Olympia Development has been selected to refurbish and renovate the long-mothballed Grand Army of the Republic building in downtown Detroit.
In 1866 Benjamin Franklin Stephenson and The Rev. W.J. Rutledge founded the first chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic in Decatur, Ill., with 13 fellow soldiers. At its height in the 1890s the organization boasted more than 400,000 members. The GAR was a wonderful organization where Union Veterans of the Civil War could not only socialize with their fellow veterans, but also could perpetuate the memory of their fallen comrades, aid fellow soldiers who had fallen on hard times, and extend help to widows and orphans of the war, similar to the modern VFW or the American Legion.
The Grand Army of the Republic is responsible for among other things, the creation of Memorial Day as a national holiday and The Grand Army also fought hard to win pensions first for disabled veterans and eventually for all veterans.
Detroit was home to the Grand Army of the Republic's F.U. Farquhar Post, Fairbanks Post, John Brown Post, O.M. Poe Post, and The Detroit Post. The GAR built its own building in 1898, the castle-like structure, bounded by Cass, Grand River and West Adams, was completed in 1901 and it sits on land that had been willed to the city by General Lewis Cass. The cost of the building was $44,000, $38,000 of which was given by the city and $6,000 by public subscription. The building still stands, though it has fallen on hard times.
Since the demise of the GAR it served as offices of the WPA during the thirties and at some point as a police lockup. The GAR Building was used to house city offices until 1982. The next year, the city gave the property to one developer but reclaimed the parcel in 1993 after no progress had been made. Since then, the city has tried unsuccessfully to find someone to rehabilitate the building.
Until now that is…like many of Detroit’s once crumbling old jewels, the GAR building is the next to be reborn. A recent Detroit News article explained that “In the plan the company submitted to city officials, Olympia said it would build a memorial honoring Civil War veterans on the first floor of the building as well as create public space that would showcase other Olympia Development projects; the second and third floors would have office space; and the fourth floor could have a club or cafe.” As part of that deal, the city required that Olympia must maintain its architectural details, such as a mosaic that illustrates its history.
This is the kind of news we love to hear. The city of Detroit is one of the greatest cities in this country’s history. From Motown to the auto industry Detroit defined cool and we can’t wait to see it restored to its former glory.
Designed in 1923 by architect 
