Wreford was born in England, where he learned his way around the meat industry and how to handle a cleaver. But it was mostly homes, some of them dating to the 1830s and ‘40s. An old creamery that later became home to The Detroit Times newspaper set up shop there, as well. A Pinkerton’s Drug Store opened at Bagley and Grand River Avenue in 1890. There were only small hints of the development and commerce to come.
Horses still clomped up and down the cobblestone-paved street. At that time, Bagley was a quiet street lined with large trees and stately homes, including that of Gov. Work started in 1887 on the southwest corner of Clifford and Bagley, in what was then uptown. The Utopia was the brainchild of William Wreford, who built it with his son-in-law Oscar M.
It was built by a butcher, run by a foul-mouthed French Canadian, counted a German terrorist cell among its overnight guests and a hypnotist among its commercial tenants, whet whistles during Prohibition, and had its next-door neighbor Henry Ford waking its overnight guests while he banged away in his garage on his famous quadricycle.Īt the end of its 37-year run, this hotel that had helped bring a new level of elegance to the city, was replaced by one of Detroit's most elegant movie palaces.Īt the time it was built, the building was considered so elegant, in fact, the man who built it dubbed it The Utopia. There were no epitaphs in the papers when it fell, and few photos of it survive, but buried in the forgotten history of this forgotten hotel are dozens of fascinating tales.
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