The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Building is a historic building in downtown

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 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 1986.

History

The GAR Building was designed by architect

Julius Hess Julius Hess (January 26, 1876 – November 2, 1955) was an American physician who is often considered the father of American neonatology. In 1922, he published the first textbook focused on the care of prematurity and birth defects in infants. ...

, and constructed at 1942 West Grand River and Cass as an appropriate structure for meetings and other GAR related activities. The cost was split between the

Grand Army of the Republic The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army (United States Army), Union Navy (U.S. Navy), and the Marines who served in the American Civil War. It was founded in 1866 in Decatur, Il ...

(who paid $6000 of the cost) and the city of Detroit (who paid the remainder of the $44,000 total cost). Construction commenced in 1897 on the five-story building. This Richardsonian Romanesque-designed building lies on a small,

triangular A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non- collinea ...

lot on the northwest side of downtown Detroit. Originally built for the Grand Army of the Republic members in Detroit, the building included 13 shops and a bank of the ground floor, office space on the second and third floors, and a small auditorium on the fourth floor. As GAR membership dwindled through the beginning part of the 20th century, they were unable to maintain the structure and, by 1934, vacated the building and gave ownership to the city. The GAR Memorial Association, a women's group, used it until 1973. The GAR building was added to the

on February 13, 1986. More recently the city attempted to sell the building, but a coalition including the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War and the

Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) is an American congressionally chartered fraternal organization that carries out activities to preserve the history and legacy of the United States Armed Forces veterans who fought during the Civil ...

brought suit against the city of Detroit to block sale of the building, claiming that a clause in the 1898 deed stated that city must preserve the building as a memorial to Civil War veterans.

Redevelopment

In 2007, it was reported that the GAR Building had been sold to Olympia Development, an arm of

Ilitch Holdings, Inc. Ilitch Holdings, Inc. is an American holding company established in 1999 to provide all companies owned by Mike and Marian Ilitch with professional and technical services. Its privately held businesses include Little Caesars Pizza, the National H ...

for a price of $220,500. Olympia Development expected to renovate the building at a cost of $2 million, but the purchase of the GAR by the Ilitch family was later rescinded. In 2011, the property was then sold t
Mindfield USA
a Detroit-based media company, for $220,000. The firm planned to renovate the building for its headquarters. Renovation began immediately after purchase, and Mindfield planned to occupy the top two floors of the structure, lease the ground floor for retail and a restaurant and dedicate a memorial to Civil War Veterans with renovation progress documented on a blog page. Th
Republic Tavern
opened in February 2015 and was named on

OpenTable OpenTable is an online restaurant-reservation service company founded by Sid Gorham, Eric Moe and Chuck Templeton on 2 July 1998 and is based in San Francisco, California. In 1998, operations began with a limited selection of restaurants in ...

's ''Top 100 Best Restaurants For Foodies In America'' in September 2015 and listed on OpenTable's ''100 Hottest Restaurants in America'' in March 2016. Later, the Parks and Rec Diner in an adjacent space.

References

External links

National Register listingMindfield USAMindfield's blog about the building's ongoing renovation
{{National Register of Historic Places in Michigan

Cultural infrastructure completed in 1897 National Register of Historic Places in Detroit Michigan in the American Civil War 1897 establishments in Michigan Commercial buildings completed in 1897

History

Redevelopment

See also

References

External links