16247 Hamilton Avenue
Federal Rug Cleaners, Federal Contracting Company, Paragon Steel Corporation, Little Angels Nursery & Kindergarten
Over the years, this structure has worn many hats, including one that left it burnt to a crisp at the hands of a fire-repair contractor. I’m not certain how the building was originally broken up—but I believe multiple businesses may have been operating here at once. However, by the 1970s, it was all under one umbrella. We’ll get there, though.
Built in the 1930s, I’m unsure what this structure’s original owner planned to use it for. However, by 1935, it was in use by Federal Rug Cleaners. For $2, you could have a 9x12 rug ‘scientifically cleaned’ and ‘renovated.’ By 1936, the price had increased to $2.35, and ‘insured’ had been added to the tagline. A year later, the price had risen to $2.50. Federal Rug Cleaners operated at this location until at least the early 1940s.
By 1943, the Federal Contracting Company had started utilizing at least a portion of the structure. That year, the company advertised in the Detroit Free Press to hire plumbers for $120 weekly. Throughout the 1940s and into the 1950s, they hired painters, a secretary, salespeople, and other workers.
In 1951, two ads in the Detroit Free Press indicated the racial differences in Highland Park and the Detroit area in that era. The first ad was looking for a salesman living in the southwest of Detroit. Pay would be $90 a week. Directly below it, there was an ad looking for a black salesman for the same company. Pay would be $60 a week for what appears to be the same job.
Business for the company’s owner, Harold Warren, was good. However, he wasn’t immune to controversy.
In 1952, the Federal Contracting Company and other firms were accused of intercepting short-wave Detroit Fire Department radio broadcasts (which was illegal at the time) and sending salesmen to fires as they were raging to try and get homeowners of said burning homes to sign contracts for cleanup work as their entire lives went up in flames. The victims reported that they weren’t able to make sound decisions in such a stressful time, which led to the accusations. Warren was furious, denying the claims, and said that his men worked quickly to ensure no extra damage was done to homes his contractors worked on while waiting for the contracts to be signed. He also said that if the investigation did not substantiate charges, he wanted the inspector, Roderick K. Goeriz, to be fired.
Two years later, Warren and his company were under fire again, this time at the hands of Ward McCreedy, the deputy commissioner in charge of the builder’s division of the Michigan Corporation and Securities Commission. McCreedy alleged that five firms, including the Federal Contracting Company, had formed a combine to control the fire-repair business in Detroit and its surrounding cities and enclaves. The report stated that the group pooled salesmen, parcelled out business, and had all but eliminated competitive bidding in the field.
Due to these issues, some of the five companies were blocked from renewing their business licenses until they were remedied. None of the businesses blatantly denied that this was occurring; however, some had different stories of how it operated or why they were involved.
In February 1954, the investigation and charges were dropped against the five businesses, and those denied licenses had them processed swiftly. McCreedy had met with the business owners and noted that they had promised to adhere to several of the commission’s rules and regulations.
By March, Warren was in the news again. The Federal Contracting Company was being sued by the Stevens family. When their home went up in flames, they called city services for help at 2:17 AM. They had reportedly signed a contract with Warren’s business by 2:30 AM. The family felt they had been taken advantage of in their time of need. Warren stated that he had never had a complaint in nearly two decades of business and that the work on their home would nearly be complete if they hadn’t filed the suit.
On May 5, 1960, a massive fire swept through the building at the corner of Hamilton and Moss Streets, pictured here. The fire is well-documented; however, the layout of the structures affected is confusing.
The blaze started from a grease fire at Barney’s Restaurant, which, according to the Detroit Free Press, was located at 16245 Hamilton. I believe that address is located inside the structure pictured here. The small building to the north is 16253 Hamilton, which makes more sense as a restaurant. The article says that the fire spread to the structure next door to Barney’s, which housed the Federal Contracting Company, which Warren still owned, and the Federal Fire Loss Adjustors. I haven’t found any information on the latter, but I assume it was an arm of Warren’s business. He was quoted in the paper, “and I finally got a fire myself.” Damages were listed at $100,000, and 3,000 people were said to be on the streets watching the blaze that drew 90 Highland Park firefighters and two Hamtramck Companies.
