Vanity Ballroom Building
The Vanity Ballroom Building is a public building located at 1024 Newport Street, at the intersection of Jefferson Avenue in the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District in Detroit , Michigan . The building contains the last intact ballroom of the many dance palaces that existed in Detroit and where big bands performed from the 1930s to the 1950s . It was inscribed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 12, 1982 .
history
The Vanity Ballroom was designed by Charles N. Agree in 1929 and was intended to be an eye-catching hangout where it was possible to chat, dance and listen to music. Many band leaders performed here with their bands, such as Tommy Dorsey , Jimmy Dorsey , Duke Ellington , Benny Goodman , Red Nichols , Russ Morgan , Art Mooney , Woody Herman or Pee Wee Hunt . Vanity called itself " Detroit's most beautiful dance rendezvous "
The facility was closed in 1958, opened for one evening a week in 1964, and finally fell silent. Although it played its part in Eminem's film 8 Mile , it remained closed and fell into disrepair.
description
The Vanity Ballroom is a two-story building that originally housed five retailers on the first floor; the ballroom was on the first floor. The building was created in the Art Deco architectural style , with thematically decorated with Aztec motifs. It is around 42 m long and around 41 m wide. The construction is a steel and reinforced concrete building, the facades of which were clad with bricks . Most of the brickwork is executed in orange, which is combined with darker bricks and artificial stone . There is a three-sided entrance pavilion on the corner of the building at the intersection, and the facades on Jefferson Avenue and Newport Street are almost identical. There are also smaller entrance pavilions at the ends of the facade, all three of which are slightly higher than the rest of the building and have a geometric pattern of stones on the upper part. The windows on the second floor are flanked by pilasters and covered with Art Deco design elements similar to those of the Aztecs.
The interior of the ballroom was designed to accommodate 1000 couples, the 5600 square feet (520 m²) dance floor was parquet floored from maple wood and bordered by the grandstand for the band and on the other three sides by a promenade. The dance floor was constructed in such a way that it was suspended from springs that sagged under the weight of the dancers and gave the dancers the feeling of vibrations through their springs. The background of the stage shows a scene from Chichén Itzá .
In three of the retail stores on the ground floor, the interiors were also designed by Agree; the Aztec theme is also used here. In this area, Agree used components made of wood and processed maple and built floors made of terrazzo . The facade of these shops was later changed significantly.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Vanity Ballroom Building ( English ) In: State Historic Preservation Objects . State of Michigan. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 16, 2008.
- ↑ a b c d e Vanity Ballroom Building ( English , PDF; 144 kB) Archived from the original on December 17, 2008. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 16, 2008.
- ↑ National Register Information System ( English ) In: National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. Retrieved October 16, 2015.
- ↑ a b c d e Vanity Ballroom ( English ) Detroit1701.org. Retrieved December 16, 2008.
- ↑ a b c Rebecca Binno Savage, Greg Kowalski: Art Deco in Detroit ( English ). Arcadia Publishing, 2004, ISBN 0-7385-3228-2 , pp. 98-104 (accessed December 16, 2008).
Coordinates: 42 ° 22 ′ 20.9 ″ N , 82 ° 56 ′ 46.6 ″ W.