- [Host] Coming up on ""One Detroit"," a special episode on historic places in the city.

We'll take you to a truly Detroit neighborhood designated as a national historic district.

Plus, a piece of Detroit's musical history gets more financial help for its restoration.

Also ahead, a tour of the historic buildings that house Detroit's black fraternities and sororities.

And we'll take a look at what's happening around town this weekend and beyond.

It's all coming up next on ""One Detroit"."

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(upbeat music) - [Host] Just ahead on "One Detroit," historic locations in the city.

A once famous Detroit jazz club gets additional money for its massive makeover.

Plus, we'll show you the historic houses and contributions of Detroit's Black Greek letter organizations.

And Dave Wagner and Peter Whorf from 90.9 WRCJ share some events taking place this weekend and beyond.

But first up, the truly Detroit neighborhood known as Indian Village.

This East Side community has a storied past, which includes being home to some of the city's most well-known business moguls over the years.

It's a small neighborhood with 352 large homes, many of which were designed by noted architects like Albert Kahn and Louis Kamper.

A longtime resident took "One Detroit's" Bill Kubota on a tour of this national historic district.

(mellow music) - [Mark] How you doing?

- [Bill] Retired car executive Mark Reynolds touring Indian Village in his 1965 Chrysler 300 Ragtop just for us.

He moved here from the suburbs in 1997.

- I wasn't sure about it and I asked a manager I worked for who was a lifelong Grosse Pointer what did he think about living in Indian Village?

Is it a good idea?

And he says, "Well, it's always been there."

Okay.

I think this might be the largest house in the neighborhood.

Bingley Fales was the original owner, but it's about 12,000 square feet plus a carriage house.

- [Bill] By the looks of it, Mr. Fales was a success.

- And that's probably built in the '00s.

- [Bill] Fales, an attorney for the Edison Illuminating Company of Detroit, DTE today.

10 years ago, Curbed Detroit called the Fales Mansion a big stupid house, an overpriced, dilapidated mess.

It's a showcase property now.

- This house here on the right with the paint job happening and some window repairs was the Scripps House of Scripps Publishing.

- [Bill] Scripps, the family behind the "Detroit News" and the Detroit Institute of Arts.

- That house still has its ballroom on the third floor.

You can see the row of windows on the third floor.

And it has an elevator, full size passenger elevator.

Up till maybe another 20 or so years ago, you had a lot of people getting these houses 'cause they were really, really cheap and they didn't either have the money or the knowledge to keep them up.

- We've been living here for 33 years and when we bought our house, people thought we were crazy, but it's now worth so much money.

But it is expensive to live here.

It is expensive.

These houses are old and they do require a lot of maintenance, but it's a labor of love.

- [Bill] What's the makeup now?

What are your demographics?

- Definitely middle class because you can't afford to maintain one of these houses if you don't have some amount of money.

They take a lot of work.

It's about 50-50 as far as Black and White.

Recently, we've had some more wealthy people, especially from out of state, move in.

And we've had four or five million dollar sales.

- [Bill] At the turn of the last century, this neighborhood emerged from a Detroit ribbon farm.

Along a strand of property emanating north from the Detroit River, a developer gave us what would be called Indian Village.

- Well the city assigned street names.

As the city was growing, they were looking for every name they could find.

So we got Seminole, Iroquois, and another street adjacent to us is Seneca.

So the realtors sort of gave it a nickname and the nickname stuck.

- We have three blocks, one mile long, and all these beautiful historic homes.

And I have to say that we don't own these homes, they own us, and we're just maintaining them for the next generation, maintain our heritage here in Detroit.

- [Bill] Much of Detroit's heritage, car making.

They call this the Edsel and Eleanor Ford Honeymoon Cottage, 6,000 square feet.

A starter mansion for the son and daughter-in-law of Henry Ford, they later moved to much bigger digs in Grosse Pointe.

Other auto magnates lost to history: The Bobby Hupp House, Hupp Motor Cars, maker of the Hupmobile.

The Hugh Chalmers House, the Chalmers Motor Company, acquired by Chrysler in 1923.

All on the same street, homes with cooks and housekeepers.

- I have call buttons to call the help.

I keep pressing them but nobody comes.

- [Bill] The Mark Reynolds House, more room, more rooms, more choices.

- Where do I wanna sit outside?

I have three different porches, so I take my choice.

- [Bill] He's got a roof like few others in these parts, wood shingles bent to get that certain look.

- American Thatch.

It is wood shingles made to look like thatch from, you know, a house in somewhere in the Cotswolds in England.