I’m unsure what rebuilding efforts looked like, but Warren knew what he was doing if he owned the structure. The last mention of his company that I’ve found was in 1963. The ad sought salesmen and required applicants to “live in Detroit, not suburbs!” As sleazy and racist as Warren seems through our modern-era lenses, you’ve got to admire that.
In 1962, the Paragon Steel Corporation utilized the structure in some capacity. However, in 1965, the company launched a $1,350,000 warehouse at 20101 Hoover Road, which still stands today.
After that, this structure switched things up in a significant way.
Alma Morris and Vivian Anderson incorporated Little Angels Nursery & Kindergarten at the state level in 1971. Sue Smith was involved, too, and the business was located at the building pictured here.
In 1978, Cassie Workings was made the resident agent and eventually owned the entire business.
A year later, Mrs. Geneva Hendricks filed a damages suit worth $2,000,000 against Workings and Little Angels. She claimed that her daughter was sexually assaulted at Little Angels when she was four (in 1976) by Workings’ son, Kelvin L. Workings. There’s a four-letter word for what Mrs. Geneva Hendricks said Workings did to her daughter, but I won’t include it in this post.
Detective Peter Keliher, who said he had been working on the case since it was first reported on December 14, 1976, said that one of the three suspects given a polygraph test (sometimes called a lie detector test) failed it. Still, charges were never brought because the evidence wouldn’t be upheld in court. He also said that the Highland Park Police Department had received two other complaints of the same four-letter word at Little Angels.
I’ve searched all across the internet for information on this case, but I haven’t been able to find anything. I hope that justice was served.
Little Angels continued to operate out of the structure into the 2000s. They offered kindergarten and Latch Key programs for students between the ages of 2.5 and 13. Cassie Workings was still the registered agent until around 2007, when Michael G. Workings was appointed. Around 2020, their lawyer took over responsibility for the business, and it was dissolved in 2023. I’m not sure when the daycare closed its doors.
While student’s futures were being molded inside, Highland Park continued to change outside. In 1981, Andre Hargo, a 13-year-old, was hit by a car while crossing Hamilton at Moss Street. His friends said the car appeared to swerve to hit him and drove off. When the article was published, the driver of the 1974 four-door Crysler was still on the run. Hargo was a student at Henry Ford Middle School.
In 2010, then Highland Park Mayor Herbert Yopp’s son Gregory was pulled over and arrested at Hamilton and Moss. He was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, possessing a controlled substance, and possessing marijuana and a felony firearm. This wouldn’t be his only arrest while his father was mayor.
In the years Little Angels was in business, the landscape of Highland Park, Hamilton Avenue, and the greater Detroit area changed vastly. Companies called it quits, neighborhoods shrank, and numerous storefronts on Hamilton were abandoned and demolished. Through searches on Facebook, numerous current residents and Highland Park ex-pats have fond memories of Little Angels. For many, it was an escape from what was going on outside.
The structure is currently owned by Gregoire Eugene-Louis, an alumnus of Little Angels in Highland Park. An active community member, Eugene-Louis is a former Project Coordinator at the City of Highland Park, Construction and Business Mitigation Manager at Midtown Detroit, Inc., and Motor City RE-Store Program Manager for the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation. It’s safe to say that he’s well-versed in what it takes to succeed in Detroit, Highland Park, and Michigan.
In a recent Facebook Post, Eugene-Louis detailed his plans for the structure. He said that vandals had broken into the former daycare and caused much damage, but he planned to clean it up and try to get it into the hands of another nursery. According to an online listing, it’s available for sale or lease, the latter costing you $14 per square foot per year. If my math is correct, that comes to just over $50K per year for a nearly 4,000-square-foot commercial space.
It’s safe to say that this structure has been through the absolute wringer in its near century of life at the corner of Hamilton and Moss. Considering its current condition and the capable hands that own it, I feel optimistic about its future.
Paired with a potential rehab of the old American State Bank of Highland Park (later used as Muhammad Temple No. 1) across Moss Street, this intersection could look radically different in a few years. It would take a lot of hard work (and money), but in the right hands, this area can become lively again.
After all it’s been through, I’d argue it deserves it.
