5620 Federal Street
Merchants Warehouse, Federal Asphalt Products, Inc., Lloyd A. Fry Roofing Company, Jack Gell & Co., Lortex Company, Kidz Play Land
**GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING**
I describe graphic content near the bottom of this entry. It isn’t gruesome, and it’s labeled, but I thought it was worth noting here.
5620 Federal Street was built sometime around the 1910s as a storage warehouse. In the 1920s, it was called the Merchants Warehouse and was marketed as a place for storing, distributing, and forwarding products. Its location along the Michigan Central Railroad (including a private switch) made it desirable, and the construction was fireproof.
On April 11, 1935, federal agents raided the warehouse after discovering evidence of an illegal distillery inside. Agents believe the still had existed since before prohibition was repealed, and they valued the equipment and contents around $100,000, or over $2,000,000 today.
While investigating the operation, agents tripped an alarm, and the police arrived to find them destroying the still.
Sam Fleisher, 26, was initially arrested. Seventeen other suspects were tracked down, but police continued to look for Sam’s brother Harry.
Harry Fleisher, 30, was once affiliated with the Purple Gang. In addition to numerous arrests for robbery, both armed and unarmed, having an unregistered gun, speeding, and breaking prohibition laws, he also earned a few high-profile warrants over the years.
To this day, he is believed to be one of the men responsible for the Collingwood Avenue Purple Gang Massacre in 1931. In 1932, he was sought by police in New Jersey to determine if he played a role in the kidnapping of 20-month-old Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. Eventually, he was found, questioned, and released. His reputation was so poor that officials looked into whether he was deportable.
On October 20, 1935, Harry was indicted alongside ten others, including his brother, for operating an illegal distillery. The trial would start the following April, and the charges would be changed to conspiracy to violate Internal Revenue Law.
During the trial, prosecutors determined how the operation went down. Sugar was transferred from Cleveland to the Guardian Transit Company Warehouse at 16th and Pine in North Corktown. Sam Fleisher was one of the truck drivers. From there, the loads were taken to the distillery. Agents discovered some 10,500 pounds of sugar at 5620 Federal Street.
Two of the men being prosecuted were turned state’s evidence to receive a lesser sentence. The other men were found guilty of their crimes, and, according to the Detroit Free Press, “Federal Judge Arthur F. Lederle imposed the maximum sentence for conspiracy to violate the liquor laws on four counts, sentencing [Harry] Fleisher to Leavenworth Penitentiary for two years on each count and fining him $20,000.”
His brother Sam, Joseph Stein, and Jack Selbin received the same sentence and fines. John J. Gettleson, a real estate dealer, was convicted on one count and given two years and a $5,000 fine.
The men planned to appeal. Leavenworth Penitentiary is in Leavenworth, Kansas, a suburb northwest of Kansas City. It’s uncertain whether the warehouse owners were prosecuted.
By 1936, Federal Asphalt Products, Inc. had moved into the space.
On March 17, 1939, a fire broke out on the roof in one of the wings above a large asphalt vat. The fire department couldn’t determine the cause of the blaze.
Starting by at least 1943, the Lloyd A. Fry Roofing Company utilized the space. Many of their advertisements read, “Good Pay. Citizenship not required.” Some listings in the Detroit Free Press indicated they did work for the war effort but didn’t specify the kind of work.
After that, I’m unsure what 5620 Federal Street was used for. There’s a dead period that lasts until the mid-1960s that’s unaccounted for—at least that I’ve been able to find.
In February 1966, Jack Gell & Company was incorporated and began operations at the structure next door, 5700 Federal. Their articles of incorporation state that they distributed household merchandise and allied products.
In 1971, Jack Gell & Co. merged with Embraceable Manufacturing Co. and kept the Gell namesake. There was another merger in 1986, and the company took on numerous assumed names through the early 1990s. At some point throughout all of this, the company started utilizing the warehouse next door at 5620 Federal Street. In 1989, there was an advertisement for one of their companies, the Lortex Company, in the Detroit Free Press. They sold drapery sheets and country print fabrics—this particular advert listed them at 70% off and discontinued patterns for $2 a yard.
By 2006, the warehouse had been converted into Kidz Play Land. It was suited for birthday parties, baptisms, first communions, quinceañeras, and other events. There were banquet rooms capable of serving between 20 and 200 people and an establishment called Southwest Tony’s Cantina. The venue had live music and often featured an Elvis impersonator.
