The Capitol Park Historic District is a historic district located in downtown Detroit,

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 is roughly bounded by Grand River, Woodward and Michigan Avenues, and Washington Boulevard. The district was 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 1999.

Description

Capitol Park itself is a triangular plot of land (now a public park) bounded by Shelby Street, Griswold Street, and State Street. The plot is an artifact of Augustus Woodward's 1805 plan for the city of Detroit. The Historic District includes the park and seventeen surrounding buildings for a block in each direction. Buildings within the district include the Farwell Building, the Griswold Building, the

David Stott Building The David Stott Building is a 38 story high-rise apartment building with office space on floors 2-6 and retail space on the first floor. The "Stott" was originally built as a class-A office building located at 1150 Griswold Street (corner of Gri ...

, the Detroit Savings Bank Building and the

Industrial Building Industrial architecture is the design and construction of buildings serving industry. Such buildings rose in importance with the Industrial Revolution, starting in Britain, and were some of the pioneering structures of modern architecture. File:R ...

History

In 1823, the population of Detroit had increased to the point that the US Congress transferred governance of what was then the Territory of Michigan to the governor and legislative council. To house the new government, a courthouse was built in Capitol Park in 1823–28. When Michigan became a state in 1837, the building became the state capitol, and functioned so until 1847 when the governmental seat was moved to

Lansing Lansing () is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is mostly in Ingham County, although portions of the city extend west into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. The 2020 census placed the city's population at 112,644, makin ...

. The building was then used as a public high school until 1893, when it was destroyed by fire. The land was then converted to a park, and it has remained a public space up to the present. The buildings within the Historic District surrounding the park were built primarily during the first three decades of the 20th century for commercial and business purposes. Several famous architects, including Albert Kahn and

Gordon W. Lloyd Gordon W. Lloyd was an architect of England, English origin, whose work was primarily in the United States, American Midwestern United States, Midwest. After being taught by his uncle, Ewan Christian, at the Royal Academy, Lloyd moved to Detroi ...

, contributed buildings in a range of styles, from Victorian to Beaux-Arts to

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

. The buildings demonstrate the transformation of Detroit from a prospering 19th century commercial center to a modern city. In addition to the present buildings, Capitol Park has a historic connection to the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...

. In 1850, Seymour Finney purchased a plot of land near the park and erected a tavern with a large barn. Finney was strongly sympathetic to the abolitionist cause, and used his barn to hide escaping slaves before their final trek across the river into

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. A State of Michigan historical marker has been erected in the park to commemorate Finney's Barn. In 1905, the remains of Michigan's first governor Stevens T. Mason were transferred from New York City where he died 1843 and interred in Capitol Park in a ceremony attended by sitting governor Fred M. Warner and mayor George P. Codd among other officials. A statue of Mason by sculptor Albert Weinert was later erected over the grave. When plans were announced in 2009 to reconfigure the park, they included relocating the monument and grave. However, the burial vault was not where earlier plans indicated and crews searched for four days before it was located on June 29, 2010. It was believed the grave was moved from its 1905 location in 1955 to make room for a bus terminal. On the 199th anniversary of his birth, October 27, 2010, Mason was reburied for 4th time in a newly built vault in the pedestal the bronze statue. The current Dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, where funeral services were held for Mason in 1843, officiated at the ceremony.

Transit hub & redevelopment

The park has also served as a major downtown transit center. Two years after the destruction of the state capitol by fire, multiple

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport a ...

lines were looped around the new park with large boarding platforms constructed on Griswold and Shelby streets, transforming it into a major transfer station. In 1955, the Department of Street Railways (DSR) constructed the $280,000 Capitol Park

Bus Terminal A bus station or a bus interchange is a structure where city or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. While the term bus depot can also be used to refer to a bus station, it generally refers to a bus garage. A bus station is l ...

at the north end of the park which facilitated the moving of Stevens T. Mason's tomb to the south end of the park. The new facility was constructed using steel and reinforced concrete, with plastic skylights throughout the concrete canopy. Not long after the restructuring of the DSR as the

Detroit Department of Transportation The Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT, pronounced ) is the primary public transportation operator serving Detroit, Michigan. In existence since 1922, DDOT is a division of the city government, with headquarters in Midtown. Primarily serv ...

(DDOT), the station was demolished in 1979, though the area around the park continued to be used as a major bus terminal. In 2001, the area was named as the Capitol Park Transit Center, and was used as a temporary terminal until the completion of the

Rosa Parks Transit Center The Rosa Parks Transit Center is the main local bus station in Detroit, Michigan serving as the central hub for the Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT) bus system. The station was built on the site of Times Square in the west end of Dow ...

. The opening of the Rosa Parks Transit Center in downtown Detroit in July 2009 marked the end of Capitol Park's use as a transportation center. A $1.1 million renovation project started in September 2009 by the city's Downtown Development Authority redeveloped the public space in an effort to draw new businesses to the area.

Gallery

Image:Capitol Park 1942.jpg, Capitol Park in 1942, looking north Image:FarwellBuildingDetroit.jpg, Farwell Building, looking through Capitol Park Image:CapitolParkDetroit.jpg, Looking south on Griswold at State, with The

on the left Image:GriswoldBuildingDetroit.jpg, Griswold Building Image:Capitol Park 2011.JPG, Capitol Park in 2011 Image:Stevens T Mason Monument.JPG, Stevens T. Mason Monument in 2011 Image:Detroit December 2021 60 (Capitol Park).jpg, Capitol Park at night Image:DIME building exterior.jpg, The Detroit Institute of Music Education (DIME) and Urban Bean at Grand River and Griswold St in Capitol Park

References

{{Architecture of metropolitan Detroit Downtown Detroit Historic districts in Detroit Neighborhoods in Detroit Underground Railroad locations Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Michigan State Historic Sites in Wayne County, Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Wayne County, Michigan