Michigan landmarks being taken off National Register of Historic Places

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It's hard to imagine the grandeur of the building that once towered at the corner of Grand River Avenue and Joy Road on Detroit's west side — an ornate, three-story terracotta building with a blade sign poking out the side announcing "The Riviera."

The Grand Riviera Theater was once Detroit's third-largest movie theater, perfectly placed near the key junctions of major streetcar lines and a burgeoning residential area. It cost $1 million to build. In 1925, the Free Press even reported on the theater's opening, calling it "an atmosphere of intimacy, an atmosphere which is always new and alive."

It even landed a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Fast forward nearly 75 years: The Grand Riviera Theater was knocked down and demolished in 1996 after falling victim to economic hardship and vandalism. Now, the Social Security office stands in the plot of land that once nurtured the former theater. 

Earning a spot on the National Register of Historic Places is often thought to be a designation and title that's etched in stone and offering a measure of protection for historic preservation. 

But across the state, former landmarks are being taken off the national register due to a plethora of reasons. In 2020, officials took the Riviera, the Flint Brewing Co., the Fenton Seminary, the Bay de Noquet Lumber Co. Waste Burner in Nahma Township, the Alvin Clark schooner in Menominee, and the Beechwood Store in Iron River all off of the national register.

Todd Walsh, the national register coordinator for the State Historic Preservation Office, said the predominant reason for a site to be removed from the National Register of Historic Places is because of demolition. 

"The building needs to be able to convey the things that made it important and significant in our history. If the building's not there, it has no ability to convey that significance," he said. "It can't tell you about the important spaces that made up the building's interior spaces, it can't tell you about the important architecture of why it was significant architecturally." 

Walsh said the reason why landmarks are taken off the registry is to keep records updated. 

"Our primary function is to list buildings in the national register, not to remove them from the national register. So our focus in our efforts, our time, our money and our resources are spent on the listing side of it," he said. "The removal side of it is a board of administrative function. Nobody's celebrating a removal from the national register." 

Another reason for a site to be delisted is because of building modifications, Walsh said. 

"If there was a building that was listed for certain architectural reasons, and that building was modified in such a way, much like a demolition, where it no longer possess those architectural characteristics, it can be removed for that reason."

If a landmark is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the landmark's owner wants to delist their property on the register, that's not a permissible reason to be taken off, Walsh said. 

Once a landmark becomes delisted, the records aren't completely gone, Walsh said. People can still access the delisted sites' records at the National Register of Historic Places office in Washington, D.C., and in the state office. 

"The photographs we have, any kind of background information, the national register form that was submitted, all of those things are kept both at the National Register of Historic Places in Washington D.C. and in the State Historic Preservation Office," Walsh said. 

All of the sites stripped off the national register this year were demolished or destroyed throughout time. The history of each property was commemorated after rebuilds, redevelopment, or they ended up simply as empty lots like the former Fenton Seminary and Flint Brewing. 

"Historic preservation is not static. The world continues to move forward, cities evolve, people evolve, building and companies evolve and change. It's part of that process," Walsh said. "If we value these things then we have to look at in a way that your preservation is dynamic." 

Contact Slone Terranella: STerranella@freepress.com and follow her on Twitter @SloneTerranella. 

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