A short boat ride along the Detroit River from Belle Isle Park will take you to the 15-story Whittier Hotel. Constructed during the 1920s as luxury apartments with hotel-like accommodations, “the Whittier” appealed to the well-heeled and adventurous. Its legendary history is peopled by the rich, the famous, and the infamous. In the Whittier’s heyday, Horace Dodge could be found at his 15th-floor “Crow’s Nest.” The hotel also hosted Eleanor Roosevelt, Mae West, Frank Sinatra, and the Beatles. During Prohibition, the Whittier was alleged to have been a warehouse and landing for bootleggers like the Purple Gang because of its proximity to Canadian liquor resources across the Detroit River.

Over the years the Whittier, located adjacent to Indian Village and Detroit Towers, has changed hands several times. As recently as 2001, it had fallen on hard times, and the last residents moved out. To all appearances, the three structures making up the Whittier Hotel complex, two 8-story buildings and a 15-story tower, were another set of empty high-rises destined for the wrecking ball. But in 2003, President and CEO Melvin Washington of Detroit’s Phoenix Communities purchased the buildings with a strategy to develop a mixed-use, intergenerational community. In 2008, thanks to the planning and hard work of Washington, his company, and a dedicated group of revitalization visionaries from both the private and public sectors, Phoenix Communities reopened the first of the Whittier’s 8-story buildings as The Manor at Whittier Place, an affordable senior living facility.

The next phase includes plans to revitalize and reopen the 15-story Whittier Tower in 2010 as market-rate apartment rentals, followed by a condo conversion in five years. The renovation includes such amenities as one- and two-bedroom apartments with a hotel ambience, retail space, a library with computer lab, media center, ballroom, medical clinic, exercise facilities, a bistro, and many nooks and crannies for conversation, card playing, and get-togethers. In addition, future development includes transforming the 50 acres of land surrounding the Whittier into a public park, with a marina, shopping, and other amenities. This will complete Washington’s vision of a Whittier Park community. It is be a vision shared by many. As Washington said: “Every weekend since we started this project five years ago people stop by to check on our progress. They say ‘we got married in this ballroom’ or ‘we had our anniversary here.’ We are now the guardians of many fond memories.”

And with the completion of his vision, not only will Detroit’s past be honored, but its future will be more secure. No wonder then that Melvin Washington was the 2008 recipient of MSHDA’s Terrence R. Duvernay Award for leadership and commitment to affordable housing.