Kidz Play Land was open until around 2013. In addition to hosting parties for children and family gatherings, the location was utilized for amateur wrestling events.
Shortly after it closed, scrappers swept through the complex and took everything of value. They took support beams from the roof on the western half of the structure, which may have been a newer build, causing the roof to collapse. The metal from the roof was taken to the scrapyard, too.
From the western door of the structure, you can see blue skies and graffiti painted when the roof still stood. The interior walls have become a canvas for artists—some talented, some not so much.
5620 Federal Street is in an odd part of Detroit. You don’t have much reason to drive down Federal Street unless you’re a semi-truck driver. Today, it only exists between Junction and Livernois. The neighborhood to the west is cut off by the same train tracks that made the Merchants Warehouse so desirable and Livernois, forming a wedge of a neighborhood clad with trucking storage lots.
The building next door (where Jack Gell & Co. once operated) later became the Mexicantown Flea Market. It was demolished around 2012 to make more room for shipping container storage. The City of Detroit Planning and Development Department currently owns 5620 Federal Street. I imagine that it will be demolished and sold to the trucking company next door for more storage in the coming years.
However, that hasn’t happened. Because the neighborhood is cut off from significant traffic, the parking lot, sidewalk, and street have become a haven for illegal dumping. There have been very few occasions that I have passed this building when there wasn’t at least one large truckload of garbage or construction materials on the ground near it.
On this visit, the illegal dumping was particularly bad. A blanket of garbage bags, discarded construction materials, and lawn waste was sprinkled across the landscape. This wasn’t new to me—but what else I found was.
*CONTENT WARNING*
While backing up to take a photograph, I almost stepped on the carcass of a dead dog. I jumped back quickly—at first, I thought it was alive and sitting down, but once my eyes focused, I realized it wasn’t moving. It was a Doberman Pincher—a well-taken care of one at that. It was sitting upside down with its hindlegs in the air and mouth open—teeth snarling as if it had been killed while protecting its puppies. I’ve seen dead dogs while shooting in Detroit—so this wasn’t foreign to me. However, I had never seen an expensive dog left like this.
After I got my wits about me again, I noted where it was to report it on the Improve Detroit app later.
After a few minutes, I was taking a photo of one of the windows on the Federal Street side of the structure when I noticed another furry object in my shot. This time, it was a dead cat. It was a relatively young orange tabby cat curled up near a couple of open bags of garbage. It didn’t appear to be dumped as the Doberman had, but it was a sad sight regardless. I noted where it was for my report and continued taking photographs.
I was almost finished when I realized I hadn’t gotten one particular shot from under the train bridge at the intersection of Junction and Federal that I had wanted to snag. I was on the far side of the building, so I started walking back. I wasn’t worried about looking for shots at this point, so my eyes were rummaging through the garbage spewing around me when I saw something that made me double-take. Is that? No…it couldn’t be…a set of hooves?
As I drew closer, I became even more shocked—it was a set of hooves, and they were connected to the carcass of a dead sheep. While traveling around Detroit, I’ve found dogs, cats, pheasants, rodents, hawks, and even a snake once—but never a barnyard animal like a sheep.
It was wrapped in a tarp and appeared caught in metal wiring. Some of the wool was rubbed away, and the skin looked slightly mangled, so it may have gotten caught in a fence before its owner dumped it. As a child, my brother’s favorite animal was a sheep. I haven’t had many experiences with the animal apart from the stories I heard growing up—I never thought it would be something I’d find discarded in Detroit.
Given the sheer amount of illegal dumping piling up outside Kidz Play Land, the animal dumper could have dropped the Doberman and the sheep on two separate occasions. I’d imagine they were surprised to find their last victim was still there—but I can’t imagine the kind of person who dumps animals like that, so it’s difficult to conceive. The cat may have died on its own accord—looking for food in one of the garbage bags during the few bouts of immense cold this winter.
Typically after documenting a building, I have some happiness or feeling of accomplishment. When I left 5620 Federal Street, I felt mentally drained. Internally, I knew I hadn’t done that to those animals. Still, I’m a meat eater—the actions of people like me may have indirectly led to the death of at least one of the three animals I found there.
Maybe it’s childish—or maybe it’s the reminder that, in the end, we all end up in the ground that causes those feelings.
I’m unsure whether my report on the Improve Detroit app has caused any cleanup efforts yet.
I don’t know what else to say.
What do you reckon Harry Fleisher would think of he saw the current state of the warehouse?
