Wayne Hotel

03 / The story of this place

What was here?

Gordon W. Lloyd's Wayne Hotel opened on November 30, 1887, on the riverfront at Third and Jefferson, right across from the Michigan Central depot and the Detroit & Cleveland steamer dock. It quickly became a center of Detroit social life, nicknamed a haven for honeymooners. It had room for 350 guests, marble floors, three bars, a river pavilion for music and dancing, a casino and even a roller rink, and it hosted some of the city's earliest auto shows. Around 1912 proprietor Jim Hayes struck mineral water and added a bathhouse. The new Michigan Central Station in Corktown (1913) and World War I drained its business; it closed in 1922, became the Railway Exchange Building and was razed in 1931.

• Opened on the riverfront in 1887
• Room for 350 guests
• Hosted early Detroit auto shows

Former names

Railway Exchange Building (after the hotel closed) (1920s–1931)

Architect

Gordon W. Lloyd

What’s there now?

The riverfront was cleared in 1955–58 for Cobo Hall and the Lodge Freeway; Joe Louis Arena was built here in 1979 and was itself demolished starting in 2019.