Down on Hastings Street

When I first moved to Detroit in 1997, I wanted to find the legendary Hastings Street, home of jazz and blues, R & B, and all sorts of wild, creative goings on for a fair chunk of the mid-twentieth century. I looked over street maps and spotted what was left of it -- just a stretch dead-ending into I-94 and I-75. It was -- and is today -- an industrial wasteland with nothing left of the former nighclubs, apparently demolished by highway construction long ago. There's a turn off from Grand Boulevard onto Hastings, but in 1997 there were no street signs there to mark it. I go back from time to time and have taken photos of the area, and on one jaunt actually saw two Hastings Street signs, regular green; people steal them as keepsakes, I suppose.

The industrial wasteland consists of abandoned factory buildings and maybe warehouses, abandoned overgrown parking lots, rusting mesh and barbed wire fences, the hellish steam grates that you can see all over downtown Detroit in winter time, and a functioning overhead Amtrak line. Excellent spot for a movie shoot, or an album cover, or a punk noir fashion spread. It's a bit dodgy, and I wouldn't hang around there for long, especially at night. I've seen people go into the abandoned buildings to do God knows what; and others, emerging dazedly. The area is particularly desolate, though, where Hastings and Harper die out at the edge of the highway.

There's a fun book out in paperback about the old school jazz and blues scene: Lars Bjorn with Jim Gallert, Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit, 1920-1960 (Ann Arbor: U of M Press, 2004; originally published in 2001). Lots of photos, lots of information about clubs and players and the areas and clubs where they performed. I thought of this after seeing a great photo posted by DetroitGirl on June 11, which features the Rolling Stones at their first Detroit show in 1965, at Olympia Stadium, a 25,000 or so person venue that is mentioned by Bjorn and Gallert in connection with the 1943 race riot. DetroitGirl observes that when she saw the Stones, there were only about 300 people at the show. Lucky! Here's a link to her site: http://detroitgail.blogspot.com/

Hastings Street clubs mentioned in Before Motown:

Cozy Corner
Dunbar Theatre
Rose Bud Inn
Sportree's Music Bar
Three Star Bar
Tuxedo Grill
Club Tuxedo

And many others nearby, like Henry's Swing Club at 1700 Orleans.

Sorry to have missed Hastings Street when it was hoppin'! And another salute to John Lee Hooker.