The Whittier is a renovated high rise residential complex and former hotel located at 415 Burns Drive in Detroit, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, on the Detroit River

Detroit River

The Detroit River is a strait in the Great Lakes system. The name comes from the French Rivière du Détroit, which translates literally as "River of the Strait". The Detroit River has served an important role in the history of Detroit and is one of the busiest waterways in the world. The river...

. It is also known as the Whittier Apartments. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 in 1985.

History

The Whittier was constructed as an apartment hotel, meaning that tenants could rent an apartment, yet have access to services typically provided by a hotel. The Whittier was built at a time when the population boom in Detroit due to the automobile industry increased demand for housing. The developer selected a site near the Detroit River, in an area that was up until then primarily used for exclusive upper-class homes. Construction began in 1921, and ran until 1927.

Over the years, the luxury hotel played host to luminaries such as Horace Dodge, Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...

, Mae West

Mae West

Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....

, Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

 and The Beatles

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

. During Prohibition

Prohibition

Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...

, the hotel's convenient access to the Detroit River and Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 made it popular with underworld types, including the Purple Gang

Purple Gang

Purple Gang can refer to:*The Purple Gang, Jewish American bootleggers and hijackers in the 1920s*The Purple Gang , British rock band active intermittently since the 1960s*East Harlem Purple Gang, Italian American gang of drug dealers and hitmen...

.

The hotel changed hands many times, and was occupied until 2000 or 2001, when the last residents moved out. In June 2003, the building was purchased by Phoenix Communities, who refurbished the eight-story section into a senior citizen's living center, known as the Whittier Manor. The fifteen-story tower has been completely refurbished into rental units and condos.

Description

Charles N. Agree

Charles N. Agree

Charles Nathanial Agree was an architect who held his practice in Detroit, Michigan.Agree moved to Detroit in 1909 at the age of 12. He began his firm in 1917, after he graduated from the Detroit Y.M.C.A Technical School. His first major commission came in 1921 to build the Whittier Hotel near...

 designed the Whittier Hotel; it was the first of several large luxury hotels designed by the architect.. Due to the soft, marshy ground, Agree used a slab foundation to support the hotel. The hotel actually consists of two separate structures: an eight story building to the north and a larger fifteen-story Italian Renaissance

Italian Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...

 style hotel to the south (closer to the river).

The eight story northern building is constructed from red brick and has regularly spaced windows. The first and second stories are faced with smooth stone, and feature a classical arcade. This building originally contained 184 units, and was completed in 1922.

The fifteen story southern building is basically Italian Renaissance in style, and is built from buff brick with terra cotta

Terra cotta

Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...

trim in the upper floors. This section of the hotel was completed in 1926. A modern entrance of a single story in height has been added.

Both buildings are notable for the high quality of the interior and exterior finishes.