By Any Other Name

January, 2008.

One of the taller abandoned buildings in Highland Park is 111 Highland Street, also known as the Roselawn Apartments. It is situated in a cluster of several other large derelict buildings on that street.

Unfortunately I couldn't find much historical info about the Roselawn thanks to its generic name and address. And worse yet, most of the interior looked like an asbestos mine:

At least some of the kitchens had a Lee Plaza-esque flair, rescuing this place from being a total bore:

The person that lives in this bungalow in the next photo does an excellent job of keeping their property up despite the slumping of the neighborhood around them:

Then again, this was seven years ago; they may have given up and moved to Southfield by now.

The ravaged G.W. Ferris School:

Despite the loss of Sharon Hall via demolition, this area is still architecturally stunning...here is 70 Highland Street, and the Highland Towers (pre-fire) in the distance:

The white terracotta building to the left is the "TOwnsend" exchange office of the Michigan Bell Telephone Co., which was designed by Wirt Rowland. It is one of the very few non-abandoned buildings on the street, though ironically it is currently an unmanned office and there is very little in the way of functioning equipment left inside it. The "TO" means that any telephone subscribers in this area would have had numbers beginning with "86."

The abandoned Detroit Osteopathic Hospital, over on Third Street, which was our next target for the day:

Notice the banner on the side of the building has an "86" telephone number.