Lost Detroit

the long version

From the Publisher: In this important book, Dan Austin and Sean Doerr have restored the real people to many of Detroit's architectural landmarks, and not a moment too soon. These "lost" buildings still stand, or rather totter, in a dilapidated state, their histories fading like the paint on their walls. The buildings might not long survive, but thanks to this book and the efforts of Austin and Doerr, the stories of these places and the people who built and used them will endure. Who were these lost Detroiters? Mayors and matrons, train conductors and auto workers, honeymooners and jitterbugging young couples out for a Saturday night - all the rich panoply of faces that make up Detroit's story. The buildings they inhabit in these pages - the Michigan Central Station, Vanity Ballroom, Cass Tech High School and others - held a central place in the story of Detroit's Auto Century. It was America's story, too. Detroiters lived, loved, toiled, played, celebrated and dreamed great dreams in these buildings and, thereby, helped shape a nation.