4550 Michigan Avenue
Apartments
Every year around Thanksgiving, it seems like Detroit demolition crews are working harder than ever. It’s more evident because they always take the holiday off, leaving their equipment at locations around the city and buildings half-torn-down.
My first experience with this was at the Eastown Theatre at Harper and Van Dyke in 2015. An emergency demolition was ordered, and work began around the 21st of November. The work was over halfway done by Thanksgiving and completed a few days later.
I’m not sure what causes the city to go full swing demolishing buildings this time of year. Maybe they’re trying to make up for lost time or simply hoping to get as many done before the ground freezes. Either way, it’s hard to pass a building with demolition notices pinned on it without getting a few photos. This is an example of one of those times.
4550 Michigan Avenue was built in 1925 and housed a few apartments. I haven’t been able to dig up much information about its use other than that, but it was, at one time, a part of a dense neighborhood.
In June of 1931, a 12-year-old resident of the apartments named James Clark stabbed a 13-year-old named Edward Falkewicz, who lived on 28th Street, with a penknife. Falkewicz was not seriously harmed, and Clark was taken to the juvenile detention center.
To the north of the apartment building once stood a synagogue. It was named either the El Moshe or Ohel Moshe Synagogue. Unfortunately, I haven’t found much information about this temple. At some point after the Ohel Moshe left the structure, St. Mary’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church began operating out of the building. This was true at least during the 1960s and 1970s. The parish may have left for Southfield by the 1990s.
Around this time, Greater Mt. Huron Missionary Baptist Church took over the old synagogue building. They used the structure until the new one they built next door was completed around 2007. The synagogue was demolished around 2010 and is now a part of Greater Mt. Huron’s parking lot. A tight alleyway was the only thing that separated 4550 Michigan from the temple.
In 2019, a mural was painted on the side of the apartment building by Bakpak Durden, a Detroiter, in collaboration with the Detroit City Walls Blight Abatement Residency and 1XRUN. Durden said this about the work, “The piece is meant to symbolize the resistance in solidarity with the Latinx community in southwest Detroit.”
Because there are no structures between the apartments and Michigan Avenue, the mural is visible to those heading down US-12. However, this wasn’t always the case.
At one time, there was a structure with first-floor retail and upper apartments between 4550 Michigan and Michigan Avenue. Its address was 4548 Michigan, and in 1928, the retail space was utilized by a barbershop. In 1930, during prohibition, a raid was made here, and three gallons and three pints of whiskey were seized. The Detroit Free Press reported that no arrests were made.
By at least 1938, a bar had opened in the retail space. It was called Paul’s Bar (or Cafe, by some reports), and Paul Rojek owned it.
In 1938 a man tried to hold up Frank Krzgski, the establishment’s bartender, at gunpoint. Two customers were on the sidewalk and stole the gun from the man, who fled. Krzgski said he knew the man and had been asked by him what he would do if he were held up, to which Krzgski replied that he would put up a fight. However, thanks to the two patrons on the street, he didn’t have to.
In September of 1940, Rojek, the bar’s owner, was fined $200 for selling on Sundays. In 2022, that’s roughly $4,000.
In November 1946, a man named John Hughes threw a glass inside Paul’s Bar. A piece of the glass struck George Olynowski, who later had to have his eye removed. Hughes was charged with malicious destruction of property.
The last record I have of Paul’s Bar is from 1953. In the early 1960s, a new bar opened in its former location called Paulson’s Bar. I assume there was some relationship between the new establishment and the old, but I can’t be sure. It was operational until at least 1984. Ads for work at the bar imply that they heavily relied on workers from the Clark Street, or Caddilac, Assembly plant a short walk down Michigan Avenue.
In the 1970s, the apartments above the bar were still in use. The advertisement for rent read, “3 & 1 apartments-upper. Close to Cadillac Motor Co.”
I’m not sure when 4548 Michigan was demolished. At some point after, the parcel it resides on merged with the vacant, mural-clad apartments at 4550 Michigan.
Records show it was last sold in 1999 for $13,800 (roughly $24.7K in 2022). Currently, the property is for sale for $125,000. The apartments have no roof, no floors, and the foundation is crumbling. This will make for a swift demolition process and, honestly, may make the parcel of land worth more to a potential developer.
When I shot these photographs a few days ago, I hoped to learn more about the structure. Unfortunately, as you read, that wasn’t the case. However, I’m happy to have learned more about the history of the synagogue to the north and the former bar and apartments to the south.
Have a great holiday.
