Hotel McGraw

03 / The story of this place

What was here?

Real estate investor Louis Duscoff opened the McGraw in 1925 as a neighborhood hotel for factory workers in what was then a Polish enclave, advertising a private bath in every room. Under proprietor Henry “Clay” Thomas it reopened on August 1, 1946, with 85 rooms and Hazel's Dining Room, advertised in the Black newspaper the Detroit Tribune, and appeared in The Negro Motorist Green Book from 1947; its postcard promised you'd always feel at home. Black entrepreneur Fred Beatty, owner of the LaRose and Epworth hotels, bought and modernized it in 1964–65. A demolition permit was issued on December 16, 1986, and the building came down soon after.

• Opened 1925 on Junction Avenue
• In the Green Book from 1947
• Bought by Fred Beatty in 1965

Green Book

Listed in The Negro Motorist Green Book, the travel guide that showed Black travelers where they could stay safely during segregation.

What’s there now?

A vacant lot since the late-1980s demolition.