They were really expensive in the day and are shockingly expensive to fix now.

- [Bill] Here you can find other varied roof styles: the mansard, the gable, the gambrel.

You'll see eyebrows, dormers, columns, all sorts of columns, and turrets.

- This was a, the Lumber Baron's House we call it.

This has caught fire twice and twice by lightning and has been restored both times because- - [Bill] I don't see any lightning rods on that thing.

- [Mark] I think that ball at the top.

- [Bill] I guess that's a lightning ball.

- [Mark] Yes.

- [Bill] Romanesque revival style this has been called, 1906, designed by Louis Kamper.

He also did the Book Cadillac Hotel downtown.

- Well this is one of the first architectural jobs by Albert Kahn.

He started out doing homes before he became famous for his industrial work.

- [Bill] Albert Kahn, known worldwide as the father of modern factory design, builder of Henry Ford's factories, the General Motors building, the Fisher Building, hundreds of others.

- So there's maybe a dozen or more Albert Kahn houses in Indian Village.

- [Bill] Another Albert Kahn creation, this landmark, the Liggett School.

When Liggett moved to Grosse Pointe, the building turned into a Waldorf School in the 1960s.

- The Detroit Waldorf School is one of the oldest Waldorf Schools in the country.

- [Bill] A private school in the city when others left.

The Waldorf method: experiential learning, embracing art and creativity.

An integrated program here from the start, it continues today.

- I think that people who are from the East Side know about the school and have passed by it, but I don't know if everyone knows about this gem throughout the city.

It just is a beautiful school and most of our children thinks it's magical.

- [Bill] The school, home base for the annual Indian Village Home and Garden Tour, held in early summer.

- This tour has been going on for 48 years.

- [Bill] Walk, ride, take your own self-guided journey.

Maybe check out the community garden and get inside some select homes.

- This home was built in 1914.

This home is designed in the unique Asian-inspired arts and craft style, which you probably didn't notice, but now that I've said that, at the end of the tour, off from the sidewalk turnaround, take another look and I bet you'd say, "Oh yeah, I sort of see that."

- [Bill] That Asian inspiration, the curved awning over the porch.

The tour committee claims 352 homes to this neighborhood, adding up to a national historic district.

- If you wanna do any renovations on the outside of the home, you have to get permission from the Indian Village Historical Society.

- [Bill] Special rules here.

Zoning ordinances prevent Airbnbs and multifamily housing in the cause of preservation, trying to keep what was that we might still have it in the future.

- Indian Village belongs not just here on the East Side of Detroit.

This is our heritage.

This is the heritage of Detroit.

All Detroiters and people who live in and around Detroit should come here and enjoy it.

We're on the mend.

We're coming back.

We got a lot of things to see and do here in Detroit.

- [Host] The nonprofit Detroit Sound Conservancy has received a $1.9 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to help with the massive restoration of the historic Blue Bird Inn on Detroit's West Side.

The long-abandoned jazz club was popular from the 1930s to the 1950s, when legendary musicians like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Charlie Parker performed there.

The Detroit Sound Conservancy bought the building with plans to make it into a space for music and community events.

"One Detroit" contributor Cecelia Sharpe of 90.9 WRCJ was at the groundbreaking celebration last fall.

(mellow music) (light jazz music) - Right here was a Black-owned and operated bar and hearth that nurtured bebop jazz.

(audience claps) Yep, it really did.

And no matter which way you cut it, Blue Bird Inn was magic.

Its significance to Black history and culture is both sonic and social.

So we are here to commemorate starting this Blue Bird Inn rehabilitation work.

We preserve, we celebrate, and advocate for Detroit music and our incredible history.

And when we say we are actually Detroit Sound Conservancy, I include all of you.

You are all part of the conservancy 'cause there's nothing but community putting its minds together to solve a problem.

- What has been the process of acquiring the Blue Bird Inn and just beginning the process of restoring the venue?

- We were able to purchase the Blue Bird, and at that point, we just fundraised to make sure it wasn't demolished, on a demolition list.

And then we got historic designation for it so it could never be torn down in case our money came in slower than it was supposed to.

And now we are rejoicing and we are so happy that we have enough to open it in 2024.

- You're familiar with the Blue Bird Inn and the history of it.

What does it mean to you to have this renovation of the Blue Bird Inn right here in your community?

- It means a lot because people are moving back into the neighborhood and it's a good starting point to, you know, rejuvenate the area.

There may be startups, some other businesses right around the area that have been closed and moved out.

- I'm smelling the ribs, the chicken.

