Discuss Detroit » Archives - July 2008 » What stood where the Compuware building is now? « Previous Next »
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Bcscott
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Username: Bcscott

Post Number: 85
Registered: 05-2008
Posted on Friday, November 21, 2008 - 3:34 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Okay, the Kern block was demolished in 1966, right? Was there anything in that space afterward that was demolished to make way for the Compuware building?
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Detroitplanner
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Username: Detroitplanner

Post Number: 2023
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Friday, November 21, 2008 - 3:38 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

no
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Douglasm
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Username: Douglasm

Post Number: 1177
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Friday, November 21, 2008 - 3:55 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Well, a nice green park......


Kern Block


I'm "borrowing" a picture Mikeg posted last month of the Kern Block, taken in June of 1968. I would look across the park the other direction, from the front door of Mary Jane Shoes at that time.....
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Dannyv
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Username: Dannyv

Post Number: 483
Registered: 08-2007
Posted on Friday, November 21, 2008 - 4:01 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

That photo looks like it was taken from in front of Crowley's looking across Woodward/Grand River intersection. I wonder if the blues busker is on the corner next to Hudson's playing for donations.
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Gistok
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Username: Gistok

Post Number: 7529
Registered: 08-2004
Posted on Friday, November 21, 2008 - 4:02 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

... and sadly that white building in the middle of that picture is the B. Siegel Building... a magnificent cast iron Second Empire style richly ornamented building (one of the oldest buildings along lower Woodward)... that sadly was destroyed in a fire back in the 1980's, IIRC.
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Andylinn
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Username: Andylinn

Post Number: 1099
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Posted on Friday, November 21, 2008 - 4:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I was thinking just the other day how the street level woodward facade / scale of compuware is reminicent of kern's (even though I never saw the store in person) makes you wonder what the point of demolishing it was...
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Detroitplanner
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Username: Detroitplanner

Post Number: 2024
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Posted on Friday, November 21, 2008 - 4:30 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

There were several buildings on that block of various vintages including Sam's Dept store and the Opera House. It would have been difficult to fashion a modern office with different floor heights. Though a Hard Rock @ the Opera House would have been pretty dammed cool! :-)
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Bcscott
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Username: Bcscott

Post Number: 86
Registered: 05-2008
Posted on Friday, November 21, 2008 - 4:35 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thanks, So Kenedy Square was in the area of present day Campus Martius. Did this park area made by the Kern's demolition have a name?
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Gistok
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Post Number: 7531
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Posted on Friday, November 21, 2008 - 4:38 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

No... it was just a temporary (long time temporary at that) green space that was always just called the Kern Block.
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Douglasm
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Username: Douglasm

Post Number: 1178
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Friday, November 21, 2008 - 4:44 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

What memory I have left tells me they used to have festivals and such on the Kern Block. Right?
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Eastsideal
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Username: Eastsideal

Post Number: 66
Registered: 10-2007
Posted on Friday, November 21, 2008 - 6:44 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yes they had festivals and such, but not all that often. For several years in the '70s they would have a little carnival there with rides for the Downtown Detroit Days (DDD). I remember my friends and I being very excited to go on the rides, particularly the if-you-dare Zipper. Some other little events were held there as well, but the ethnic and other festivals that eventually ended up at Hart Plaza were, as I remember, always held elsewhere.

I think the powers-that-were in downtown Detroit in those days never really wanted anyone to think of the Kern Block as a permanent park or public event space, since throughout the late 60s and the 70s it was always purportedly being readied for one development or another that was just around the corner and that was going to save downtown as a retail center. None of which ever came to fruition, of course, until Compuware was built - ironically after Hudson's and Crowley's, and most other downtown stores, were gone.
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Detroitrise
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Username: Detroitrise

Post Number: 3949
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Friday, November 21, 2008 - 6:49 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Kerns & Crowley's Department Store.
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Eastsideal
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Username: Eastsideal

Post Number: 67
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Posted on Friday, November 21, 2008 - 7:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

quote: So Kennedy Square was in the area of present day Campus Martius.

Kennedy Square was located on the block bounded by Woodward, Fort, Griswold, and Michigan. Where the One Kennedy Square (Ernst & Young) Building is today. It is a little difficult to envision, because the course of Woodward has been changed here as a result of the Campus Martius redevelopment. It used to go straight.

