Motor City BroGo – 5th Gear

Saturday, our last day together, we had a number of activities planned.  Our first stop was at the Eastern Market, a huge farmer’s market near downtown.  We parked our car in a lot there and then walked to the closest station for the People Mover.

The People Mover is an elevated, light rail system that follows an almost 3-mile loop through the business district of downtown Detroit.  My brother in his research had discovered two significant historical buildings that we should visit.  The first was near one of the stations.

My brother had explored the possibility of guided tours, but for this first building we would visit, the Guardian, they were no longer available.  The above photo is of the building as seen from the station stop.  When we got to the building, we were pleased to discover the lobby was open to visitors and we could explore the first two floors.

The lobby had a beautiful, vaulted ceiling that we both photographed numerous times.

Up the stairs, was a small shopping area, all closed on Saturday…

…and at the end was a marvelous map of Michigan.  I commented to my brother that I thought the style had a certain Aztec look to it.  He was not sure.

Back on the People Mover, we made our next stop at the Renaissance Center, the GM world headquarters.  My youngest son and I had previously stayed in the high-rise hotel which is a part of the circular building when we had come to the auto show one January.  I recalled GM had cars on exhibit on the first floor and suggested to my brother that we check it out.

On one of our trips driving into the city during the week, I had discovered that the auto show which previously ran in January each year had been moved to the very week we were in Detroit and the public opening was that day.  I told my brother it was typically very crowded the first day and so suggested we take in our own private auto show here.

Back on the tram, we returned to our original station and walked back to the Eastern Market where we planned to lunch at a craft brewery right next to the market.  As we approached one of the market sheds, we had a huge surprise.

Just as we walked past this building across the street from us, I heard a loud crashing noise.  When I went back to look, all that I could see was a huge cloud of grey smoke that was coming towards me and the sound of electrical transformers exploding like fireworks going off.  The image of the smoke moving forward reminded me of 9/11 when the towers collapsed.  When the smoke cleared, I snapped the photo above revealing the partial collapse of the second and third floor walls of the building.  Within minutes, emergency vehicles had arrived on the scene and soon had the area cordoned off.

We later thankfully learned that no one had been killed and only one person suffered minor injuries, a person who just happening to be walking near the building at the time.  Also, we found out that some sort of renovation work had been going on, but the cause of the accident was still being investigated.  Removing ourselves from the crowd of onlookers, we made our way over to the craft brewery…

…which just happened to be celebrating Octoberfest (in case you did not know, this annual event runs in Munich from the middle of September to the very beginning of October).

Our last planned activity of our BroGo was a 2:00 PM guided tour of the Fisher Building.  The 28-story tower has been described as the largest art object in the city.  We arrived early and had a chance to explore the beautiful interior before our tour started.

Once our tour began, our knowledgeable guide who had been conducting these tours for 10 years, provided us with a wealth of information about the building.  He first asked us to look up and notice that each column on the second floor was of a different kind of marble, each from different states and different parts of the world.  He then went on to expound on the history of the building.

We quickly learned that the building was designed by the famous architect Albert Kahn.  Flush with cash from the recent sale of their company to GM, the Fisher brothers gave Kahn a blank check to build the most impressive building he could conceive.  Although his original plans were scaled back after the start of the depression, it was still easy to see he had achieved a significant goal, even the lights are works of art.

In case you are wondering, the Fisher company was the first to build enclosed automobile bodies which they sold to numerous car manufacturers (previously all car bodies were open air).  Many adults of my generation can recall opening the car door of a GM car and seeing this emblem on the door sill…

… with the words “Body by Fisher.”  This seal now graces the live theatre on the first floor.

In our hour-long tour we learned so much about the history of this beautiful building that I could easily have written an entire post just on it rather than the few snippets I have provided.

Our last beer stop was at this unique establishment just across the railroad tracks from Greenfield Village.

We got a prime table open to the outside with the rollup garage doors retracted where we could enjoy one last beer (or two) together while the wheels of the Model T atop the hydraulic lift slowly turned.  Everything was early Ford car themed, even the adjustable clamp serving as a napkin ring holder.

As we enjoyed our refreshing beverages, we had a chance to reflect on the wonderful BroGo we had had.  With so many interesting activities planned during the week, I said I felt this BroGo was different from others in that our focus was mostly on the fun experiences we had together.

I knew when I sat down to write this post that it would be long and even with these five short synopses, I know I could have easily written five more providing much more details as we did and learned so much.  Had I done that, I suspect I might have lost some of you along the way so hopefully from these brief summaries, I have piqued your interest enough to consider visiting some of these venues.  All in all, we had a great trip together and suffice it to say that I think we were both pleasantly surprised this BroGo turned out to be one of our best ever!