Charles N. Agree

Whittier Hotel

Charles Nathanial Agree (April 18, 1897 – March 10, 1982) was an American architect who held his practice in Detroit, Michigan.

Biography

Agree moved to Detroit in 1909 at the age of 12. He began his firm in 1917, after he graduated from the Detroit Y.M.C.A. Technical School. His first major commission came in 1921 to build the Whittier Hotel near the bank of the Detroit River. He later went on to design many office buildings, theaters, and ballrooms. Agree was one of the Detroit architects of the 1920s and 1930s who utilized the services of architectural sculptor Corrado Parducci.

As the architecture changed by the 1960s, so did Agree's commissions. He began designing many modern-style malls. In addition to the office in the Book Tower, Agree's firm later opened an office on McNichols Road in Detroit and then a suburban office in Bloomfield Hills.

Several Agree designed buildings have been plundered by architectural scavengers. These include the Vanity Ballroom, where several Mayan-Deco panels were torn off, and the Grande Ballroom which brought rock band MC5 into fame, which has sat empty since closing in 1972.

Agree-designed buildings

All buildings are located in Detroit, unless otherwise indicated.

• Whittier Hotel, 1921-1927
• Belcrest Hotel, 1926
• Hollywood Theater, 1927 (with Graven & Mayger)
• Grande Ballroom, 1928
• Vanity Ballroom, 1929
• Lincoln Theatre, Lincoln Park, Michigan, 1936 (remodeling)
• Westown Theater, 1936
• Beverly Theatre, 1937
• Palmer Park Theatre, 1937
• Harpos Concert Theatre, 1939
• Royal Theatre, 1940
• Trans-Lux Krim, 1941
• Showcase Cinemas Dearborn, Dearborn, Michigan, 1941
• Duke Theatre, Oak Park, Michigan, named after Duke Ellington, 1941-1947
• Park Theatre, Lincoln Park, Michigan, 1942 (remodeling)
• Woods 6 Theater, Grosse Pointe, Michigan, 1948
• Southgate Shopping Center, Southgate, Michigan, 1957
• Flint Tavern Hotel, Flint, Michigan
• Highland Lodge Apartment Building, Stamford, Connecticut
• Detroit Zoo Holden Reptile House, Royal Oak, Michigan
• Jewish Community Center, West Bloomfield, Michigan
• Oakland Mall, Troy, Michigan
• Panama City Mall, Panama City, Florida
• Trenton Village Theatre, Trenton, Michigan
• Wabeek Building, Birmingham, Michigan (this is credited to Agree, but all records indicate it was designed by Albert Kahn in 1928)
• Wilshire Residential Hotel

Further reading

• Hill, Eric J. and John Gallagher (2002). AIA Detroit: The American Institute of Architects Guide to Detroit Architecture. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-3120-3.
• Meyer, Katherine Mattingly and Martin C.P. McElroy with Introduction by W. Hawkins Ferry, Hon A.I.A. (1980). Detroit Architecture A.I.A. Guide Revised Edition. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-1651-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)