7448 Harper Avenue
People's State Bank, First Wayne National Bank, New Mt. Zion Church of God in Christ
This is the second nearly identical branch of the People's State Bank I’ve posted recently. I’ve documented one more so far, so expect the trifecta to be completed soon!
7448 Harper Avenue was completed by 1920 and, similar to its identical twins, was designed by Donaldson & Meier. The People's State Bank Branch was expanding quickly, so combining resources to save time and money made sense. This led to numerous identical structures being built. The design was eventually tweaked, but there are a handful of buildings that look dramatically similar to this one dotting the landscape of Detroit.
In 1931, Daniel Weinbaum was robbed of $391.50 at the intersection of Harper and Townsend. Considering that’s nearly $7,000 in 2023, one might assume he was going to or coming from the bank pictured here. At that point, the First Wayne National Bank utilized the structure.
A year later, Charles E. Hatch, the bank’s manager, was on the run. He was accused of embezzling bank funds, and the police were looking for him. An article from June 1932 stated that he plead not guilty to stealing $1,500. However, an August article in the Detroit Free Press told a different story.
Hatch, who had worked for the bank since 1916 and as manager since 1925, was said to have taken $75,000. This is either a misprint or an incredible theft. He fled to the west coast with a satchel full of money. On a train between Salt Lake City and San Francisco, he befriended a group of men who took him to a horse track. There, they won money, and the men made off with it, leaving him with just $1,100.
I haven’t determined what happened to Hatch; oddly enough, his wife died in November of that year. She was just 34.
After that, I’m not certain what happened at 7448 Harper Avenue. I’d guess it was utilized during the war effort, as many vacant banks were, before becoming a church in the 1960s or 1970s.
Most recently, the structure was being utilized by New Mt. Zion Church of God in Christ. I saw folks meeting here last year, but I can’t be sure it’s currently in use.
This section of Harper has more structures than most of the rest nearby. That isn’t saying much, though. Trombly Adult Day School and Harper Recreation & Bowling were across the street but are now vacant lots. Lots surround the structure, but a new DTE transformer is being built on the site of the old Trombly school.
I hope that the congregation can continue to utilize this structure. None of the three I’ve documented are abandoned, but I’d say that all of them are underutilized.
