10939 Kercheval Avenue
Begin Brothers Dealership, Telotte Motor Sales, Beer Garden, Fairview Post No. 393 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars
This address includes 10939 and 10941 Kercheval Avenue.
I’m not certain when this structure was built; however, I know it was constructed to house an automobile dealership. By 1919, it was home to Begin Brothers, who were dealing Oldfield Tires at that time. By 1923, they were a Gray Motor Company dealership, a car company based in Detroit that went belly up by 1926.
By 1924, Begin Brothers had transitioned into an Exxex dealership, a car manufactured by the Hudson Motor Car Company until 1933. They sold Hudsons, too, which existed until 1954, when it merged with Nash-Kelvinator to form American Motors Corporation. However, the Begin Brothers wouldn’t last long enough to see that transition. The last mention I’ve found of their operation came in 1932. Detroit was a boomtown in that era, and the Great Depression ended many folks’ American Dreams.
In 1935, the structure was listed as Telotte Motor Sales. Telotte had a few locations around the city, and I only found mention of them at this structure once. By 1939, the building was for sale. The advert in the paper said that it was ideal for a grocery market or a small manufacturing plant and that the front office had large show windows opening onto the street. The 1929 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map said the garage out back had a 40-car capacity.
By December 1940, the structure had been converted into a beer garden. On Christmas Day, four men were embroiled in an argument at the bar. James Daniel, 47, Earl Leslie Swanson, 37, Otto Colbert, 51, and Silvert Cooley, 41, were all at the beer garden. Otto Colbert was a part-time bartender there, and two of the men were arguing for hours about who won the Civil War. When Otto Colbert was leaving, he said that Daniel and Cooley followed him, and Daniel berated him for not coming to another beer garden to have a drink. A tussle ensued, and Colbert left in his car shortly after. Cooley said that Daniel collapsed shortly after and was dead on arrival when he made it to the hospital, where they said he had been stabbed. Colbert initially admitted to only punching Daniel; however, he later confessed to Detective Sargeant Charles Buckholdt that he had stabbed him and driven to the middle of the Belle Isle bridge to throw the knife into the water.
By 1942, the structure was in use as Fairview Post No. 393 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. In the paper, it was often referred to as the VFW Hall on Kercheval.
In 1952, the VFW Hall hosted the 14th Congressional District Young Democrats pre-election dance. Proceeds went towards financing campaigns and organization activities. That same year, the Fairview Post No. 393 was chosen as the best colorguard team at a drill competition.
The last mention I’ve found of the VFW Post No. 393 came in 1960. After that, I’m not sure what happened to the structure. Considering the shape it’s in, there’s a chance it’s been vacant for that long. Still, I’d bet it was used a while longer than that.
The structure has been in awful shape for as long as I can remember, and Google Street View shows it in poor condition for as long as the service has existed. At some point, the parcel was added to the structure next door, 10949 Kercheval Avenue, which was recently for sale.
This structure has no roof, just steel beams, and will likely be demolished soon.
