1700 Concord Avenue
Schuster’s Meat Market, AJM Goodie Store
I’ve always admired this structure, and I’m not certain why. It stands mostly alone at the corner of Concord and St. Paul, and I’ve always dug how strong it looks. However, in recent months, it’s started to look worse and worse.
I believe it was built in the 1910s or 1920s as a meat market. In 1906, an establishment at the address was hiring a strong boy to work and learn the butcher trade. Later on, the same business was hiring a delivery boy. I’m not sure when the present structure was built, but it appears the meat market was there before and after it was built.
In 1921, Schuster’s Market was operating at 1700 Concord Avenue. G. Schuster ran it, and the ad reads, “We handle strictly government-inspected meats only.”
After that, I found very little about this building. In my experience, this is extremely common for small commercial operations with dwellings on the second floor. Typically, businesses that utilized these spaces were localized. They only served the neighborhood surrounding the structure, so they didn’t need to advertise in the paper. Often, the only advertisements for businesses like this are from larger companies advertising where you could pick up their products, like ice cream or drugs.
As neighborhoods began to shrink in population but remain the same size, fewer and fewer corner stores like this remained functional. Of those that survived, even fewer still had residents living upstairs.
The last occupant of this structure was the AJM Goodie Store. They had a small offering of goodies, but I’m certain the neighborhood kids loved the pop, candy, and chips on the shelf. I believe it was closed by 2012.
I first photographed this structure around 2018. World-renowned graffiti artist REVOK had tagged the St. Paul side of the building, and I stopped by while cycling one summer day to take photos of fit. He designed a tool that enabled him to simultaneously fire multiple lines of spray paint, which looks pretty neat and oddly satisfying.
Jason ‘REVOK’ is from California but has been based in Detroit for a few years. Initially, I thought that was pretty rad. One of the most iconic graffiti painters ever uprooting and coming to Detroit? It all made sense. However, I’ve since learned that only his studio is in Detroit, and he and his family live in Grosse Pointe. If you want to live out there, that’s fine, but I find it hard to call you a Detroit-based artist when you lay your head somewhere else every night. That’s just my opinion, though.
