A landmark is reduced to rubble. Chunks of cinder blocks lie on the ground like crumbs. All that remains of the iconic mural on what used to be The Shelter is a jagged brick wall.
The streetscape at Macomb and Tennessee streets is forever changed. Demolition crews spent two weeks working and knocking down the last of several properties formerly owned by The Shelter and the Frenchtown Renaissance Community Center.
It’s the end of an era — and a new dawn of possibilities.
Some saw The Shelter as Frenchtown’s black eye. Developers dodged the neighborhood of 5,670 residents. Homeowners often complained of homeless men and women flooding the streets and wandering onto people’s properties, sometimes urinating and defecating on yards or squatting in vacant properties. But shelter staffers diligently tried to be good neighbors.
Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn’t.
Yet, The Shelter served the vulnerable population for nearly a quarter century. And before that, it was a grungy club where college students let loose. It was the OK club, among other names. Musicians flocked there, from the godfather of punk Iggy Pop to rock pioneer Bo Diddley, from the late 1970s and early 1980s.
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