The former Eighth Precinct Police Station is a building located at 4150 Grand River Avenue in the Woodbridge Historic District of

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, United States. It is the second-oldest police building in Detroit,Eighth Precinct Police Station
from the city of Detroit and was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1973 and listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1974. The building now houses the Detroit Castle Lofts.

History

As the west side of Detroit expanded in the late 1800s, city services followed. In 1873, a police precinct station was constructed at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull streets. This precinct, the Second, covered all of Detroit's west side beyond Fourth Street. As the area population increased, substations were constructed in the precinct, including, in 1879, a substation at the corner of what is now Grand River and Rosa Parks. This substation was demolished in 1900 to make way for the construction of the present building. This building was designed by

Louis Kamper Louis Kamper (March 11, 1861 – February 24, 1953)Louis Kampeat Find-A-Grave Retrieved on July 8, 2009 was an American architect, active in and around Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan, in the United States. Project range In the early 20t ...

and built between 1900 and 1901, for a cost of $46,000. In 1901, as part of a police department shakeup, the original Second Precinct headquarters on Trumbull was closed and this building on Grand River became the new Second Precinct Headquarters. In 1903, the Second Precinct was divided, and the Grand River station became the headquarters of the new Sixth Precinct. In 1910, precincts were renumbered citywide, and the area became the Eighth Precinct. This station remained in service until 1954, when the precinct was closed. After 1954, the Detroit Police Youth Bureau used the station as office space; the buildings were later used by the Detroit Police Personnel Division. In the 1980's the Special Crimes Section moved in. The section included the Major Crimes Mobile Unit and the Gang Squad. In 2013, the building was converted to lofts, as part of the ongoing revitalization of Woodbridge.Beshouri, Paul (February 27, 2013
A Taste of the Castle Lofts
''Curbed Detroit''. Retrieved on July 29, 2013.

Architecture

Kamper designed the French Renaissance

Châteauesque Châteauesque (or Francis I style,Whiffen, Marcus, ''American Architecture Since 1780: A guide to the styles'', The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1969, p. 142. or in Canada, the Château Style) is a revivalist architectural style based on the ...

station as two structures connected by an arcade. The main building, used as office space, is a -story structure measuring seventy-two feet long by forty-five feet wide. The smaller building, initially used as a

carriage house A ''carriage house'', also called a ''remise'' or ''coach house'', is a term used in North America to describe an outbuilding that was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and their related tack. Carriage houses were often two ...

and later as a garage, is also a -story structure, and measures forty-six feet long by thirty feet wide. Both buildings are constructed of limestone on the first floor and brick on the second, and feature high pitched roofs, conically roofed towers, and elaborate stone dentils which give the impression, especially on the towers, of castle battlements. The main entrance to the station is through a covered stone porch framed by three

semi-circular arch In architecture, a semicircular arch is an arch with an intrados (inner surface) shaped like a semicircle. This type of arch was adopted and very widely used by the Romans, thus becoming permanently associated with Roman architecture. Termi ...

es supported by columns. A stone balustrade spans the porch. Six faces of individuals significant at the time the building was constructed decorate the capitals: Governor

Hazen Pingree Hazen Stuart Pingree (August 30, 1840 – June 18, 1901) was an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd mayor of Detroit from 1889 to 1897 and the 24th governor of Michigan from 1897 to 1901. A Yankee who migrated from New England, h ...

, Detroit mayor William Maybury and the four men who made up the Detroit Police Commission. Two conical roofed towers, flank the entrance. The windows in the towers have transoms and stone lintels, and the highest window in each tower features an elaborate stone hood-moulding. A wall dormer on the second story contains three rectangular windows with a circular window above, outlined in stone, framing a Maltese Cross. The garage has a full tower on the western corner which is identical to the two on the main building. The main door is a double door with a semi-circular arch. The wall dormer on the second story is similar to that on the main building, but without the circular window above.

References

External links

Castle Lofts
{{National Register of Historic Places in Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Detroit Michigan State Historic Sites in Wayne County, Michigan Government buildings completed in 1901 Renaissance Revival architecture in Michigan Châteauesque architecture in the United States Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Police stations on the National Register of Historic Places Louis Kamper buildings Detroit Police Department