View of Comerica Park!! Home of the Detroit Tigers. This picture was taken when I was contracted to do a job at the Broderick Tower in the heart of downtown Detroit. Below is a picture of the Broderick
here is a little history on the Broderick Tower -
The Broderick Tower went from being “a beauty by day—a jewel by night” to the third-tallest abandoned building in the United States — and has become a towering symbol of Detroit’s rebirth.
One of the city’s most recognizable buildings, the skyscraper opened in 1927 as the Eaton Tower, named for what was then one of Detroit’s most recognizable families. Theodore H. Eaton came to Detroit in 1838 and invested his savings in a run-down drug store that had folded in the Panic of 1837. At the time, Detroit was just an out-of-the-way frontier town of about eight thousand, but the 23-year-old Eaton had pioneering in his blood: He was a direct descendant of Thomas Eaton, who helped settle the New World in 1660.
Eaton bought the Riley and Ackerly drug store in the American Hotel block, located at Jefferson and Randolph near where the city’s landmark Renaissance Center is today. A few years later, the building housing his store burned down. He moved into new quarters only to lose that one to fire, too. But Eaton would not be deterred and erected himself a warehouse at Woodward and Atwater — and this time he built it fireproof.
The building served as his company’s headquarters until 1927, when booming business forced it to move into bigger quarters at Franklin and Riopelle, near Chene Park. Eaton’s bet on Detroit paid off. He stockpiled paints, soaps and other supplies for the ships that came sailing into Detroit, often staying open late into the night as to not miss a ship coming in, the Detroit Free Press noted in 1953.
Eaton adapted his firm to Detroit’s changing business climate. As wool mills opened in the city, Eaton started selling them chemicals, dyes and machinery. He taught his son, Theodore H. Eaton Jr., the family trade and how to be a traveling salesman. The company would grow into a major manufacturer and distributor. The senior Eaton was among the city’s elites, “an imposing figure, riding home from work evenings on a white horse,” the Free Press wrote. He even helped organize the city’s first gas company and stayed in the business for 50 years. His son ran things for 51 more and oversaw the company’s switch to selling dry-cleaning supplies and heavy chemicals for the city’s booming auto industry. But it was Berrien C. Eaton, the grandson of the company’s founder, who would build a lasting monument to his family’s legacy.
read more @ http://www.historicdetroit.org/building/broderick-tower/