Famous people's places / Detroit – Seven Mile & Woodward
Club Heaven
Closed – archive entry · 1995
A 1989 after-hours club above the Gas Station bar at Seven Mile and Woodward, a refuge for Detroit's Black LGBTQ community and Ken Collier's DJ home.
01 / The story of this place
Make time for these
Club Heaven opened above a bar called the Gas Station at the corner of Seven Mile Road and Woodward Avenue in 1989, run by gay impresario Peter Mel as an after-hours refuge for Detroit's Black LGBTQ community at a time when many of its patrons had nowhere else safe to go. DJ Ken Collier, already a legendary figure on Detroit's dance floors and mentor to a generation of house and techno DJs, held a residency here that many consider the peak of his career, earning him the nickname 'the Godfather.' The club closed in 1995 as the surrounding area declined, and the building was torn down the following year, later replaced by a McDonald's that has since closed too. The Detroit Sound Conservancy has been working to restore Club Heaven's original sound system as a piece of the city's dance music history.
- Opened in 1989 above the Gas Station bar at Seven Mile and Woodward
- An after-hours refuge for Detroit's Black LGBTQ community
- DJ Ken Collier's residency here defined his career
- Closed in 1995, building demolished in 1996
- Its sound system is being restored by the Detroit Sound Conservancy
Famous Detroiters
Famous people tied to this place 1
Lexicon entries for the people who lived, worked, performed or liked to spend time here.
- Ken Collier 1949–1996 · club DJ
Performed here
After-hours club and haven for Detroit's Black gay men, where Collier ruled Saturday nights; its sound system is being restored by the Detroit Sound Conservancy.
Sources & fact check · Checked: 2026-09-25
An independently written bilingual guide. This collection is not an attendance-based ranking.
03 / Events
Events at this place
Published events automatically linked from our event guide. Times are local to the venue.
We have no published upcoming events linked to this place yet. That does not mean the venue has no events; check its official calendar too.
Source and former website ↗