111 Gates Street
Martin Malicki’s Saloon, Carbon Inn, Carbon Athletic Club
For over 75 years, this structure has been home to the Carbon Athletic Club, an organization that has been a home away from home for Detroiters in the depths of Southwest’s Delray neighborhood. However, the structure’s history dates back further than that and includes a blind pig and smuggling booze during prohibition. That history can be traced back to Martin Malicki.
By 1909, Malicki was in the business of slinging booze. He had an establishment at Moore Street and the Wabash Railroad line to sell. By 1912, he had moved his operation to 75 South Gates Street in Delray. After the citywide address change in 1921, 75 would become 111, the same address as the structure pictured here. However, I believe Malicki was in an older building until around 1919. City Liquor Commission records place his establishment here in 1913, 1915, and 1917. Eventually, he built the structure pictured here that still bears his name.
The Damon Act in 1917 outlawed the creation, transportation, or sale of alcohol in Michigan, causing many bars to change their business model or close. On the books, Malicki transitioned his bar into a near-beer saloon selling legal non-alcoholic beverages. However, on the side, the hard stuff was still available.
On June 5, 1922, police led by Sergeant George Ludwig raided South Gates Street. Coincidentally, Ludwig had been downtown earlier that day and seen Malicki at the courthouse where he was serving jury duty. Shortly after Malicki returned to his near-beer saloon, Ludwig and his men stormed in with a warrant. They confiscated whisky, wine, and beer inside the bar, and Malicki, 50 years old, was charged with operating a blind pig.
He wasn’t the only one on South Gates Street to be hit. A 20-gallon still, seven gallons of whisky, and 175 gallons of mash (a homemade alcohol substance) led to the arrest of Joseph Gilburick and his wife at 120 South Gates Street. Five and a half gallons of whiskey were enough for Ignac Grekul to be arrested in his 129 South Gates Street home. Thomas Kroyeinski was arrested, too, for his 20-gallon still, gallons of whiskey, and 250 gallons of mash at his home at 154 South Gates Street. One thing is for certain: Delray knew how to party.
Even after being annexed into Detroit in 1906, Delray was a wild village on the outskirts of town. The sheer number of alcohol-related rumblings occurring on one residential street is proof of that. Testimonials from the early days often share one reality: Delray never slept.
Michigan ratified the 21st Amendment early in 1933, becoming the first state to outlaw alcohol and the first to repeal the ban. I’m unsure what happened to Malicki after his arrest or whether he still owned the structure pictured here.
At some point, 111 South Gates Street became the Carbon Inn. I haven’t found much information about this joint besides that it sold cold brews. Some reports state that Anton and Anna Dusik owned it.
In the early 1900s, Detroit had dozens of athletic and social clubs based around organized sports. There were football, baseball, soccer, bowling, basketball, and leagues for other sports, too. Often, these groups were based on where you worked—Ford, General Motors, Packard, Peninsular Grinding, etc. However, many of these groups were based on neighborhood affiliation or ethnic background. Officially incorporated on July 14, 1947, the Carbon Athletic Club had been around for a while.
Its name originates from Michigan Carbon Works, a company that established roots in Delray around 1880, creating charcoal from animal bones. Within a few years, this would become the largest carbon works facility in the United States. Today, the neighborhood past Delray is still known as Carbon Works, even if most Detroiters dump it in with Delray.
When incorporated in 1947, the Carbon Athletic Club planned to “sponsor athletic teams and events; provide recreational center; sponsor five youths to fresh air camp.” They planned to fund these endeavors with the “sponsorship of athletic events, membership dues, donations [and] program advertisements.”
The men who incorporated the non-profit were Alex S. Thoth (8468 Vanderbilt), Harry C. Gabrys (176 South Dey Street), Frank Larys (169 South Gates Street), Joseph N. Wasik (10407 Barron Avenue), and Walter Korycinski (308 South Dey Street). They all lived in Delray—the club was run by locals, for locals.
However, the date of incorporation wasn’t when the club took root. For decades prior, it had fielded neighborhood sports teams under the Carbon name, and the club operated as the Woodmere Social Club. I believe that the club also fielded sports teams with the Woodmere Athletic Club moniker.
The Woodmere A.C. Football Team dates back to at least 1903. A year later, the squad had a new manager, Chas. Orthey. A clipping from the Detroit Free Press indicated that the team hadn’t been great the year prior, but the new coach was able to bring in strong players to join the side.
By 1904, the Woodmere A.C. had a baseball team, too. By the following year, there were five clubs in greater Delray alone. There was the Woodmere Athletic Club, Delray Athletics, Delray K. of P., Delray Club, and the Myrtles. In 1908, the Woodmere Athletic Club beat the Tigers 3 to 2. Not the Detroit Tigers that played at Michigan and Trumbull—the Woodmere Tigers that played in Delray.
Throughout the 1900s and 1910s, the Woodmere Athletic Club fielded numerous teams to great and lesser success. In 1921, the Woodmere Athletic Club football team was champions of the Detroit Amateur Athletic Association. Their program would continue through the 1920s and 1930s; however, a change was on the horizon.
