The historic Park Avenue Hotel in Detroit bid adieu July 11, was reportedly demolished to make room for a brand-new Detroit Red Wings arena.
The once glamorous hotel was built in 1924 with the rise of the economy and Detroit's most successful hotelier of the early 20th Century, Lew Tuller. Tuller commissioned architect Louis Kamper to design three soaring hotels along Park Avenue which would be called later on as Tuller's Three Sisters: the Eddystone, the Royal Palm and the Park Avenue.
Kamper was at the height of his career at that time having just come off designing the city's most magnificent hotel, the Book-Cadillac Hotel.
With the fall of the economy in Detroit from the 1960s to 90s, businesses, residents and tourists bled out of the city. The once ritzy downtown hub declined and in 1957, the Salvation Army took over the hotel and began running it as a senior housing complex, the Eventide Residence. Long after that, it was turned into a rehabilitation center for the homeless and drug addicts, called the Harbor Light Center. It would be the largest of such a facility in the country and helped countless people get back on their feet. However, citing rising costs, this too, would not last. The Salvation Army closed the Harbor Light Center in 2003, finally retiring the once rich Park Avenue hotel to become abandoned and graffiti splattered, most memorable of which is "Zombieland" written in huge letters across the side.
The former 252-room glamorous hotel was reportedly turned into rubble by Adamo Demolitions within seconds, thanks to 200 pounds of TNT. Amid spectators, the historic event of blowing away the thirteen story building is viewed to be a sign of progress and development. The site would make way for a sports and entertainment district featuring the new Detroit Red Wings ice hockey stadium which is set to open by September 2017.
