Budget & hostels / Detroit
Algiers Motel
Closed – archive entry · 1979 · demolished 1979
A Woodward Avenue motel, Black-owned from 1965, where three Black teenagers were killed in a police and National Guard raid during the 1967 uprising. It was demolished in 1979.
US Federal Bureau of Investigation · Public domain
03 / The story of this place
What was here?
The Algiers was a U-shaped motel with a pool and a three-story Manor House annex out back, near General Motors' headquarters. Black businessmen Sam Gant and McUrant Pye bought it in 1965; the previous white owner had turned away Black guests. On the night of July 25–26, 1967, a task force of Detroit police, state police and the National Guard raided the annex: Carl Cooper, Aubrey Pollard and Fred Temple were killed, nine others were beaten, and everyone accused was acquitted. Members of the Dramatics were staying there that night. The motel later reopened as The Desert Inn and was torn down in 1979 for the New Center urban renewal project.
- Black-owned from 1965
- Algiers Motel killings, July 25–26, 1967
- Historical marker since July 2024
- What’s there now?
- An open green space known as Virginia Park, with a historical marker placed in July 2024.
Hotels nearby
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