630 Lycaste Street
Detroit Accessories Corporation, Copeland Products, George R. Carter Company, Vancraft Manufacturing, Inc., Midwest Cabinet & Counter
This structure may soon be demolished.
I believe that this building was built in the early 1920s for the Detroit Accessories Corporation. Or, it was built just before that, and the company moved into the space by 1924.
The Detroit Accessories Corporation was incorporated in 1915 by L. R. Marteil, C. E. Lehr, A. W. Sempliner, and others with $5,000 in capital. By 1916, the operation was located on Hillger Street, which was named for William Hillger, whom I covered in my post about the Hillger School at Iroquois and Forest. The company made machined products and accessories and was located at Gratiot and Fischer by 1917.
By 1924, the company had opened at 630 Lycaste Avenue. By this point, they were most known for making the clutch and steering mechanism for the Gray Motor Corporation, a short-lived auto company based in Detroit.
By 1925, the company had moved to 1501 E. Philadelphia Avenue, a large swath of vacant land near American Axle and Manufacturing’s World Headquarters today. The last mention of the company that I’ve found was in 1928.
By 1925, the structure on Lycaste Street, pictured here, was occupied by Copeland Products, a company started and run by Edmund Copeland. The business was founded in 1921 after Copeland left the Kelvinator Corporation, which he helped found with Nathaniel B. Wales and Arnold Goss. Copeland and Goss were Buick execs when Wales approached them with his ideas in 1914; however, I haven’t been able to determine why Copeland left the company less than a decade later.
While in Detroit, the Copeland Products company spent most of its time at 630 Lycaste Street, pictured here. The 1929 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows that the office was in the front of the building, and the whole complex had automatic sprinklers. Copeland had a company baseball team, which was typical for the era.
In February 1929, 400 Copeland nationwide sales team members met in Detroit for a conference. New Copeland products were on display and the convention was held at the Hotel Statler downtown. Additionally, there were sessions at the Players Club on East Jefferson. Many attendees stayed for a few days after the conference for training at the company factory, pictured here.
The company moved to Sidney, Ohio, in 1937. That same year, his wife, Eva M. (Cook) Copeland, died. The Copeland Corporation still exists, producing compressors, condensing units, and other refrigeration and air conditioning products.
By 1940, the structure was occupied by the George R. Carter Company, manufacturers of automobile trim. At that time, A. E. Vogt was President, and C. A. Lilley was Vice President. By 1942, the plant had transitioned into wartime production. In 1943, Clifford A. Lilley, the Vice President and General Manager, died.
The 1949 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows that an addition to the factory, address 620 Lycaste, was completed. Whoever built it did a splendid job matching the brick and other details. However, the structure has started to separate at the addition, which is visible from the street today.
I can’t be certain how long the George R. Carter Company utilized this space; however, by 1973, it had become the Paul Murphy Plastics Company, a plastics plant. That business eventually moved to Roseville.
By 1977, Vancraft Manufacturing, Inc. used the building as a custom tube, tool, die, and stamping plant. Back in 1969, the company had purchased the Prutsman Mirror Co. of Lansing. Vancraft teetered on for a few years, though I’m not certain how many of those were spent inside this structure. The last mention of the company I found came in 1986, though it was a P.O. Box, not an actual address.
In 1985, Midwest Plastic Top/Deskwerks, Inc. was incorporated at the state level. By 1990, the company had moved to 547 Lycaste Street, the structure next to the one pictured here, which was demolished last year. In 1996, the company changed its name to Midwest Cabinet & Counter, and, at some point, they began utilizing 630 Lycaste Street, pictured here. By 2001, they were operating as a wholesale distributor of cabinets, and in 2002, they were hiring as a countertop maker’s warehouse.
By the 2010s, the company had moved to Madison Heights, where it remains today. The structure on Lycaste Street had a for-sale sign in 2009 and looked abandoned by 2011.
Based on my experience with structures like this and what one of the workers across the street told me while I was photographing it, this building wasn’t properly maintained after the George R. Carter Company left, likely in the 1960s. A series of dirty, not super profitable companies came and went, likely renting or purchasing the structure for cheap, as it was starting to fall apart. By the time the cabinet and counter company left, it was likely too far gone to be utilized for manufacturing or warehousing without substantial renovations. Enter Dennis Kefallinos.
Kefallinos, one of the building owners most mentioned on this page, set up Lycaste Street Properties LLC in 2010, the same year he purchased the structure for $190,000. To my knowledge, it’s been vacant since.
A few weeks ago, I got a tip that this one landed on the demolition list. While I was taking these photographs, some of Kefallinos’ workers were cleaning up the property. I’m unsure if they’re trying to salvage any valuable pieces of the structure or prove to the city that they’ve done work here so it won’t be demolished.
The worker I spoke with across the street said that he poked his head in a few times and that the structure was in pretty sorry shape. He noted that Kefallinos had put in the same shoddy fittings he does across town to turn structures into lofts. There are a handful of Kefallinos properties that I’ve seen that have metal framing for drywall partitions to create lofts but nothing more. I’m genuinely unsure if he wants to turn these structures into lofts or if this was the cheapest way to get the city off his back about buildings he has no plans to renovate.
Regardless of Kefallinos’ intentions, this structure may be demolished soon. This corner of Detroit is steeped in industrial history, with the former Chrysler Jefferson Avenue Plant, DTE, other small manufacturers, and the Detroit Terminal Railroad in the area. There have been demolitions in recent years, and it appears this one might be next.
