Located at 2600 W. Fort St., this old warehouse building sports a date of construction of 1897.
On what is now a truck yard near the Ambassador Bridge, this building is the only remaining peice of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd Reformatory for Girls that once occupied the site.
As you can see the building above was the laundry facility. What ever happened to the Sisters?
What a great photo and find, Andrew. Hats off to you! +
Thanks Mike, of course I had no idea what it was when I shot it… 🙂
I found this site which shows a picture of the Magdelene Building shown on the print above, as well as another building in the complex when it was operational.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~detroitchurches/page49.htm
There’s a history of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd online, as it relates to Vista Maria – still operational in Detroit. The history relays a bit of information about the Fort Street property.
http://www.volunteersolutions.org/uwsem/org/1935221.html
Thanks Eileen.
Very interesting stuff. The map did note that the property was surrounded by a brick wall. It was neat to see that in the first picture.
Wow !!
My Grandfather was a stationary engineer for the sisters c. 1900-1930. We have a photo of him next to what might possibly the laundry building. Would love to get a high res.copy of the map. What was your source ??
Leo B
Leo, shoot me an e-mail andrew at internationalmetropolis.com and I can get you a higer res copy of the map. I would be interested in seeing that photo too…
Thank you, thank you! I never knew THAT building was the one!
This should be moved to a historical neighborhood so the area can be redeveloped.
Wow, thanks Andrew. I found this old post from a link on detroityes.com, but I never knew the significance of that building. We commonly drive by this place & I had no idea why it hasn’t been demo’ed yet.
Hi,
I came across this post when doing some research for a video I made. Thanks for the information! Just goes to show a good post has legs on the Internet 🙂 I’ve also linked to this post in my blog post. If anyone’s interested here is a video I made of the building http://www.detroitvideodaily.com/2012/01/fleet-specialty-warehouse-building.html
Thank you so much for providing that great photo. As a young nun stationed at Vista Maria in the 1950’s, I often heard stories from the older sisters about the sounds sometimes heard at night when the Good Shepherd Sisters first occupied that building. The one I heard most frequently had to do with the voices of men who were apparently having card games, reinforced with lots of drinking. Spooky!
Andrew (and anyone else) I have some pictures that were taken of my relatives on the grounds of the House of the Good Shepherd in the 1920s and 1930s. My Grand Aunt was a nun there starting in the 1920s. If you would like to see them, please respond. If anyone else has any pictures of the House of the Good Shepherd and would like to share, I’d be thrilled to see them.
It was demolished today.