- Yes.

- You got some good stuff going.

- Absolutely.

- You're here to feed the people, the volunteers and everyone that's here to celebrate the event.

- We have a meals program that we do.

The Detroit Sound Conservative has been our partner for about six years.

And so my first barbecue here was in 2018 for a Motor City makeover where we cleaned out the building.

And so we've established a pretty good rapport and a great partnership since.

- What are you looking forward to most about the Blue Bird Inn opening in the next 18 months?

- I think just having somewhere else to be able to go to for live music and a hangout spot.

I mean, we're here on Tireman, not too far from Motown, not too far from Submerge and everything else that's going on here on the boulevard.

So I think to be in this neighborhood and have another spot in the neighborhood that people are so familiar with, it's just an amazing thing, so I can't wait till it opens.

- What does this day mean to you here at the Blue Bird Inn?

- This day is, is really a culmination, Cecelia, of just many years of love for this particular place.

I remember the first time I came here, I actually snuck out with a girlfriend of mine when I was about 15.

We were actually too young to drive, but we used to drive anyway.

- You were still driving?

- And so- Yeah, so when our parents went to bed, I went over to her house and she said, "We're gonna sneak out tonight.

Where should we go?"

I said, "Let's go to this jazz club over here called the Blue Bird."

Over time, I had a chance to actually work here when they did a reopening here in the '90s.

And then just to be able to have my youngest son be a drummer and to be here for another opening of this place, it's just everything comes full circle.

- Knowing that you'll be able to play in the same place that your mom snuck off to first and then was able to come back and play and perform as a bassist, how does that feel?

- It feels, it's really indescribable, really, when you think about it.

You know, knowing as well as my mother, so many of my mentors have graced this stage as well, be it Roy Brooks, George Davidson, my hero Elvin Jones, you know, being a part of this groundbreaking is immaculate to me.

(funky music) (keyboardist laughs) - (indistinct) would be so mad.

- How has the Detroit music community nurtured you as a musician?

- I think there's this spirit of mentorship that isn't talked about enough.

There are so many people that care about Detroit's history and legacy.

You have to bring up that next generation to be able to show them the importance of where music came from so that they understand where music is going, - Being the next generation of jazz and continuing to carry the torch, what would you like to impart on the future of jazz?

- Wayne Shorter has a quote that really stuck with me.

When someone asked him what he thinks jazz is, and he said, "Jazz is like a bumblebee and it pollinates every other form of music and it tells them to stay creative, stay fresh, never stagnate."

And that's my greatest hope.

- I am happy that Detroit Sound is dedicated to learning and education because that piece of music is the part that translates to multiple generations.

(audience claps) So thank you and we look forward to bringing this project to you and this neighborhood and seeing you all again next year when we will be doors open.

(jazzy music) (audience claps and cheers) - [Host] Let's turn now to the historical houses belonging to the Detroit chapters of the Black Greek letter organizations, also known as the Divine Nine.

We asked City of Detroit historian Jamon Jordan to provide a brief lesson on the history of the local chapters of these Black fraternities and sororities.

He teamed up with "American Black Journal" producer Marcus Green for this report.

(mellow music) - African American Greek fraternal organizations and sororities have been a major part of African American history for over a century in the United States.

But not only have they been important in United States history and the African American history in general; they've been a very vital part of Detroit's Black history.

We're going to take a tour of this history and these historic places in the City of Detroit that are tied to these African American Greek letter fraternities and sororities.

We are now at the home for the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity house.

So the chapter is the Gamma Lambda chapter in the City of Detroit.

Now Alpha Phi Alpha, of course, is the first African American collegiate Greek letter fraternity, founded in 1906 at Cornell University.

But Detroit's chapter will be founded a few years after that.

And not only will they be founded, they'll be led by some of the most prominent African American Detroiters in history.

There's been two mayors in the City of Detroit who were part of Alpha Phi Alpha, Kwame Kilpatrick and Dennis Archer.

The Alpha Phi Alpha Gamma Lambda chapter moved into this house in 1939.

They are the first African American fraternity and Greek lettered organization to own their own house in the City of Detroit.

At 269 Erskine, we have the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity house, another African American fraternity, founded in 1911.

They're right around the corner from Alpha Phi Alpha's house at 239 Eliot, also in Brush Park.

One of its most well-known members is a man named Dr. Ossian Sweet.

And so Kappa Alpha Psi has enjoyed an important history in the City of Detroit and they've owned their fraternity house in the City of Detroit since 1945.

