The Belcrest Apartments is an

apartment building An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...

located at 5440 Cass Avenue in Midtown

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

. It was built in 1926 as the Belcrest Hotel, designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1983, and listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1984. It is significant as an early example of the apartment hotel development concept in Detroit, and a major early work of architect Charles N. Agree.

History

The Belcrest Apartment Hotel was built in 1926 as a residential hotel, catering to wealthy tenants.The Belcrest
from Detroit1701.org The building exemplified what was, at the time, a novel style of living arrangement: an apartment building that offered amenities normally associated with a hotel. Daily maid service and a restaurant on the premises set this apart from a conventional apartment building. The building was developed by Jacob Singer and Max Hamburger, who hired Charles N. Agree as both architect and general contractor for the building. In 1929, Singer and Hamburger signed an agreement to make the Belcrest a part of the Albert Pick hotel chain.

Architecture

The Belcrest is a twelve-story, T-shaped apartment building, constructed of concrete and steel and sheathed with brick and terra cotta.The Belcrest
from the state of Michigan Three projecting bays surround the base of the T, emphasizing the vertical, and extend up through the cornice to end in an ornamented gable. The three bays have elaborate detail on the twelfth floor, containing alternating bands of brick and terra cotta, round-arched masonry window openings, and terra cotta diaperwork. Terra cotta cornices on the third, eleventh, and top floors emphasize the horizontal. The grey and cream second-floor cornice is further embellished with dentils, rope molding, and acanthus leaf molding. The tan and dark brown eleventh-floor corniceline has green highlights, and breaks at terra cotta balconets beneath the twelfth-floor windows. The tan twelfth floor cornice is molded into the form of a series of arches and acanthus leaf brackets, topped with an acanthus leaf molding. A gabled single story entry foyer echoes the form of the twelfth floor gables. The entryway is reached through original wrought iron entry gates.

References

External links

Belcrest Apartments
{{National Register of Historic Places listings in Wayne County, Michigan Apartment buildings in Detroit Michigan State Historic Sites in Wayne County, Michigan Residential buildings completed in 1926 Romanesque Revival architecture in Michigan Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Detroit Charles N. Agree buildings