Rhymeswithrawk Member Username: Rhymeswithrawk
Post Number: 1482 Registered: 11-2005
| Posted on Saturday, October 11, 2008 - 9:48 pm: | |
Does anyone know anything about the Cadillac Hotel that was torn down to make way for the Book-Cadillac Hotel? Architect, year built? Here's a postcard of it: http://i215.photobucket.com/al bums/cc280/buildingsofdetroit/ Postcards/cadillac5.jpg Tried searching for it online, but all I'm getting is Book-Cadillac hits. |
Burnsie Member Username: Burnsie
Post Number: 1509 Registered: 11-2003
| Posted on Saturday, October 11, 2008 - 11:48 pm: | |
There's a bit of info on it (and still other hotels that were there before it!) in an early '70s brochure put out by the Sheraton-Cadillac that I have a photocopy of, but can't find at the moment. Ferry's "Buildings of Detroit" might have some info. |
Lmichigan Member Username: Lmichigan
Post Number: 6343 Registered: 10-2003
| Posted on Saturday, October 11, 2008 - 11:57 pm: | |
http://www.forgottendetroit.co m/caddy/history.html |
Rfban Member Username: Rfban
Post Number: 300 Registered: 02-2004
| Posted on Sunday, October 12, 2008 - 9:03 am: | |
Unfortunately, I cannot even remember who was responsible for these photos. I want to say that the website was, "Detroit, The Motorless City," circa 1999? Ultimately, I think they came from the Burton collection. |
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 3752 Registered: 01-2005
| Posted on Sunday, October 12, 2008 - 12:05 pm: | |
The interior shots remind me of the salons on the Titanic. Guess it's just the fashions of the period, though. No, I wasn't on the Titanic. I mean photos of the salons on the Titanic. |
Hornwrecker Member Username: Hornwrecker
Post Number: 2123 Registered: 04-2005
| Posted on Sunday, October 12, 2008 - 12:09 pm: | |
Those photos are from the Detroit Publishing Co archive that is at the LOC http://rs6.loc.gov/detroit/det home.html There might be some more info at Google Books, like in the Farmer and Burton books that are available there. (Message edited by Hornwrecker on October 12, 2008) |
Burnsie Member Username: Burnsie
Post Number: 1510 Registered: 11-2003
| Posted on Sunday, October 12, 2008 - 12:18 pm: | |
Kohrman's book points out that when the B-C opened, the Book family dined in the Venetian Dining Room, at the same spot where their table was at the old hotel's restaurant. I wish I had the dates at hand readily, but there has been a hotel (open or not) at that corner for at least 200 years, IIRC. |
Gistok Member Username: Gistok
Post Number: 7375 Registered: 08-2004
| Posted on Sunday, October 12, 2008 - 12:20 pm: | |
I can't find any dates (except demo date) for the old Cadillac Hotel. By the looks of it, it appears to be an 1870's or 1880's construction. The premier hotel in Detroit in the mid 1800's was the Russell House Hotel on Woodward where today the First National Building is located. The Russell House had as its' guests several US presidents, as well as England's Edward Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII, 1901-11). Probably by the 1880's the Russell House lost its' premiere edge to the Cadillac Hotel, and was demolished around the turn of the century in favor of the short lived first Ponchartrain Hotel. |