In Metro Times, Michael Jackman takes one of Detroit's 80,000 or so abandoned buildings and tells its unusual story: "a simple home that puffed itself up into a pretentious apartment building."
The Cole, at 2753 Park Ave., which sits inside the footprint of the proposed hockey arena, "has been standing there at least since the 1880s, when Park Avenue began to fill up early with modest frame houses. Even in 1890, about 17 residential listings appeared for the stretch of Park Avenue between Sproat and Bagg, and a few stores occupied the Sproat corner. The two-story frame house was a simple home, a series of stepped shotgun shacks, telescoping down to what was probably a kitchen in the rear. A two-story stable rested at the back of the property on the alley."
This humble home hosted a number of different tenants until 1898, when William E. Cole moved in. A person of some means (he could afford a telephone in 1898), Cole lived at this address for 14 years, though little information is available about how he earned his living. One year, he was listed as being the secretary and treasurer of the Carpenter Chemical Co., an impressive title, if nothing else. But Cole died on Jan. 2, 1912, age 41, leaving his widow, Mrs. Mae Cole, to live on at the address.
Today, Jackman writes, "There it stands, its pretentious frontage now towering above the street when faced head on. But from any other angle on the street, the building is like a woman with her dress blown up by the wind."