The last mention I’ve found of the Woodmere Athletic Club was in August 1936—the football team was hosting tryouts at Forman Field. That September, the first mention of the Carbon A.C. is in the Detroit Free Press. The advert listed them as a newly organized football club looking for games with other 145-pound teams. Considering the known connection between the Woodmere A.C. and the Carbon A.C. and the fact that one’s paper trail ends where another begins, I assume the name changed in 1936.
As professional sports took hold around the country, Athletic Club sports became less popular. However, they still drew large crowds through the 1950s. The Carbon Athletic Club football team would have great seasons over the years and worked up a rivalry with the nearby Oakwood Blue Jackets. On November 26, 1939, the undefeated Carbon Athletic Club squad played against the Pioneer All-Stars, a professional team from the black football league. The NFL wouldn’t fully integrate for nearly another decade.
Although the local leagues began to lose their luster, The Carbon Athletic Club was always involved with local kids and youth sports. However, they didn’t have a home of their own. In August 1950, paperwork was filed for the Carbon Athletic Club to change their registered address to 111 North Gates Street in Delray, pictured here. It may have been their meeting place prior to that point when the building was still the Carbon Inn. Some reports state that the Club had purchased the structure in 1947 for $1 from the Dusik family, but I can’t verify that. Regardless, the Carbon Athletic Club was home at 111 Gates Street by 1950.
That same year, the Semi-Pro Michigan Football League was formed. There were 12 clubs in the league, 10 of which were in the Detroit area. The Carbon Athletic Club was a member, and although the league didn’t last very long, the CAC team was successful, eventually joining the Inter-Cities Football Conference.
The CAC wasn’t all about sports—they maintained a clubhouse at 111 Gates Street, which remains there today. They hosted parties and community events and let other groups utilize the main and second floors for meetings and gatherings.
For decades, the Jeep Gabrys Post #388 of the American Legion has been closely affiliated with the Carbon Athletic Club. Established in 1946 with the purpose of upholding and defending the Constitution of the United States, the organization’s original registered address was a few doors down from the CAC. The Post was named after a fallen servicemember. If you remember, one of the founders of the CAC was Harry C. Gabrys—the two may have been related, but I can’t be sure. The Legion used the second floor for meetings and events, and there’s still a piece of artillery parked and painted outside the building with ‘Jeep Gabrys Post 388 Detroit’ outside.
In the 1950s, Delray still had a stable population. Like most of Detroit, the writing was on the wall, and the number of people in the Hungarian enclave began to fall harshly in the 1960s. The loss of jobs, a promise of more land for less money in the suburbs, an increase in the public’s knowledge about the health risks of living near dirty industry, and white flight all played into the loss of population in Delray.
However, unlike many businesses in Delray, the Carbon Athletic Club stayed put. A solid amount of the neighborhood’s population moved downriver, so the Club was still readily accessible to them. There were still CAC men in the area, but an increasing number were commuting into the city to drink, play cards, and host charity events.
Delray, as it was, died in the 1980s. There was no final nail in the coffin, but City of Detroit officials were well familiar with their hammers by that point. They invited increasingly dirty industries to the neighborhood, refused to invest in parks and recreation, and continuously tried to shutter McMillan School until they were finally successful in 2000.
As old residents from the neighborhood began to die out and there weren’t as many newcomers to Delray, the Carbon Athletic Club membership dwindled. However, over the years, waves of new members trickled in. Relatives of former actives, new Detroit residents who heard about the club from friends, and the grandkids of athletes who played for the club in its heyday walked through the door.
In the late 1980s, women were finally officially allowed to join the Carbon Athletic Club. That’s not to say that women didn’t play a vital role in the history of the CAC, but that’s when it was made official.
Driving through Delray today, the uninitiated traveler might not be able to tell that there was once a vibrant and congested community here. There are few commercial structures left, you can count the number of homes on most streets on two hands, and there might be more square feet of illegal dumping than recreational space.
Considering all that, it’s splendid to roll past the Carbon Athletic Club on the weekend to see the parking lot jam-packed. No matter how many years the city neglects Delray and pretends that people don’t still live here, this establishment is proof that you can’t erase a neighborhood.
If you do roll past the Carbon Athletic Club, you’d better make sure there isn’t a train coming. Gates Street doesn’t have a proper outlet anymore, thanks to the city neglecting to maintain it, so you might have to go back inside for another round. In reality, you can use the make-shift service drive next to the tracks to get to Forman Street, but could one more really hurt?
Today, the Cabon Athletic Club is still operational. They host various events throughout the year that are open to non-members, and you can become a member by getting a recommendation from an active, filling out the application, and paying dues.
There are very few places like the Carbon Athletic Club left in Detroit. Supporting an institution like this is important; otherwise, all this history will slowly fade away, similar to the other athletic and social clubs mentioned in this post.
If you ever find yourself at the Carbon Athletic Club, make a toast to Martin Malicki. Who knows what might have happened if he hadn’t been arrested?
To read more about Delray, check out the locations I’ve documented there.
