Vanity Ballroom Building
The Vanity Ballroom Building is a public building in 1024 Newport Street, at the intersection of Jefferson Avenue in the Jefferson -Chalmers Historic Business District in Detroit, Michigan. The building contains the last intact ballroom of the many dance halls that existed in Detroit and in which occurred from the 1930s to the 1950s Big Bands. It was registered on 12 November 1982 in the National Register of Historic Places.
History
The Vanity Ballroom was designed in 1929 by Charles N. Agree and should be a prominent meeting place in which it was possible to talk, to dance and listen to music. Many bandleader performed here with their bands, such as Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Red Nichols, Russ Morgan, Art Mooney, Woody Herman and Pee Wee Hunt. The Vanity described himself as " Detroit 's most beautiful dance rendezvous "
The facility was closed down in 1958, opened in 1964 a week for an evening and finally fell completely silent. Although it played its role in 8 Mile Eminem's movie, it remained closed and fell into disrepair.
Description
The Vanity Ballroom is a two-story building, which originally housed on the ground floor five retailers; the ballroom was on the first floor. The building was built in the architectural style of Art Deco, and it was decorated thematically with Aztec motifs. It is about 42 m long and about 41 meters wide. In the construction is a building made of steel and reinforced concrete, whose facades were covered with bricks. The majority of the brick plant is designed in orange, which is combined with darker brick and cast stone. Located on the corner of the building to the street intersection towards a tripartite entrance pavilion and the facades to Jefferson Avenue and Newport Street are nearly identical. Also on the facade ends are smaller entry pavilions, which are all three slightly higher than the rest of the building and on the upper part having a geometric pattern of stones. The windows on the second floor are flanked by pilasters and covered with art deco design elements similar to those of the Aztecs.
The interior of the ballroom was designed to allow the presence of 1000 dancing couples, the 5600 square foot ( approximately 520 m²) comprehensive dance floor was cradled maple and limits of the stands for the band and on the other three sides by a promenade. The dance floor was designed so that it is suspended on springs that sagged under the weight of the dancers and the dancers through their feathers suggested a sense of shock. The background of the stage shows a scene from Chichén Itzá.
In three of the retail shops on the ground floor, the interior was also designed by Agree; also here the Aztec theme is used. In this area Agree began components made of wood and wrought and built maple flooring terrazzo. The facade of these transactions was later changed significantly.