Encyclopedia Of Detroit

The Monroe Avenue Commercial Buildings, also known as the Monroe Block, is a historic district located on Monroe Avenue in Detroit, Michigan at the northern end of Campus Martius, just off of Woodward Avenue. The district originally contained 13 buildings that were constructed between 1852 and 1911 which ranged from two to five stories in height. These buildings once stood as examples of a range of pre- and post-Civil War architecture. Many were designed in Late Victorian commercial style by architects such as Sheldon and Mortimer Smith during the mid to late 19th century.

The Monroe Avenue Commercial Buildings housed numerous tenants over the years including a barber shop, shoe store, grocers, confectioners, saloons, jewelers, pawn shops, and tailors. However, this district is most famous as the first center for movie theaters in Detroit during the early 20th century. John H. Kunsky opened the first movie theater in Detroit, the Casino, on Monroe Avenue in 1906. Between 1906 and 1914, five additional movie theaters opened on Monroe Avenue: the Bijou (1906), the Star (1907), the 1,006-seat Columbia (1911), designed by renowned theater designer C. Howard Crane, the National Theatre (1911), and the Family Theater (1914). By the 1920s, Monroe Avenue lost much of its status as Detroit’s cinema hub when the entertainment district began to center around Grand Circus Park.

The Monroe Avenue Commercial Buildings historic district was designated a State of Michigan Historic Site in 1974 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. By early 1990, most of the aging structures in the district had been razed leaving only the 800-seat National Theatre as the sole surviving structure from the original Monroe Avenue Commercial Buildings. This is the only known theater designed by Albert Kahn, and the oldest surviving theater structure in the city of Detroit.

Today, the anchor structures of the Monroe Avenue Commercial block are the Meridian Health Building (formerly Compuware Headquarters) and its parking structure, which include retail shops at street level along the north side of the street. On the south side, in addition to the National Theatre, the parking lot at Monroe and Farmer streets is now under construction by Bedrock Real Estate Services for a new, high-rise office tower, residential building and retail project to be known as the Monroe Blocks. The façade of the National Theatre is being incorporated into the project.