Hotel Ponchartrain

The Ponchartrain Hotel, the structure being built in this 1907 photo, will maintain that legacy for another 15 years before it makes way for a larger commercial skyscaper.

In its short existence the Ponchartrain became famous as the dealmaking center of the emerging auto industry. In the early days of the industry, engineers tried to guess what kind of cars people would buy while investors tried to guess which engineer had the right guess. Companies emerged, merged, and split overnight. Henry Ford had his name on at least three failed manufacturing ventures before he settled into the business arrangement that would eventually sell millions of Model T's.

Arrangements for capital investment, parts supplies, and marketing and service schemes were often worked out in the wood-panelled and tiffany-lamped bar in the hotel lobby. When the industry consolidated into the Big Three in the 1920's, it lost its wildcat flavor, and the dealmakers moved into their own wood-panelled offices.

The Ponchartrain was already history by then, done in by its own obsolete design. Only half of the 400 rooms had baths, and increasingly prosperous Americans demanded a level of luxury far beyond that of 1907.

When completed in 1907, the hotel had ten stories, but competition from new hotels on Washington Boulevard demanded that five floors of modern rooms be added in 1916. The tacked-on mansard roof reflects the style of the roof on the City Hall across Woodward.

As auto wealth inflated the city, Washington Boulevard, just a few blocks west, became the status address in Detroit and home to the finest hotels. The Hotel Ponchartrain, outmoded and in the wrong location, gave way to an office tower. The First National Bank Building, shown in this 1922 photo, still stands today and is still used as a bank, though much of the office space is leased to law firms and other businesses.