Ruins Of Detroit Photos

I happened across a photo-blog from the Denver Post this morning. It shows several amazing photographs of derelict buildings in Detroit, Michigan, one of the cities hit harder than most with our economic woes.

While the photos are riveting, they don't quite tell the whole story. Yes, these once grand buildings were the showplaces of their community in their time and then fell to ruin. But before one goes around pointing fingers, consider the fact that this happens in every city. Take, for instance the old Holt Hotel in downtown Wichita Falls. I've seen photographs of it in its heyday, and I've seen it as a complete mess. My first visit was when one of the fraternities at MSU used the building as a Haunted House for Halloween! When the building was being renovated to become modern apartments I got another chance to walk through - this time with more lights on - and saw what a grand building it had once been. Now that its being used again I've had numerous opportunities to get together with friends at Brad Jensen's art gallery, to tour the new apartment unitsand to enjoy the front lobby. An enormous amount of money and energy went into the project, and my hat is off to the people involved, but getting back to the photo blog, this is part of the growing and maturing process every city goes through to one degree or another. In fact, if you read the comments below the images you'll learn that some of the buildings highlighted have already been renovated and are in use today.

I hope you enjoy the images, and perhaps you'll see these buildings, along with some in our own community, in a slightly different light.

Dave D.