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I remember a building near Jefferson & Seminole right next to the Detroit River that was only partly finished - we called it the Skeleton Building. It was a vacated construction site and I believe the structure was sinking in soft soil and could not be completed. I played in this building as a kid - crazy but true. We climbed as high as the 7th floor and called it Mars since it was the color of rust. There were no stairs - just the landings and you had to jump from landing to landing to get down. We literally had to climb the brick walls to get up on the higher floors. The building even had a swimming pool in the basement. It was a very scary place. Anybody else remember this?
Top of pageBottom of page

Swingline
Member
Username: Swingline

Post Number: 1001
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Thursday, January 31, 2008 - 3:04 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Was it not a proposed Elk's Club Temple that sat unfinished on that site for many years? Not sure if the steel frame was used for one of the apartment buildings that is on that site now.
Top of pageBottom of page

Mikem
Member
Username: Mikem

Post Number: 3566
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Thursday, January 31, 2008 - 3:19 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

https://www.atdetroit.net/forum/mes sages/91697/95987.html
Top of pageBottom of page

Bbq1945
Member
Username: Bbq1945

Post Number: 36
Registered: 10-2007
Posted on Thursday, January 31, 2008 - 4:07 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Wow - thanks Mikem! This type of information is awesome. The pictures bring back some of the dangerous memories of the place. But I was a kid at the time and what the heck - we had fun. There was an old house on the next lot that was really spooky.
Top of pageBottom of page

Grizzly
Member
Username: Grizzly

Post Number: 21
Registered: 11-2007
Posted on Saturday, February 02, 2008 - 9:41 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Bbq1945, we have another bit of common ground. i did my first SCUBA diving off the seawall at the skeleton building, and we used to have drinking binges in the woods there, since the police did not seem to bother us (except on one occasion, which is best forgotten!) I still find it hard to believe that we were crazy enough to climb to those upper floors - but nobody would want to be called chicken! And yet, regardless of heights, that basement was the scariest place of all...you always had the feeling that someone (or something) was watching you...
Top of pageBottom of page

Bbq1945
Member
Username: Bbq1945

Post Number: 37
Registered: 10-2007
Posted on Monday, February 04, 2008 - 11:45 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Grizzly, you probably already saw the link to the pictures. Very scary place! Jefferson was an exciting place to be when I was a kid. My dad lived close to there with my Grandma. My wife & I looked at having our wedding reception at the Whittier hotel. I worked in the carpet cleaning business for a while and cleaned some of the apartments in the area. They were super nice compared to where I lived. The change in the neighborhoods and the white flight from the area is the shame of Detroit. Should not have happened - but it did. I almost lost a good buddy in the Skeleton building - scared us real bad. Not sure I ever went back after that day!
Top of pageBottom of page

Grizzly
Member
Username: Grizzly

Post Number: 22
Registered: 11-2007
Posted on Tuesday, February 05, 2008 - 9:22 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Bbq, agreed, agreed, and agreed. Back in the day, it was no big thing to walk from our home streets down to the Skeleton, Waterworks Park, etc. - I would not want to take that walk now! But it is not all of Detroit: we lived in the 8-Mile/Dequindre are until 1990, and we were the only white family on the block then. That neighborhood was good then, and is still among the better neighborhoods in the city. I was back there as recently as yesterday, jaw-boning with old neighbors; there has been some deteriorization, but not nearly as bad as in our mutual childhood home area. So it goes...

Add Your Message Here
Posting is currently disabled in this topic. Contact your discussion moderator for more information.