Of course, back before Kennedy Square was on that block, it was the site for many decades of Detroit's City Hall. Which was torn down back when I was a little kid in 1961 and is long gone, except for a few pieces that are apparently sitting forgotten and buried deep in the weeds of Ft. Wayne,


City Hall


(Message edited by eastsideal on November 21, 2008)
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Eastsideal
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Username: Eastsideal

Post Number: 68
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Posted on Friday, November 21, 2008 - 7:54 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Does anyone remember the little weird tent constructions that were built in the middle of the Kern Block sometime in the late '70s or early '80s?

I guess it was an attempt to fancy the place up a bit and add some shade, but they rather quickly became a grimy eyesore.
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Bcscott
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Username: Bcscott

Post Number: 87
Registered: 05-2008
Posted on Friday, November 21, 2008 - 10:07 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Eastsideal, are you talking about that little statue thing that kind of looks like a stylized well with a pointed top? There's one in Cadillac Square and I think I saw it in the Kern's demolition pics in a different spot.
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Hornwrecker
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Username: Hornwrecker

Post Number: 2143
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Posted on Friday, November 21, 2008 - 10:22 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)








wsu/vmc
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Thecarl
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Username: Thecarl

Post Number: 1461
Registered: 04-2005
Posted on Friday, November 21, 2008 - 11:14 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

hornwrecker, how did you come across the design for chrysler's future world headquarters? i guess that illustration shows the employees leaving for lunch break.
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Focusonthed
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Username: Focusonthed

Post Number: 2093
Registered: 02-2006
Posted on Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 1:49 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

What a ridiculous waste of space that was.
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Douglasm
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Username: Douglasm

Post Number: 1179
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 8:15 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Well, no it probably wasn't. Given the choice between a vacant 1 block square unrentable building in the middle of a still active retail area and a park, I'd take the park.
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Danny
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Username: Danny

Post Number: 7968
Registered: 02-2004
Posted on Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 8:26 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The Kern Block along with the Monroe Block was the booming center of Detroit's Vaudeville District with Burlesque Houses in every building corner from the 1900 to 1940. Today the historic National Theatre is that remnant.
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Rhymeswithrawk
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Username: Rhymeswithrawk

Post Number: 1531
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Sunday, November 23, 2008 - 1:37 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

What was there before the park:

http://i215.photobucket.com/al bums/cc280/buildingsofdetroit/ Postcards/operahud.jpg

http://i215.photobucket.com/al bums/cc280/buildingsofdetroit/ Postcards/cmpanorama.jpg
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Smogboy
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Username: Smogboy

Post Number: 9337
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Sunday, November 23, 2008 - 2:51 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I wouldn't call that a "ridiculous waste of space that was" but would question how friendly it was to people. In the pics there I didn't see any park benches for people to use nor did I see anyone on the lawn itself. You'd think there was something wrong with the grass or something by the odd way people aren't on it! I love greenspaces if they're used and enjoyed, but what an odd picture.
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Royce
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Username: Royce

Post Number: 2839
Registered: 07-2004
Posted on Sunday, November 23, 2008 - 4:25 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I've often wondered if Hudson's had built a giant parking structure on that land and connected it to their store, would that have retained many of its shoppers who, because of free parking in the suburbs, chose to shop at the malls?

BTW, notice that Woodward is eight lanes wide in that area and today it's only four.

(Message edited by royce on November 23, 2008)
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Oldredfordette
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Username: Oldredfordette

Post Number: 5666
Registered: 02-2004
Posted on Sunday, November 23, 2008 - 9:42 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

It was also used as the staging area for LaborFest for several years during the 1990's.
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Bcscott
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Username: Bcscott

Post Number: 88
Registered: 05-2008
Posted on Sunday, November 23, 2008 - 6:52 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Wow, it's crazy to see how much that area has changed. What is the smaller sky scraper to the west of the Cadillac Tower just off Woodward in the bottom left of the first pic?
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Rhymeswithrawk
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Username: Rhymeswithrawk

Post Number: 1544
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Sunday, November 23, 2008 - 7:01 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

That is the Cadillac Square Building - built as the Real Estate Exchange Building - that came down in 1976.
For more: http://buildingsofdetroit.com/ places/cadsqbldg

Eventually I'll add a more detailed history of the building. Soon, in fact.
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Bcscott
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Username: Bcscott

Post Number: 89
Registered: 05-2008
Posted on Sunday, November 23, 2008 - 7:24 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thanks, cool building. Sad to see anything Kamper designed meet the wrecking ball.
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Rhymeswithrawk
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Username: Rhymeswithrawk

Post Number: 1545
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Sunday, November 23, 2008 - 7:28 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

It was an incredibly neat building. Gave the D a touch of Gothic flavor.

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