Detroit Commerce Building (People's Outfitter)

Detroit, Mi

November 2006.

 Constructed in 1915 at 52m(170ft) & 12 floors, the building was constructed to house the main department store of the People's Outfitter Company.

In the 1960's, urban department stores started to decline in popularity and the People's Outfitter Company went out of business; leaving the building vacant. Soon after, the building became occupied with offices and was crowned the Detroit Commerce Building.

The building remained in use as an office until 1997, when it closed and its last tenants (Wayne County Veterans Affairs offices, Detroit Historic Commission, Detroit Transportation Corporation and the Detroit People Mover offices) left.

The building was quite well sealed. I barely skim the surface of buildings in Detroit; but some of my urbex cohorts told me that the People's Outfitter was quite well sealed - in fact, you weren't getting in without a 27 foot ladder.

That all changed in the winter of 2006.  The People's Outfitter was to be demolished to create a parking garage and the vacant building sat wide open. I always have a desire to enter buildings that will be gone; so even though I was told it was boring, I still went.

The People's Outfitter Building on the corner of Shelby & Michigan Ave.  You have probably seen this if you have ever taken the tunnel bus to Comerica Park.  It now sits demolished to the point where you can't tell it was a Heineken advertisement.

The building had been renovated when the offices came & it left us with a cubicle haven.  I kept expecting Milton Waddams to pop out.

Picture table for Sybill Oil Corporation

More cube farm goodness.

Natural light

A look up State Street

Pictures.

Wonder where these people are now.  Maybe Rainelle Cunningham, Fannie Wells or Mary Howard will google their name one day.

Some of the upper floors had quite a bit more vandalism.

On DetroitBlog.org, he points out that the carpet is rolling like that because of the underlying wood floor.

This mirror scared the shit out of me. 

The People's Outfitter had a different ladder to go to the roof then all the other floors.  So once we got to the 12th floor, we began to search the floor for the other staircase.  I wondered into this small room and peered around a corner only to see a reflection of myself - and my heart stopped for a second.

Then I realized who was in the mirror.

One of the last floors before the roof.

The aforementioned floor was vacant of windows and it was interesting to peer over people & observe just how oblivious they were.

Top floor circuitry.

Once on the roof, we peered up at the neighboring Book-Cadillac Hotel - the reason why the People's Outfitter is being demolished (for a parking lot for Book-Cadillac).

Rooftop Foliation.

A look over to where Comerica sits.

Donnie: "Shouldn't we be over there skating like normal people."

Navi: "Do you want to be over there skating?"

Donnie: "Fuck no, this is 100x better."

Navi: "Agreed."

The People's Outfitter building definitely is nowhere near the top of the most interesting buildings; but with it being demolished at the time of this writing - I needed to get in.

It may not have made for the most interesting photoset; but not every building can be number one.

Lastly; this update was quite watered down.  The only information I could find was on DetroitBlog.org; but I wasn't about to just jock all his hard work; so I added the base facts about the building and one tidbit where I couldn't help myself.

If you want an in depth, very informative read on the People's Outfitter; then head over to DetroitBlog.

Sources: 1. DetroitBlog.org

2. Emporis.com

All information retrieved January 16th, 2007.

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Navi

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2005 BRN
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