Earle Hotel

03 / The story of this place

What was here?

Albert Kahn designed this 230-room, eight-story addition to the 1905 Addison apartment hotel at Woodward and Charlotte; when it opened in 1914 the complex had 400 rooms, each with its own bathroom, and dining rooms for 800. It hosted the first Scarab Club masked ball in 1917 and Jazz Age nightclubs, then closed in the Depression and had its contents auctioned in 1932. The Detroit-based Milner chain bought it in 1937 and ran it as the Reid Hotel, where Black workers joined a union, struck in 1938–39 and won raises in 1942; from 1948 it was the Earle. Lily Tomlin's theater troupe, The Stables, used its basement in 1962. It closed around 1971 and was demolished in 1972.

• Designed by Albert Kahn, opened 1914
• First Scarab Club masked ball, 1917
• Demolished in 1972

Former names

New Addison (addition to the Addison) (1914–1932) · Reid Hotel (1937–1948) · Earle Hotel (1948–1971)

Architect

Albert Kahn

What’s there now?

A parking lot for the Addison Apartments, the 1905 building that still stands next door.