5571 McDougall Street
Frank Lendzion’s Saloon, Verna’s Bar, The Almighty Church and New Jerusalem City of God and Its True Light Army
I had meant to take photos of this building for ages and finally got around to it after documenting Lipke Hardware (later McDougall Hardware) across the street. The paintings on the exterior had always enticed me. I assumed they were to depict the Magi, but I don’t know enough about religious history to know whether that’s true.
Although it was most recently a church, 5569-5571 McDougall Street was originally a saloon. It was built in the mid-1910s, meaning it would only have been open for a year or two before prohibition was enacted in Michigan in 1917.
In the early 1920s, Frank Lendzion operated a near-beer bar on the main floor. These establishments were widespread across the country. They sold malt beverages with extremely low alcohol content and were legal. Some sold actual alcohol on the side—but this isn’t a story about bootlegging.
In December 1923, Raymond Coots, a state trooper with ties to the prohibition force, Joe Bethey, and Frank Kirby (aka Girbie) wandered into the bar after closing. Coots reportedly asked Lendzion for a private word and said he would shoot up the place after returning from the back room. Lendzion locked the doors and went to phone the police, but he didn’t make it before witnesses say Coots shot him.
Children were in the room at the time, and one of Lendzion’s friends, Stephen McIntyre, was hit by a stray bullet but survived. Lendzion died from his injuries. It was later reported that Coots tried to extort Ledzion for cash in the back room to ensure his bar wasn’t raided. When he refused to hand over money, the altercation ensued.
In June 1924, Coots was acquitted of all charges. There was no reason as to why given in the papers.
At some point, Walter and Loretta Kokowicz opened his bar there and named it after a family member, Verna. In 1949, Verna’s Bar received a 7-day suspension and a $200 fine for selling on Sundays.
In 1959, Walter and his bar played a small role in solving a murder. Adam Michalski, a barber a few buildings down at 5555 McDougall, was found dead in his shop. The only thing police found was a yellow wool scarf.
Joseph Michalski, Adam’s nephew, was a police officer and grew up in the neighborhood. The 28-year-old officer went around Poletown East asking questions. Eventually, investigators stepped into Verna’s Bar and asked Walter if he had seen the scarf. He mentioned that he had seen Tommy Mulligan wearing it.
Joseph knew Tommy’s sister, Agnes, so he gave her number to investigators. They called her and found out where her brother was. He was working at Fleetwood Cleaners on Van Dyke, where police picked him up.
Mulligan, a decorated WWII paratrooper, admitted to beating Adam with a wrench and gloved fists. He said he had gone to ask him for money because he was skinned and thought he had knocked him out, not killed him when he took $55 from the man he used to call his friend. He was sentenced to life in prison.
I’m unsure when Verna’s Bar closed, but the structure became a church by 1976. The Almighty Church and New Jerusalem City of God and Its True Light Army was incorporated in 1948 near where Willis now dead ends into the railroad tracks near Dequindre. Their registered address was changed to 5569-5571 McDougall in 1976, and they’ve been there ever since.
Although their paperwork with the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs is current, I don’t think the church regularly holds services. The structure appears to be maintained, but I haven’t ever seen anyone go in or out.
At one time, there were apartments upstairs, too. I’m unsure what they were used for when the church took over the property.
Similar to Delray, it’s hard to imagine what Poletown East looked like in its heyday. There’s so little left of what once was, and, given my age, I’ve never seen it look like anything but how it looks now.
Whether or not you remember Poletown East for how it was or only know its present form, it’s nice to see structures like this still standing.
