Core77

Stealing Detroit, One Bannister At a Time

By Rain Noe - October 24, 2012

in Materials

Where some see beauty, others see firewood

Where some see beauty, others see firewood

Up above is the restored staircase at the Caroline Ladd Pratt House, an 1898 neo-Georgian mansion owned by Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. When Core77's founders and myself attended Pratt in the early '90s, the restoration had just been completed; prior to that the house had been abandoned and had fallen into disrepair. The crackheads of the '80s, it was said, had broken up the bannister spindles to use as firewood.

To take someone's painstaking, historical lathework and break it up for something to burn is a shame, but one that Pratt was able to reverse. The city of Detroit, on the other hand, is facing a much larger-scale defacement with no solution in sight.

Here's what's going on there, as uncovered by Detroit-based photographer Robert Monaghan and the website DetroitUrbex.com: Their city is filled with beautiful and abandoned old buildings. Those buildings are filled with ornate, Art Deco wooden carvings around doorways, staircases and the like. And someone is stealing them, as revealed in this surprising series of before/after photos.

We've all heard of scrappers stripping a building of copper pipes and metal fixtures, as those things are fairly portable and can be easily sold. But this is different in that someone is removing whole doorway frame carvings and entire bannisters. The amount of labor and care required to completely detach and transport such fixtures says it's probably not a couple of meth heads looking for something to burn. So who is taking them? Fraternity pranksters? An Art-Deco-loving vagrant? An off-the-radar historical society willing to flout the law? Or is this merely "urban mining" without the hassle of going through paperwork and the appropriate channels?

DetroitUrbex provides some context on what this type of thievery means:

"The Federal Art Project (FAP) was an agency designed to keep artists working during the Depression by applying their skills to decorate government buildings. Several artists worked in the armory [shown above] from 1936-1941."

Rebecca Binno Savage, Vice President of the Detroit Area Art Deco Society tells us "The wood carvings are by Gustave Hildebrand - he was a Michigan-based artist who was commissioned to work at the Detroit Naval Armory by Captain Thornton Brodhead through the Treasury Department's Fine Arts Program - FAP - as it was called at the time. They have an Art Deco influenced aquatic theme and are unique works of art commissioned for the site.

....And while the loss of a few carved pieces of wood may seem insignificant in comparison, it isn't. These are parts of Detroit's historical heritage. These pieces are irreplaceable, created over 80 years ago by artisans of quality that would be very difficult to match today. They represent a time when the economy got so bad, the government stepped in to support an entire generation of artists with this sort of work, so as not to lose the creative class to the factories or mills. That theme resonates today, and underscores the value of these pieces of work that are lost.

While the willful removal of Hildebrand's work is surprising to see, another section on the DetroitUrbex site is equally eye-opening. They are simple before/after photos of interiors that have been ravaged by weather, time, and sheer vandalism:

While the results are the same--decay--one is caused by neglect, the other by thievery (potentially motivated by preservation, we'll probably never know). I have to ask you, which do you think is worse?

Steve Jobs famously quoted Picasso as saying "Great artists steal." Hildebrand and other FAP-supported artists, it seems, were great enough to have their work stolen.

o

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Disgusted

11 years ago

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The real CRIME here is leaving this stuff to rot. If the city had any brains at all they would be claiming all abandoned properties themselves and selling the stuff to profit the city while creating jobs for people to remove and preserve these items on behalf of the city. Anybody suggesting these items should go down with a wrecking ball should be shot. Lets face it, the thieves obviously care more than anybody else or this wouldn't be happening.
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Joe B

12 years ago

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If you guys are seeing this stuff pop up at local antique stores, why are you not saying anything?
Im sure the local community would love to know about sams antiques selling stolen woods/arts! Just sayin, see something - do something.
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Martha Downs

12 years ago

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Like Jordan mentions, there are warehouses full of "salvaged" goods. And even more websites....where do you think this all comes from. I would definitely call it theft. But it becomes relegated to a dustbin of "victimless crimes", as the places were clearly abandoned, we're not talking about caring owners here. It contributes to the sealed fate of those economically depressed areas Jam refers to, what investment is needed, and who will invest? As a former Detroiter I follow with concern and dismay, but I sure don't have the financial resources to weather the storm there. I revisited not long ago wondering if it might be a good place to set up shop, but came away convinced that only someone of tremendous means can consider that seriously.
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Jam

12 years ago

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Not sure what the situation is in Detroit, but in Chicago we have blocks full of old, beautiful buildings in crappy neighborhoods that just sit and decay after previous owners abandoned or died. Many of these are just waiting for the wrecking ball. Proper restoration is a ridiculous idea given that the buildings I am talking about are in such economically depressed areas that you would have to be insane to think you would ever get a return on that investment. What sucks is that people who need old moldings, doors, trim, and details for other feasible restoration projects would be thieves if they were to break in and grab anything. In the meantime, kids break windows, set fires and before you know it, anything that would have been salvageable gets ruined by rain, snow, or mold.
Actually, it is quite difficult and time consuming to properly remove architectural woodwork, even after lots and lots of practice. Meth heads looking for firewood would have no incentive to be careful, let alone "proper tools" or experience to even be able to carefully remove selected pieces.

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Tami

12 years ago

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While stealing isn't right, at least someone is preserving the work. No one else seems to care, and lets face it, a bunch of laws or decrees do nothing. I'd rather have someone saving the artistry, even when its not ethical, than have it rot because no one is bothering to care for it.
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Will

12 years ago

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Well make you wonder what is worse, this stuff being stolen or left to rod ... a least now it's hopefully but back to use and taken care off.
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Eric

12 years ago

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With out a shadow of a doubt, the stuff goes to the local antique bastards, I live here and have seen the stuff, walk into any antique store on Woodward in Royal oak or on 11mile, or Berkley or the surrounding area and you will see the stuff, from wood work to light fixtures etc... It is thievery...I don't see them giving anything back to the city of Detroit in any way...
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Jordan Hieckal

12 years ago

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DUH ... this is obviously the work of professional, reasonably well-organized looters who can haul loads of this stuff to other cities where there are retail warehouses full of such items. The last "salvage" warehouse I was in, in Minneapolis, was full of beautiful old carved stuff like this and each big item was priced at well over $500. Many banisters, fireplaces, etc. were priced at well over $1000. (I have no way of knowing whether the salvaged stuff I see has been stolen from a property in Detroit)

This stuff is just sitting there, essentially "free", to whoever has the nads to enter a neglected property and haul it away. And the profit potential is astounding.
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Devin LaDawri

12 years ago

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This ruined my day....
I've been in the Armory a number of times for events.
It was extraordinary.

Quit calling these criminals "scrappers".
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Rubberband

12 years ago

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I hate to break it to you, but - while I'm definitely opposed to stealing this type of stuff and I'm all for preservation of historical things like this - it is NOT hard to do. "The amount of labor and care required to completely detach and transport such fixtures says it's probably not a couple of meth heads looking for something to burn" - that is pretty ridiculous. Anyone who's done demolition will know how to remove this type of stuff. And the average meth-head or anyone else could remove this stuff without damaging too much. I'm not a demolition expert, but if given the proper tools, I could easily remove and transport said fixtures given a day or so.
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