The Book brothers—J. Burgess, Herbert and Frank—developed of a significant slice of downtown Detroit in the first three decades of the Twentieth century. Before Henry Ford successfully marketed his Model T, downtown Detroit was becoming a major center for business and commerce. Skyscrapers and impressive banks were built between the Detroit River and Grand Circus Park including the Chamber of Commerce Building (1895), the State Savings Bank building (1900), the Penobscot Building (1905), the Ford Building (1909) and the Dime Building (1910). The Book Brothers saw an opportunity to develop Washington Boulevard. Many cities participated in the City Beautiful movement that emanated from the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. The most memorable persisting features of the effort to bring the City Beautiful movement to Detroit is the Cultural Center. Edward Bennett, a planner from Chicago, proposed the development of Washington Boulevard. The Book brothers intended to create a “Fifth Avenue of the West”—an elegant shopping district lined with impressive buildings providing offices for booming firms. As a result of their efforts, the Book Building and neighboring Book Tower stand on the west side of Washington Boulevard near Michigan while the Book Cadillac Hotel is located at northwest corner of the intersection of Michigan and Washington Boulevard.
Perhaps the two most elegant hotels in late Nineteenth Century Detroit were the Pontchartrain located at Campus Martius and the Cadillac located where the Book-Cadillac is now stands. These older hotels not only lacked modern amenities but were often presumed to be at risk of fire. The Statler Hotel chain built the city’s first large Twentieth Century hotel: the Statler Hotel located at the intersection of Washington Boulevard and Grand Circus Park and opened in 1915. The Book brothers decided that an even more opulent hotel should grace the other end of Washington Boulevard. They purchased the old Cadillac Hotel, but could not immediately raze it since construction materials were unavailable during World War I. When that conflict ended, they tore the Cadillac Hotel down and commissioned Louis Kamper—a student of Sanford White—to design the magnificent building that you see.
When opened in 1925, it was the tallest building in Detroit and the tallest hotel in the world. It was also the nation’s largest with 1136 guest rooms. In an innovation for that era, every room had its own water closet. The ballrooms, dining rooms and other public rooms were extraordinarily elegant, perhaps the most elegant in the nation at that time. Kamper used an Italian Renaissance theme throughout with the lobby done in a Venetian style while the grand ballroom was Florentine in its styling. As you observe, Kamper faced the exterior in stone up to the fifth floor level. On the Michigan Avenue side, you see the grand entrance with the impressive statues of Antoine Cadillac, General Anthony Wayne, Robert Navarre and Chief Pontiac standing guard. Toward the roof, you see the impressive architectural design that Kamper used to cap this building.
In the era of rail travel, this was an exceptionally convenient hotel. The Fort Street Station was within walking distance while the Michigan Central and Grand Truck stations were just short cab rides. Travelers to Detroit who wanted to stay at the most desirable hotel went to the Book-Cadillac. And Detroit business people who wanted to scheduled meetings or dinners, opted for this hotel. One of the most prestigious for a wedding or a wedding reception was the Book Cadillac.
The Book Cadillac prospered until the Depression curtailed the nation’s businesses. Many, perhaps most, real estate developers in the Midwest faced bankruptcy in the 1930s. The Books lost control of this hotel in 1931. Management apparently drastically cut prices and offered rooms for rent as apartments for low fees. Some major Detroit downtown building, including the Guardian Building, stood empty during the 1930s. The Book-Cadillac avoided that fate.
Because Detroit was the Arsenal of Democracy, the Book-Cadillac prospered during the World War II years and for some time thereafter. By 1959, jets were used for the first time in commercial domestic service so travel by train quickly sunk to low levels. And, much of post-World II development in metro Detroit occurred in the suburban ring.
In 1951, the Sheraton chain purchased the Book-Cadillac and
began to “modernize” the
building but this discouraged preservationists who saw some of the hotel’s
great assets removed or remodeled. Post World War II auto production peaked
in 1955 but after that major shifts occurred in the location of jobs so the
later 1960s and 1970s were bleak years for downtown Detroit and, in 1974, the
Book Cadillac closed. This followed the closing of two other large nearby hotels:
The Pick-Fort Shelby and the Statler-Hilton.
