The Spirit of Detroit

Famous Detroiters

Famous people tied to this place 17

Lexicon entries for the people who lived, worked, performed or liked to spend time here.

• Carl Levin 1934–2021 · politician, lawyer

  Worked here

  Seat of the Detroit City Council, where he served two terms, the second as council president.

• Martha Reeves born 1941 · singer, former Detroit City Council member

  Worked here

  Seat of the Detroit City Council, on which she served one term.

• Gil Hill 1931–2016 · police commander, city council president, actor

  Worked here

  Seat of the City Council, where he served and presided; like all former council presidents, his portrait hangs in the building.

• Mike Duggan born 1958 · lawyer, hospital executive, mayor of Detroit

  Worked here

  Seat of the mayor's office during his three terms.

• Coleman Young 1918–1997 · labor organizer, state senator, mayor of Detroit

  Memorial

  The City-County Building where he governed for twenty years, renamed for him in 1999; it faces Hart Plaza and houses city and Wayne County offices.

• Dennis Archer born 1942 · lawyer, Michigan Supreme Court justice, mayor of Detroit

  Worked here

  Seat of the mayor's office during his two terms.

• Brenda Jones born 1959 · union leader, city council president, congresswoman

  Worked here

  Seat of the City Council, which she led as president from 2014 to 2022.

• Mary Sheffield born 1987 · politician, pastor, mayor of Detroit

  Worked here

  Seat of the City Council, where she served from 2014, and of the mayor's office she took over in 2026.

• JoAnn Watson 1951–2023 · activist, radio host, pastor, city councilwoman

  Worked here

  Seat of the City Council, where she served for ten years.

• Coleman Young II born 1982 · politician

  Worked here

  The building named for his father, where he sits on the City Council.

• Kenneth Cockrel Jr. born 1965 · journalist, city council president, interim mayor of Detroit

  Worked here

  Seat of the City Council and the mayor's office, where he served as councilman, council president and interim mayor.

• Marshall Fredericks 1908–1998 · sculptor

  Worked here

  His 16-foot bronze at the entrance of the city-county building, Detroit's most familiar civic symbol.

• Maryann Mahaffey 1925–2006 · social work professor, city council president

  Worked here

  Seat of the City Council, where she served for 32 years.

• Kevyn Orr born 1958 · bankruptcy lawyer, Detroit emergency manager

  Worked here

  Detroit's seat of government, from which he ran the city's finances as emergency manager.

• Kenneth Cockrel Sr. 1938–1989 · radical lawyer, community organizer, city councilman

  Worked here

  Seat of the Common Council, where he served one term.

• Sheila Cockrel born 1947 · activist, city councilwoman, consultant

  Worked here

  Seat of the City Council, where she served for fifteen years.

• Erma Henderson 1917–2009 · civil rights activist, city council president

  Worked here

  Seat of the City Council, where she served for seventeen years, twelve of them as president.