FILE PATHEXPLORE DETROIT/DETROIT BUILT
DETROIT BUILT · CHANGE & ERASURE

LOST DETROIT.

Historical research often confronts a difficult fact: the building is gone, the street has changed, an expressway cut through the area, or the original use has disappeared. Lost architecture is still part of the evidence.

Detroit, Michigan. Back of the Fisher Building
REAL DETROIT SOURCE · Back of the Fisher Building, Detroit, July 1942.
Source: Arthur S. Siegel / source record · Public domain — FSA/OWI
BUILDING DOSSIER

What survives in the record.

Demolished or radically altered buildings
Street-grid and infrastructure change
Adaptive reuse and changed function
How to document a vanished location
Avoid reconstructing appearance without evidence
VERIFICATION FIRST

Demolished or altered places are identified through dated maps, photographs, directories, and records; missing details remain missing.

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