City officials recognized the problem and recruited the Radisson chain to invest
in the Book Cadillac. They reopened the business in the mid-1970s but the customer
base was not there so they announced a 1979 closing. That would have left the
city with just one downtown hotel—the 1965 Pontchartrain. Mayor Coleman
Young worked extremely diligently with the Republican Party and convinced them
to hold their 1980 convention in the Motor City – the convention that
nominated Ronald Reagan. The mayor knew that he needed downtown hotels so,
much to the displeasure of his constituents who favored neighborhood rather
than downtown development, he pumped city funds into the Book Cadillac. It
was money-losing adventure and so the Book-Cadillac’s most recent closing
was in 1983.
This hotel has been empty for 22 years. The Young administration sought funds
to tear it down as an eyesore but that is a very costly task so it was not
demolished. With the coming of the baseball All-Star game to downtown Detroit
in 2005 and the Super
Bowl in 2006, the Downtown Development Authority knew they needed impressive
downtown hotels with many, many rooms. In 2003, plans were announced indicating
that the Marriott Corporation would use tax credits to remodel the Book Cadillac
so that it would contain hotel rooms, marvelous condos and new restaurants
and shops. The needed tax credits were not available so that renewal plan was
not accomplished. In the summer of 2005, city officials suggested that they
would soon announce a new plan to invest $150 million in the Book Cadillac
to return it to its glory as a hotel.
There are many refreshing and encouraging signs of development in downtown Detroit in this new millennium. If the casinos, the stadia, the theaters and music halls successfully convert downtown Detroit into an entertainment and recreation hub and if funds can be found to build a massive convention hall rivaling the McCormick building in Chicago, several new or remodeled hotels will be needed.
The Book-Cadillac Hotel has historical significance to baseball fans. During prohibition, Detroit was a favorite location for baseball players who enjoyed liquid refreshments since the supply from Canada was limitless and of exceptional quality. Pages and pages could be written about the enjoyable evenings that Babe Ruth apparently spent at the Book Cadillac with his colleagues when the Yankees visited Detroit. More important is the date May 2, 1939. On June 2, 1925, Lou Gehrig began his consecutive game streak. That is, he started every game the Yankees played from 1925 through the end of the 1938 season. His performance tailed off a bit in 1938 but he finished that year with a .295 batting average, 29 home runs and 114 runs batted in. Spring training did not go well for the Iron Horse in 1939 and, in the Yankees first 8 games in April of that year; he had only four hits in 28 at-bats. It was obvious to him, and to his teammates, that something was wrong with his performance.
The Yankees arrived by train from New York on May 2 and checked into the Book-Cadillac for a series of games that began that afternoon. A sports writer for the Detroit Times, Bob Murphy, went to the Book-Cadillac, sought out Lou Gehrig and asked him about his unusually poor performance. Gehrig discussed the issue at length and admitted that he was not doing well at all. Perhaps that prompted his decision for, shortly thereafter; Gehrig sought out his manager, Joe McCarthy, and told him that he would not play that afternoon. Thus ended the career—and 2,130 consecutive game streak—of one of the most talented and popular man to play baseball. That afternoon, his teammates, the Detroit Tiger players and the 11,000 fans at Briggs Stadium recognized what was happening and cheered for Gehrig. Just three months later, specialists at Mayo Clinic diagnosed the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis that was to claim Gehrig’s life twenty five months later. Wally Pipp was the Yankee first basemen, who lost his job to Lou Gehrig in June, 1925. Although trained as an architect, when he finished his baseball career Pipp returned to his native Grand Rapids and became a business man. Duties called him to Detroit on May 2, 1939 but he found time to get out to Briggs Field to watch his team play. Pipp witnessed the start of Gehrig’s streak from the Yankees bench and then the end but this time from the grandstand at Michigan and Trumbull.
Architect: Louis Kamper
Architectural style: Highly decorated modern hotel with Italian Renaissance
embellishments
Date of Construction: 1924
Use in 2005: Awaiting an uncertain redevelopment into an elegant hotel and
lofts
City of Detroit Local Historic District: Not listed
State of Michigan Registry of Historic Sites: Not listed
National Registry of Historic Places: Not listed
Website: www.Book-Cadillac.org
Book: Detroit’s Statler and Book-Cadillac Hotels: The Anchors of Washington
Boulevard by David Kohrman (Arcdia, 2003)
Picture: Ren Farley; July 7, 2005