The Vanished Neighborhood of Black Bottom
The 1910 census reported that Detroit's "Negro" population was 5,741 and owned 25 places of business.
But the African-American community grew quickly as the city's booming auto industry attracted a flood
of workers from around the nation and the world.
By 1920, African-Americans owned 350 businesses in Detroit, including a movie theater, the only black-
owned pawn shop in the United States, a co-op grocery and a bank. The community also had 17
physicians, 22 lawyers, 22 barber shops, 13 dentists, 12 cartage agencies, 11 tailors, 10 restaurants,
10 real estate dealers, eight grocers, six drug stores, five undertakers, four employment offices, a few
garages and a candy maker.
The community was centered on the near-east side of downtown in the area of St. Antoine, Hastings,
Brush, John R, Gratiot, Vernor, Madison, Beacon, Elmwood, Larned and Lafayette.
It is not clear how the area came to be known as "Paradise Valley." Some have speculated that it drew
its name from the newly introduced Asian "Paradise" tree that grew very easily along fences in the area.
Residents and outsiders alike commonly referred to the neighborhood as Black Bottom as a result of
The discriminatory housing practices that often forced new black Detroiters to settle here.
While life was often far from heavenly as the community struggled against discrimination and poverty,
the neighborhood developed its own culture and attractions. Some of the popular clubs in the area
included the Club Three Sixes, El Sino, Pendennies, 606 Horse Shoe, B&C Club, Congo Lounge,
The Gay 90's Club, Royal Blue Bar, and the Bluebird Inn.
By 1936, the name Paradise Valley was firmly established and the neighborhood had its own informal
mayor, Roy Lightfoot. The community also had its heroes like Olympic star Jesse Owens, whose visit to
the Valley inspired a celebration. And of course there was heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis, the
Valley's favorite son. His mother, Lily Brooks, lived on Mc Dougall?.
The 1940s brought the end of the Great Depression and a booming job market in Detroit as the city first
built the weapons to win World War II and then built the cars for the returning soldiers. Detroit's
African-American community grew, too.
In 1941, Orchestra Hall on Woodward and Parsons reopened as the Paradise Theater. It offered the best
African-American musicians in the country. Duke Ellington opened Christmas Week with his big band.
Admission was famously known as 50 cents, and patrons could stay all day. There were three shows a
day with four on weekends. "B" movies were shown between music acts. Those without the 50 cents
were allowed in the back balcony door. The theater thrived for ten years during the glory days of jazz.
It featured many top entertainers.
By the 1950s increased competition and changing tastes forced the theater into decline. Other places
in the suburbs became popular and took the crowds: Finally the last acts played and the Paradise
closed its doors for good.
In 1952, the Church of Our Prayer and Rev. James L. Lofton bought the theater for $250,000. Later
abandoned, the building escaped demolition and was restored as Orchestra Hall, the current home of the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Around the corner from the Paradise Theater was the elegant Gotham Hotel. The nine-story, 200-room
inn was built in 1924 and turned it into a social center for Detroit's African-American community in 1943.
But the hotel fell on hard times and closed in September 1962. The following December, 100 federal,
state and Detroit police officers raided a gambling den in the vacant hotel. The officers arrested 42
people including the owner. It was the largest gambling raid in Detroit up to that time. Police said the
hotel was the center of a gambling operation that netted as much as $30 million a year.
The Gotham later fell to the wrecker's ball -- the fate of most of Paradise Valley during the 1950's,
1960's and 1970's. Urban renewal projects like Lafayette Park, the Chrysler Freeway and the Elmwood
housing project replaced the old neighborhood and scattered the residents.
But the memories could not be demolished. The neighborhood has been celebrated in musicals like Bea
Buck's "Paradise Valley Revisited" and "Masquerade Flashback," and recalled in Elaine Wood's book
"Untold Tales, Unsung Heros." And the Valley lives on in the memories of the people who once lived
there.
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