Higher Education

The buildings that I photographed in the late 1990s and early 2000s were ruins in the truest sense of the word. Not only that, they had been in that condition for a very long time. The Statler Hotel, for example, was not operational at any point in my lifetime. Therefore, it was easy to think of the forces that lead to their physical decline and ruined state were things that were historic and in the past. I was merely seeing and documenting the results.

In recent years, as many of the long-abandoned ruins have faded from the landscape, a new generation has appeared. In the process the opportunity exist to observe destructive forces as they happen. It has been a rather depressing education.

I could cite countless examples. Detroit has closed more schools in the last five years than I could keep track of. Don’t get me started on the hotels, churches, residential structures, etc. But it seems timely to look at the University Club on Jefferson Avenue, which is facing almost certain demolition by neglect. Alarmingly, within a very short span of time it went from being a well-preserved vacant building to a severely damaged ruin.

I haven’t done an extensive amount of research on the building yet, so historic trivia is somewhat limited. But I can state the following. The University Club was established in 1899 as a social club with the primary requirement for membership was a four-year degree from an institution of higher education. This was a time during which a college education was far less common than it is today, so the club was fairly exclusive. For the club’s first three decades it rented space in a number of commercial and residential structures, the last of which was the Sen. McMillan mansion located on the present Jefferson Avenue site.

In 1931 the old mansion was replaced by the present structure, the University Club’s first and only purpose built clubhouse. The building was designed by William Knapp who employed a combination of Tudor and Collegiate Gothic for the building’s interiors and exteriors. These were the architectural styles which were popular on college campuses of the time. As far as clubhouses go, it is fairly typical for the type. The building is divided into three components. There were social function rooms and their support facilities, a block of guestrooms, and athletic space. Overall the building has been a handsome addition to Jefferson Avenue and the nearby Indian Village Historic District.

My understanding of the purpose of such social clubs is that in addition to gaining access to the clubhouse facilities, a benefit of membership is the opportunity to network and meet various elites and/or business contacts. While this may still ring true to an extent, perhaps such benefits are viewed in decreasing importance. For the past several decades, social clubs throughout the country have struggled with attracting members and many have closed. In an effort to attract more members the University Club made changes to its requirements, admitting women in 1978, and individuals with two-year degrees in 1985. But such actions were not enough and the club closed in 1992. The former clubhouse was then used as a temporary location of the Detroit YWCA, being vacated for good in the late 2000s.

I first photographed the former clubhouse in 2009. Having been recently vacated, the building was far from the ruin that the Statler Hotel had been when I first saw it. The vegetation around the exterior was somewhat overgrown, but otherwise at a glance the building appeared occupied. Even the interiors, for the most part, were intact. They appeared to require little more than some dusting and vacuuming.

Highlights included squash and racquetball courts that resembled the holds of cargo ships, a Tudor card room with built-in booths, and the various meeting rooms. The clubhouse’s two signature spaces were its ground floor library and the second floor dining room. These rooms featured leaded glass windows, wood paneling, and great fireplaces. The library was still fully stocked with the old club’s books, and during my first visit, was largely undisturbed.

However, subsequent visits have revealed the effects of being open to the elements and trespass. Obviously little effort was made to secure the building. Besides being popular with photographers and architecture enthusiasts, the University Club attracted a more destructive element. Architectural fixtures have been removed, graffiti appeared, the library’s books were pulled down and torn to shreds, other rooms were filled with evidence of human habitation and water damage appeared on the wood and plaster. The building has been steadily transformed into a ruin at an increasingly rapid pace.

On the occasion of my final visit, earlier this year, I found the interior ravaged beyond recognition. The library was stripped, and a rather elaborate “tent” constructed around the fireplace. Perhaps an effort to create a warm shelter? The dining room’s wrought iron fixtures and decorative shields were long gone. I suppose that it could have been worse. Literally days after my visit contractors arrived on site and began the removal of materials from both the interior and exterior of the building. This was a violation of the building’s pending landmark status and they have, for the time being, been halted. Among other things, the slate roof was damaged and the interior’s wood paneling was ripped out to access ventilation ducts for their scrap value. Photographs of this recent damage by other photographers can be viewed here and here.

There have been noble efforts by the local neighborhood and preservation organizations to preserve the building, ie: the aforementioned local landmark designation. But the building is now in the hands of an unsympathetic owner of a neighboring business. It appears increasingly likely that an institution which once celebrated higher education will be replaced by a liquor store. Given the damage already done to the building, and prior experience in preservation battles, I can not be optimistic. Sadly, Detroit’s preservation laws lack the teeth they need.

The University Club has only been vacant for a few years, and I have been photographing it for less than two. However, within that time I have seen the condition of the building transform considerably, not to mention its preservation prospects. This was a change that I never witnessed with the downtown hotels and theaters. They were already ruins the first time I ever saw them. But with the former club I have been able to see the transformation into a ruin firsthand, rather than just the final result. As I have noted, it has been a rather depressing education.