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What Goes Up: 1907
Detroit, 1907. "Hotel Pontchartrain under construction." The 10-story, 298-room "Pontch," after expanding up with a five-story addition completed in 1910, came back down in 1920 at the tender age of 13, demolished to make way for an office tower. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
Pontch and the DAC
The Pontch was built just before several changes to the hotel industry - bathrooms for each hotel room, early air conditioning, etc. That was a big contributor to its short life.
One other factor was the opening of the Detroit Athletic Club. The Pontch was the hub for the early auto industry - deals were made, conventions held, and ideas were exchanged. But when the DAC opened its new building, the auto barons joined the club, and moved their meetings out of the Pontch, taking away a big part of the hotel's business.
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