Portraits of Decline
To overcome decades of neglect, Detroit needs all the help it can get.
BY AMANDA KOLSON HURLEY
Detroit, birthplace of Motown Records
and Henry Ford's Model T, has struggled for so
long that its plight is now well known. During the
1970s and '80s, this once-thriving city reeled
from the twin blows of a decline in the automobile
industry and mass migration to the suburbs. As the
population shrank and businesses departed, downtown's
historic buildings began to crumble. Many were demolished.
Today, these architectural treasures—on the National
Trust's 2005 list of America's 11 Most Endangered
Historic Places—continue to be razed, written
off by the city as unsuitable or too decrepit for
reuse. The 1903 Madison-Lenox Hotel, on the Trust's
2004 list, came down in June to make room for
a parking lot. At press time, the city was demolishing
the Statler
Hilton Hotel, a grand 1,000-room structure dating
to 1914. Tiger Stadium, which hosted Detroit Tigers
baseball games from 1912 until 1999, sits abandoned
and deteriorating; without proper maintenance or a
plan for reuse, it too may succumb to the wrecking
ball. Downtown Detroit has more than 200 buildings
listed in the National Register of Historic Places
and dozens more that are eligible for inclusion. The
following images, captured over the past 25 years
by photographer Camilo Vergara, are a small sample.
Read
more about the Madison-Lenox on Preservation Online
>>
As Detroit prepares to host the Super Bowl in February
2006, city officials are calling for the demolition
of at least 100 more buildings. Revitalizing Detroit
will be a challenge, but preservation groups hope
to meet it by embracing rather than destroying the
city's heritage.
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