Hotel Yorba

03 / The story of this place

What was here?

Pollmar & Ropes designed the four-story, 250-room building in 1926 for hotelier Samuel Plotkin, and its rooftop “Hotel Yorba” sign is a Southwest Detroit landmark if you're driving I-75. In the late 1920s it housed workers building the nearby Ambassador Bridge; later it became a low-cost rooming house and short-stay flophouse, partly used by parolees. Jack White made it famous with the White Stripes' 2001 single “Hotel Yorba,” filmed outside the building. On September 22, 2025, the city ordered it vacated over a leaking roof, collapsing ceilings and infestations; a new owner bought it and in 2026 was talking with neighbors about its future.

• Built 1926 with 250 rooms
• Rooftop sign you can see from I-75
• Namesake of a 2001 White Stripes song

Architect

Pollmar & Ropes

What’s there now?

Vacant and boarded after the city's 2025 vacate order; a new owner is weighing reuse options (September 2026).