3562 Chene Street
Krause’s Market, Zohair Kallabat Market, A&Z Market, Chene Community Market
In 1950, there was a dwelling on the corner of Chene and Hale. Moving up Chene, there was a vacant lot and another home. Around 1953, a new store was built between the two dwellings on the vacant lot. I can’t be sure if the homes were still there when it was built or if something had happened to them, but the store was there by the mid-1950s.
In 1956, it was home to Krause’s Market. Robert Krause, the co-owner, lived in St. Clair Shores. In August of that year, thieves punched a two-foot square hole in the wall, snuck in, and stole a 30-inch square safe. How they fit a 30-inch square safe through a 24-inch square hole, I’ll never know, but the Detroit Free Press reported it like that. Inside the safe was $2,000 cash and $3,000 in checks.
The thieves got cold feet within a day or two, and an anonymous tipster called the police. The informant told them that the safe was behind 3377 Heidelberg Street, where police found it, still containing the cash and checks described by Krause.
In 1972, there was a zoning appeal hearing regarding this property. Mr. Zohair Kallabat wanted to erect a one-story addition to his existing retail grocery store. By this point, the home on the corner was likely gone so he could expand his business. However, he was deficient 21 off-street parking spaces. Whatever the result of the hearing, the store was eventually expanded to roughly twice its size and current configuration. Zohair may have previously worked at Calim’s Market at 17200 John R.
In 1979, the store was still in the Kallabat family. By then, it was owned by Mikail, run by him and his son Laith, and called A&Z Market.
On July 5, 1979, tragedy struck outside the store in the form of a bullet. Two men had gone into the store to return bottles and buy wine. The owner, Mikail, told the men to put their returnables into a box. A moment later, he told them they had put them into the wrong box and needed to take them out. After they did so, he said that they had taken more bottles out of the box than they had put into the box, and an argument ensued. Eventually, tensions rose enough for one of the men to throw an empty can at Mikail and Laith. The son, 21 at the time, drew his gun, and the men ran outside and down Chene Street towards Hale.
Laith followed the men and was spotted by a Catholic priest driving down the street. The Reverend said that Lauth kneeled on the sidewalk, aimed his gun at the two men, and fired two shots. He missed the men but did connect with a body. He struck Myron Duncan, a seven-year-old boy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Myron’s kneecap was shattered, and according to his mother, doctors said he would never have full proper use of that leg. Laith was released after clearing a $2,000 bond.
Protestors from the neighborhood marched with signs in front of the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, chanting for justice for Myron. Glenn Williams, a resident with two kids in local schools, said, “Any merchant with this kind of attitude shouldn’t be allowed to exist in the neighborhood.”
I’ve never found out what happened to Laith Kallabat; however, he’s still alive and lives in the Metro Detroit area.
Eventually, the store was renamed Chene Community Market. I’m unsure if it sold or if that was a crafty way of making it look like a more neighborhood-oriented place. Around this time, there was much strife in neighborhoods around Detroit, Poletown East in particular, over community ownership. The people who owned the stores and markets left the neighborhood and sold to new people, often immigrants who didn’t live in the neighborhoods where they owned stores.
These stores were frequently run almost exclusively by the owners and their families. They were able to give people who just arrived in the country jobs to bolster their hopes of achieving the American dream, which, in a vacuum, is an honorable thing. Still, for people who lived in the community for decades, it had to be tough to see your hard-earned money leave the neighborhood with no other options to support actually local businesses that hired your friends and family members.
On April 24, 1987, a 15-year-old named Myron Duncan was shot in the left jaw in the 2200 block of East Canfield. A friend had removed the clip from the automatic pistol but didn’t realize there was still a bullet in the chamber, shooting Myron on accident. A 15-year-old in 1987 and a 7-year-old in 1979 are the same age, so I think this is the same Myron Duncan whom Laith Kallabat shot.
In 1998, the Detroit Free Press ran an article featuring state inspection ratings for stores across the region. In January 1996, Chene Community Market got an A; however, by July 1997, their grade had fallen to a D.
In 2004, the property was listed as recently sold in the Detroit Free Press, going for $110,000. By this point, Chene Community Market, Inc. had folded and was dissolved in 2001. I’m unsure when it closed; however, it was vacant by 2007. Since then, it has been covered in graffiti, sometimes by prominent artists worldwide. Today, it’s been painted and is very bland.
While photographing this building, I had to avoid a dead raccoon in the street. Hopefully, this one can be turned into something soon. The interior has been cleared out, so it’ll be a blank slate for someone!
