Webster Hall

03 / The story of this place

What was here?

Webster Hall opened on January 21, 1925, with 800 rooms on 12 floors, the city's top hotel for single working men, near the new main library and the rising Detroit Institute of Arts. Named for Judge Clyde I. Webster, it had coffee shops, a ballroom and a skylit 100,000-gallon indoor pool. It struggled through the Depression, and in July 1946 the city school system bought it for $1.2 million as Wayne University's first dormitory, even as residents and veterans fought eviction. As the Student Center Building and, from 1961, Mackenzie Hall, it was the heart of campus life until 1969, then held offices, and it was imploded on February 17, 1991.

• 800 rooms on 12 floors, opened 1925
• Skylit 100,000-gallon indoor pool
• Wayne University's first dorm (1946)

Former names

Webster Hall (1925–1946) · Student Center Building (Wayne University) (1946–1961) · Mackenzie Hall (Wayne State University) (1961–1991)

Architect

H. Augustus O'Dell

What’s there now?

A Wayne State University parking garage (per Historic Detroit).