Downtown Detroit Revival Walk

Welcome to Detroit! We're starting at Campus Martius Park, at the meeting of Woodward and Michigan Avenues. After the Great Fire of 1805, Judge Augustus Woodward made this square the focal point of his plan to rebuild the city. The name comes from the Latin for Field of Mars, borrowed from the main square of Marietta, Ohio, the first capital of the Northwest Territory.

In the 1900s the park was lost as downtown was reshaped for cars, and the riverfront Hart Plaza, which we'll visit later, was meant to replace it. But people missed having a real park, and the new Campus Martius was dedicated on November 19, 2004. Look for a medallion set in the stone walkway near the Woodward Fountain, in front of the concession building. It marks the origin point of Detroit's coordinate system.

Seven miles north of here is Seven Mile Road, eight miles north is Eight Mile Road, and so on. In winter, the park's skating rink is modeled on the one at Rockefeller Center, but it's larger.

This is the Guardian Building, a 43-story Art Deco skyscraper built from 1928 to 1929. It was originally called the Union Trust Building, after the bank that built it, and it became a National Historic Landmark in 1989. Its nickname is the Cathedral of Finance. Look at the shape: a tower over the main entrance and an eight-sided apse at the other end, like a church.

The name also nods to New York's Woolworth Building, the Cathedral of Commerce. The architect, Wirt C. Rowland, cared about every detail. The colored brick he chose was later sold by its maker as Union Trust Brick, and then Guardian brick.

He even designed furniture, tableware and waitress uniforms for the building. Native American themes appear inside and out. If the doors are open, step into the three-story vaulted lobby, covered in Pewabic and Rookwood tile, with a Tiffany clock set in a metal screen. The elevators were the first to stop level with the floor and open their doors automatically.