11700 Livernois Avenue
Leon’s Spic & Span Pantry, Orange Peel Lounge, Rin-Sin Lounge, Bailey Lounge, Blue Cross Building and Home Improvement Company, Livernois Piano Warehouse, Brooks Bowling Clinic, Mickey’s Cleaners & Tailors, Ellen A. Beaty Salon, National Piano Mart, Faces Cuts-N-Styles
11700 Livernois was built around 1930. It was a hub of life at Livernois and Webb from the get-go, with at least four commercial units with apartments upstairs. The main attraction was the corner unit, which from at least 1934 onward, was a restaurant or lounge.
From 1934 to 1935, various advertisements in the Detroit Free Press listed the address as the location of a restaurant hiring servers and cooks. By 1936, Leon’s Spic & Span Pantry was utilizing the space. It was still operational in 1940.
In the mid-1970s, it was known as the Orange Peel Lounge, but by the 1980s, it was the Rin-Sin Lounge. The latter had live music and was open late.
In 2001, Bailey Lounge was incorporated at 11700 Livernois. I believe it was open until around the onset of the pandemic. The sign disappeared around that time, too. However, their large mural on the structure’s north side remains, albeit tattered.
A listing from 1964 lists the Blue Cross Building and Home Improvement Company at 11702 Livernois. I haven’t found any other businesses at that address.
11704 Livernois was the address for the apartments above the first-floor retail establishments. I’m not certain how many flats exist, but they were occupied until recently. A glance through the broken window pane shows photos still on the wall and a reasonably intact interior.
The door to the apartments steals the show here—the rounded molding of brick and limestone contrasts with the orange brick face above it and the storefronts to the left and right. A telephone pole partially covers it today, but it’s just as opulent as ever.
11706 and 11708 Livernois were both storefronts. The former was the home of Livernois Piano Warehouse in 1959 and Brooks Bowling Clinic starting in 1970. The bowling shop, run by Charles Brooks, was in operation until at least 1974, when it was highlighted in the Detroit Free Press. Its last use was Mickey’s Cleaners & Tailors, which also specialized in leather repair. It was open until a few years ago, and their equipment is still inside the space.
11708 Livernois was Ellen A. Beaty Salon in 1938, a barber shop by ‘41, the National Piano Mart by ‘61, and Faces Cuts-N-Styles before closing a few years ago.
Buildings like this dot the landscape of Detroit; however, this one is in better shape than most I’ve come across. Upon initial inspection, it appears that the structure could be up and running within a few months of work. However, there hasn’t been much investment in this part of the Livernois Corridor. Further up the road, the Avenue of Fashion is thriving. Eventually, that investment may find its way down Livernois to where it intersects with Webb.
Hopefully, 11700 Livernois will be in as good of shape then as it is now.
