A long-vacant hotel in Detroit slowly returns to life

There’s an interesting little piece at Detroit News Online about the restoration of the Pick-Fort Shelby Hotel in Detroit. The short article paints a pretty good picture of the special challenges of restoring a building that has been abandoned for a very long time. The article also highlights the difficulties of rehabbing a structure that boasts building technologies that have since been all but lost–in this case, a marble shoe shine stand.

Here’s the piece: Artists labor to re-create Pick-Fort Shelby’s grandeur

For more on the history of the Fort Shelby Hotel, hop on over to Forgotten Detroit.

Steve

My thoughts are with fellow blogger and rabble rouser Steve Patterson, who suffered a stroke late last week. (Pub Def got the word out.)

I cannot imagine a spirit like Steve’s staying down for long. I hope I’m right.