7616 Michigan Avenue
A B C Tire Company, Central Super Market, Jaworski Sausage Shop, Darpol Travel Agency
This building is a perfect example of why you should always look at the details. I’ve admired this building for years—even photographed it once or twice in passing, but I missed most of the ornament because I wasn’t looking close enough.
7616 Michigan Avenue was built in 1919. Joseph G. Kastler designed it. Kastler was the architect behind St. Anthony Parochial School (east side, off Gratiot), Burns Hotel (downtown, in Cadillac Square), Dom Polski Hall (east side, on Forest), St. Stephen’s Parish School (Southwest, on Central Ave), and many more. This structure, at the corner of Michigan and Florida, was smaller in scale than many of his more known projects.
I’m not sure if a particular business built the structure, but it has room for multiple first-floor retail spaces, rentable offices on the top floor, and, I believe, a few apartments. The original address for the building was 2244 Michigan, and I think that the modern numbers 7616-7624 are all contained within the structure.
If you look closely, there are incredibly ornate details around the facade. Decorative columns separate the windows on the second floor. Below each column, small faces stare off onto Michigan Avenue and Florida Street. There are ornamental cartouches on the top of three separate sections of the facade, too. These details are in superb shape for a building that’s been vacant for the better part of a decade and a half (at least).
In 1929, there was a drug store run by Victor C. Piaskowski here. He was a veteran of the First World War. In 1933, there was a doctor’s office inside run by Dr. Leo W. Slazinski. By 1934, there was a hardware store in the building. From 1939 until at least 1954, A B C Tire Company had a space inside the structure. I assume this would have been in the rear portion of the building because it has a lower ceiling and two larger, garage-style doors.
Between 1947 and at least 1956, Central Super Market occupied one of the retail spaces. In the 1970s, there was a Jaworski Sausage Shop here. Jaworski’s, initially in Hamtramck, had been around since the 1930s and had expanded to fourteen locations by the 70s.
One of the final businesses to operate out of the structure was the Darpol Travel Agency. It occupied the storefront on the Michigan side of the building, further away from downtown. There was once a sign above the windows, and the door still says ‘DARPOL’ and has several, now dated, airline and travel stickers.
I can tell from Google Street View that there was once a sign above the space closer to downtown, too. It may have read, ‘Complete Set of (unreadable four letter word) … Done in 45.’ This could have been a dry cleaner, with times referencing cleaning times, or perhaps a hardware or specialty store that offered services in under an hour.
This structure has guarded the intersection of Michigan and Florida for over a century. The Avenue has several ornate corner structures like this one, but the ornamentation is some of the most detailed I’ve seen.
Records show that the structure is currently owned by Michigan Central LLC, an organization headed by Raffi Derbabian, a Colliers real estate agent based out of Southfield. Although the building appears to be somewhat looked after, the roof isn’t in great shape, and there doesn’t appear to be any activity. Hopefully, the current owner can rehabilitate it or sell it to someone who will before it’s too late.