At 235 East Ferry Street, we have the fraternity house of the Nu Omega chapter of Omega Psi Phi.

Omega Psi Phi is the second Greek letter fraternity to own, African American Greek letter fraternity to own their own home in the City of Detroit, and they own it in this cultural center neighborhood in the City of Detroit, a couple of blocks away from the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the Detroit Historical Museum, and the campus of Wayne State.

And they buy this home in 1942 and they will get their home being the second fraternity, Black fraternity in the City of Detroit to own their own home in 1942, just three years after Alpha Phi Alpha.

At 24760 West Seven Mile is the Detroit alumni chapter of Delta Sigma Theta's Center.

In 2010, they moved from a smaller building a few miles down the road to this 50,000-square-foot building.

They moved into this car dealership, transformed it to a event center, headquarters, meeting place, office building, and really brain trust of the alumni chapter of the Detroit Delta Sigma Theta.

They've been a vital force in the City of Detroit and they've been in the City of Detroit for years, for decades.

And they've owned their own house, but they moved from a house to a center, of 50,000-square-foot facility, that is a major part in the City of Detroit at 24760 Seven Mile Road at Seven Mile and Grand River.

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated is the oldest Black Greek letter sorority in this country.

So as we are at the 100th anniversary of the AKAs, the AKAs, of course, are profoundly involved in Detroit's history, although they do not have a sorority house in the City of Detroit.

The Alpha Rho Omega chapter, the Detroit chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, has a foundation, and that foundation has a headquarters in downtown Detroit at 1525 Howard Street.

It's been there since 1987.

So for 35 years, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, at least the Alpha Rho Omega chapter, has had a building that houses the headquarters for their foundation.

African American Greek letter fraternities and sororities are a major part of American history, a major part of African American history, and a major part of Detroit's Black history.

One of the major reasons why is because what these organizations represent is scholarship.

These are people who have gone to college, who are in college and come out and become leaders.

They become leaders in medicine, and so many of the African American doctors come out of these Greek letter fraternities and sororities.

They're leaders in law.

Many of them end up as attorneys and politicians.

Of course, two mayors have been members of Greek letter fraternities, two mayors of the City of Detroit have been members of African American Greek letter fraternities.

And they have been a major plank in Black leadership and Black success.

And so as the African American community looks at these organizations, they're looking at people who have excelled in college, people who have excelled in business, people who have excelled in their careers and professions, and people who have excelled in political leadership.

The fact that these organizations still have houses speaks to their determination and their ability to weather the storm and they're still around in the City of Detroit to this day.

- [Host] Summer is waning and the kids soon will be back in school.

But there are still a lot of outdoor activities to enjoy in Metro Detroit this month.

Peter Whorf and Dave Wagner of 90.9 WRCJ have a list of suggestions in today's "One Detroit Weekend."

(mellow music) - Hey, Dave, ready to tell everyone what's going on around here this weekend?

- Absolutely, Peter.

You know, this weekend is the Howell Melon Festival.

And get this, the Howell Melon is turning 100 this year.

Get ready for the Melon Run, live entertainment, melon ice cream, and a vendor show.

It runs through Sunday.

- 100 years for the delicious melon.

Such a young'un.

Tomorrow and Saturday is the Woodward Dream Show and Festival at the M1 Concourse.

It's a hot rod, custom, cruiser, and muscle car show.

- [Dave] And you know, when there's the Woodward Dream Show, it's got to be the Woodward Dream Cruise.

The unmatched car spectacular happens along Woodward this Saturday.

- Huzzah, Dave!

- Huzzah, Peter!

- Okay everyone, that means the Michigan Renaissance Festival is back in Holly.

Go enjoy your giant turkey legs, fun reenactments, and, of course, dress in your best Renaissance attire.

- [Dave] And on Sunday, there's the butterfly walk at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens, where you'll get to learn about the beautiful winged wonders as they flutter around.

The walk runs from 10:00 AM to noon.

- There's also so much more going on around here, so stay tuned for a few more.

(mellow music) - [Host] That'll do it for this week's "One Detroit."

Thanks for watching.

Head to the "One Detroit" website for all the stories that we're working on, follow us on social media, and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

(mellow music continues) - [Announcer] This program is made possible in part by Timothy Bogert, comprehensive planning strategies.

From Delta faucets to Behr paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

Support also provided by the Cynthia & Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Announcer] DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Among the state's largest foundations committed to Michigan focused giving, we support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Learn more at dtefoundation.com.

- [Announcer] Nissan Foundation and viewers like you.

(mellow music) (mellow music continues) (bright piano music)