page_title: Monroe Avenue Commercial Buildings
section_title: Second Williams Block (16-30 Monroe Avenue)
hierarchical_section_title: Monroe Avenue Commercial Buildings / Structures / Second Williams Block (16-30 Monroe Avenue)
caption_attribution_description: English: 16-30 Monroe Avenue — Detroit, Michigan. Historic American Buildings Survey—HABS image (1989). This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 75000968 More images
context_page_description: The Monroe Avenue Commercial Buildings, also known as the Monroe Block, is a historic district located along a block-and-a-half stretch at 16-118 Monroe Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, just off Woodward Avenue at the northern end of Campus Martius. The district was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1974 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. The thirteen original buildings were built between 1852 and 1911 and ranged from two to five stories in height. The National Theatre, built in 1911, is the oldest surviving theatre in Detroit, a part of the city's original theatre district of the late 19th century, and the sole surviving structure from the original Monroe Avenue Commercial Buildings historic period.
context_section_description: John Constantine Williams, a member of one of Detroit's wealthiest mid-19th-century families and son of John R. Williams, built this structure in 1872–73, directly adjacent to his earlier structure (the first Williams block) at 32-42 Monroe.  Architect Mortimer L. Smith designed the building.  The building originally served as an office building, with storefronts on the ground floor.  In 1880, the upper floors of the building were converted into the Kirkwood Hotel, which survived for a decade under various management.  The lower floors remained commercial space.  The building reverted to office space in the 1890s, then reopened as the Hotel Campus (later the Hotel Fowler) in 1901.
  In 1909, most of the building was completely gutted and converted into the 934-seat Family Theater; the Family was converted to show movies in 1914.  The Family stayed open through much of the century, and was renamed the Follies in 1967.  Six years later, in 1973, the Follies burned to the ground.  The Follies section of the building (including four of the seven bay Williams Block) was demolished soon thereafter, leaving only the three western-most commercial and retail spaces.  In the late 1970s the city vacated the property, and the remainder was demolished in early 1990.
  The second Williams Block was five stories tall, divided into bays containing three windows per floor; each floor had slightly different window shapes.   The building was constructed of brick, sheathed on the front with sandstone.  A cast iron cornice and flat roof topped the structure.  Belt courses were located above and below windows, and additional decoration consisted of bas relief carvings and cast iron entablatures.
caption: Second Williams Block, 16-30 Monroe Avenue, 1989.
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