The Kean is an apartment building located at 8925 East Jefferson Avenue in

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, ...

, directly adjacent to the Hibbard Apartment Building. It was 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 1985.

Description

The Kean is a striking

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

apartment building containing some Romanesque elements. The building is sixteen stories high, containing four apartments per floor. The main structure is brick; the entrance is embellished with light orange

terra cotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based Vitrification#Ceramics, non-vitreous ceramicOED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used ...

, inset medallions, and Corinthian columns. The vertical surfaces rise the full height of the building. The hipped roof is tiled, and edged with a red and white checkerboard pattern and projecting gargoyles.

History

The Kean was designed by Charles Noble in 1931. With the onset of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, this was the last of the large residential apartments built along Jefferson until well after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The building is currently operated as an apartment building.

References

External links

The Kean at Detroit Living
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kean Apartment buildings in Detroit National Register of Historic Places in Detroit Residential buildings completed in 1931 Art Deco architecture in Michigan Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan 1931 establishments in Michigan