Railroad Hotels

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• I remember that block before that 'monster' went up... there were some pretty sleazy bars in that area in the 70's and 80's.... I think the original Tracy Starr's Burlesque was right on that corner before they moved to Maiden Lane.

• Yes that area was quite run down and shabby looking. There were many brick buildings in the area all crammed in together.
  Today it would have been considered ripe for gentrification and could have had real impact downtown.

• The name of the saloon on the southeast corner was the Beanery. Tracey Starr's faced the riverfront. Both were emporiums of gentlemen's entertainment. I worked on the 75 Riverside Drive East job. I believe the year was 1985.

• I recall a hotel called The Ritz somewhere in this area, I think on Pitt perhaps?...

• The Ritz was a local bar on the corner of Pitt and Goyeau. It was there for a long, long time. It was purchased and became the Beanery which was owned by a partnership that still dabbles in the bar business to this day. The Beanery was indeed a strip club which served as second string to the likes of the already mentioned Tracy Starr's (Windsor's original glory hole and home to the original mosh pit). The Beanery and the entire block of buildings was expropriated to make way for the current building which, since then, has never been able to fill the entire first floor retail compliment(an interesting tid bit if you relate it to the current Canderel Block). Just to the west of the Ritz/Beanery was Adelman's Department Store which also faded from the map around that same time. When the Beanery closed its licence went to a partnership that took over the old Saint Clair Tavern on the north side of Wyandotte Street between Ouellette and Goyeau (in front of and adjacent to the entrance for the Mady Garage and across the street from the current Macdonalds. This bar morphed into a short lived strip club (Tails and Tophats???) and then into a bar called the Cotton Club which was owned by a partnership consisting of a local lawyer and a couple of guys directly related to todays local blues scene. That establishment went into mothball status until it succumbed to a mysterious fire. FYI...A little before and after.

• M.O.M., so did the above mentionned Woodbine become the Ritz?

• To JBM...

  I do not have recollection beyond the Ritz. From the map and pic above YES...The Ritz Hotel is one and the same as the Woodbine.

• Adelman's Dept Store closed in March of 1979. The building was sold off and demolished. The only remaining part of Adelman's is Papa Cheney's which Adelman's used as their Connection Store (sold Levi brand jeans etc.). I think prior to being the Connection it was Adelman's carpet store.
  My grandmother used to take me for lunch at the Ritz Hotel in the 1960's after shopping at the downtown market, but in the 1970's it became the Beanery.
  I think Smith's may have come down first. Then Adelman's and the former Ritz all came down about the same time in the early 1980's. Smith's had became Micheal's and closed about 1977-1978, before Adelman's. Those were the days. We got paid in cash at Adelman's and could go to Smith's, Kresge's, the Metropolitan Store or Woolworth's to spend it. Lots of retail in downtown until the middle 1970's.

• Tracy Starr’s Burlesque at one point was at this location and Maiden Lane at the same time; not sure which one closed first...

• Paula - you have a great memory of that area down there - I did the same, shopping all those stores in the 60's - 80's... recalling the aroma of the Nut House wafting onto Ouellette Ave. near Park St. too ;-) . Was there not also an old deli restaurant across from Adelman's?? - I know there was a shoe repair shop there, but can't recall other than that.