Palmer Park Apartment Building Historic District - History

History

The land that this historic district sits on, like the adjacent Palmer Park and nearby Palmer Woods Historic District, was once the estate of Thomas W. Palmer, a wealthy Detroiter and one-time US Senator. Palmer had intended to develop this area into a subdivision, but died in 1913 before bringing the idea to fruition. After Palmer's death, this portion of the estate was purchased by Walter Briggs. In 1925, Briggs hired Albert Kahn to design an apartment building in the area (this building, at 1001 Covington, was converted to contos in 2005). Forty buildings total were constructed in the district by multiple architects, including Weidmaier and Gay, Robert West, and William Kapp. Most of the buildings were constructed in the 1920s and 1930s, but development continued until 1965.

At one time Palmer Park had a large LGBT community. At one time the area had large numbers of bars, bookstores, and restaurants owned by gay people. At that time, the only way one could acquire an apartment in the area is if one already knew another resident in the complex. Crime increased in the 1980s, and gay people began leaving. Wendy Case of Metro Times said "Ask three different people what happened to Palmer Park and you'll get three different answers. But all will eventually agree that crime is what dismantled Detroit's opportunity to have a gay renaissance akin to those of San Francisco and New York. The glorious art deco apartment buildings that were once at such a premium in this neighborhood are still there — but you no longer have to "know somebody" to get one. You just have to have to pony up about 300 bucks and be willing to live between a beautiful park and ungodly urban squalor." Craig Covey, a member of the city council of Ferndale, said that most of the former gay residents of Palmer Park "tended to move up Woodward Avenue and they settled in Ferndale, Royal Oak and Birmingham depending on their economic abilities. The middle-class folks came to Ferndale and Pleasant Ridge, as I did." The "Hotter Than July" annual LGBT festival, founded by Johnny Jenkins, is held in Palmer Park; the festival states that it caters to the "black same-gender-loving".