Sheridan 1

Shannon Sheridan

Professor Kamahra Ewing

Honors 1000 Section 506

9 November 2017

Where Are We Going?

The Fisher Building represents a response to the rapid development of the city of Detroit

back in the late 1920s. It shows an effort to create harmony between the city beautiful and the

city practical ways of seeing by preserving architectural history and creating an innovative

shopping experience to the rising demand of consumer culture. Not only did it provide shopping,

but office space and entertainment in the Fisher Theater to people of all kind, not just the

majority white population consumer culture appealed to at the time. Nowadays, it continues its

inclusivity through the Fisher Theater but endures as a less popular landmark, one of the few

surviving relics of the past.

To begin, the Fisher Building came to be due to the heavy influence of the Fisher

brothers in the auto industry. They created the closed body chassis which lined their pockets

enough to start development of their ideal building.1 The brothers gave architect Albert Kahn

access to the finest materials, craftsmen, and contractors money could buy which resulted in a

massive building using forty varieties of marble, brass, and bronze.2 The architecture focused on

an old, but highly decorative style with decorations that emphasized the American growth of

wealth and classic theater.3 The architectural thought was impressive as it created a modern

setting for people to shop in with the beauty of the past. Before it even opened to the public in

1
Dan Austin, Fisher Building, HistoricDetroit.org, HistoricDetroit.org, www.historicdetroit.org/building/fisher-
building.
2
Fisher Building, Detroit Historical Society - Where the Past is Present, Detroit Historical Society,
detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/fisher-building.
3
Austin, Fisher Building.
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1928, the Detroit Free Press released articles hyping up the building. One talks of a store named

Tuttle and Clark opening near the future site of the Fisher building, stating Detroit will soon

have the finest leather goods store in the county which emphasized a designer and consumerist

feel developing in the area.4 Another article talks about the innovative aspects of the Fisher

Building meant to make shoppers lives easier, such as operators on each floor meant to take calls

and messages for various offices.5 All the aspects of the Fisher Building were carefully designed,

but nothing helped the building more than the roaring 20s that gave rise to a highly consumerist

culture.

The sentiment of the 1920s was an extremely city practical feeling which, stated by

Rybczynski, is an emphasis on city development that makes a machine of commerce.6 This was

caused by a post-World War I economic boom exacerbated by the success of the car industry

within Detroit.7 The 1920s emphasized giving time to people to live their lives which lead to

recreational fun such as watching movies and shopping as leisure had become a commodity.8

The Fisher Building stood out among its competitors because it took a non-standard approach to

filling the needs of its consumers. While it provided shopping and services such as healthcare on

the upper floors, the lower floor contained the Fisher Theater. Theater at the time was a very

inclusive type of media, with movies appealing to more than just the white majority. This duality

of purpose within the building is what set it apart and led to its survival. In the 1950s, there was a

4
"FINEST LINE OF LEATHER GOODS," Detroit Free Press (1858-1922), Sep 20, 1914, pp. 19, ProQuest
Historical Newspapers: Detroit Free Press (1831-1922),
http://search.proquest.com.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/docview/565717053?accountid=14925.
5
"FISHER BUILDING SPACE IS DIVIDED." Detroit Free Press (1858-1922), Jun 23, 1912, pp. 1, ProQuest
Historical Newspapers: Detroit Free Press (1831-1922),
http://search.proquest.com.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/docview/565102466?accountid=14925.
6
Witold Rybczynski, The Measure of a Town, City Life: Urban Expectations in a New World, New York:
Scribner, 1995, Print.
7
Scott Martelle, Detroit: A Biography, Chicago Review Press, 2012, Print.
8
Gidlow, Liette. Consumer Society in the 1920s. The Big Vote: Gender, Consumer Culture, and the Politics of
Exclusion, 1890s-1920s. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. 163-168.
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large move of the white majority into suburbia, which caused the rise of the shopping center.9

Many businesses in Detroit suffered from this because while wealth was on a high for the

majority, none of it was being spent in the cities because shopping centers, which played into the

city practical sentiment. This led to the building becoming desolate, which is reflected in my

visit.

When I visited the Fisher Building I observed that the building was well maintained

architecturally. Nothing was faded or broken and areas were roped off to protect the specific

designs, but no one was really exploring the building. This gave the sentiment that city practical

no longer existed there, which was ironic considering this led to the Fisher Building replacing

another building before it.10 However, the fact it was well maintained seemed to reject the idea it

was a ruin doomed to become an aesthetic for photographers.11 This is likely due to the diversity

of theater, as the Fisher Theater box office still looked full of life behind the counter. Even in the

past, people like Sam Hume cited theater as a way to bring people together, and it seems like that

is what still brings people to the Fisher today.12

In conclusion, the Fisher Theater represents the city beautiful and city practical as a

way of seeing. It almost died off after the rise of shopping centers but persisted because of the

diversity of theater leading to people visiting the Fisher beyond its glory days. This is likely why

it persists even though it does not garner many visitors in a regular day. It shows that more than

one way of seeing can symbolically exist and survive in one area, which goes against much of

the sentiment of one view only as expressed in media such as Riveras fresco and Chaplins film.

9
Lizabeth Cohen, Commerce: Reconfiguring Community Marketplaces, American Studies: An Anthology, ed.
Janice A. Radway, Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009, Endnote 37, 483, Print.
10
"FISHER BUILDING SPACE IS DIVIDED." Detroit Free Press (1858-1922), Jun 23, 1912, pp. 1, ProQuest
Historical Newspapers: Detroit Free Press (1831-1922),
http://search.proquest.com.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/docview/565102466?accountid=14925.
11
"REJECTING RUIN PORN," The Wilson Quarterly 37.3 (2013): 117-9, ProQuest, Web.
12
M, H. "Sam Hume Talks about Detroit and the Theater." Detroit Free Press (1858-1922): 1. Sep 11
1921. ProQuest. Web.
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Works Cited

Austin, Dan. Fisher Building. HistoricDetroit.org, HistoricDetroit.org,

www.historicdetroit.org/building/fisher-building/.
Cohen, Lizabeth. Commerce: Reconfiguring Community Marketplaces, American Studies: An
Anthology, ed. Janice A. Radway. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Endnote 37,
483. Print.
Fisher Building. Detroit Historical Society - Where the Past is Present, Detroit Historical
Society, detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/fisher-building.
"FISHER BUILDING INTERESTS MANY." Detroit Free Press (1858-1922): 1. Dec 03
1911. ProQuest. Web.
"FINEST LINE OF LEATHER GOODS." Detroit Free Press (1858-1922), Sep 20, 1914, pp. 19,
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Detroit Free Press (1831-1922),
http://search.proquest.com.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/docview/565717053?accountid=14925.
"FISHER BUILDING SPACE IS DIVIDED." Detroit Free Press (1858-1922), Jun 23, 1912, pp.
1, ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Detroit Free Press (1831-1922),
http://search.proquest.com.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/docview/565102466?accountid=14925.
Gidlow, Liette. Consumer Society in the 1920s. The Big Vote: Gender, Consumer Culture, and
the Politics of Exclusion, 1890s-1920s. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. 163-168.
Martelle, Scott. Detroit: A Biography. Chicago Review Press, 2012. Print.
M, H. "Sam Hume Talks about Detroit and the Theater." Detroit Free Press (1858-1922): 1. Sep
11 1921. ProQuest. Web.
"REJECTING RUIN PORN." The Wilson Quarterly 37.3 (2013): 117-9. ProQuest. Web.
Rybczynski, Witold. The Measure of a Town. City Life: Urban Expectations in a New World.
New York: Scribner, 1995. Print.