“The goal of this administration is to save as many buildings as we can, especially ones with historic significance. Just as we are doing with our home auctions, we are going to see which larger buildings people are willing to invest in and which ones they are not,” said Mayor Mike Duggan." (Photo by Harry Meeks/Tell Us Detroit)

City Seeks Redevelopment Plans for Historic Brewster Wheeler Recreation Center

By Karen Hudson Samuels/Tell Us Detroit

DETROIT (Tell Us Det) - With the clock running out, the storied Brewster Wheeler Recreation Center in Detroit’s Brush Park neighborhood has been spared from demolition.

Mike Duggan announced plans Thursday morning to redevelop the Center which has remained vacant since in its closing in 2006 due to budget cuts. The city is seeking proposals to restore the facility where Joe Louis once trained and made his boxing debut in 1932. In that same year the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team played their first tour game at the Center against the “Detroit AA”.

With rapid redevelopment spreading through downtown and Midtown, Duggan says the city is facing a decision of whether to rebuild the city in ways that erase history and culture, or “Rebuild this city in a way that embraces our culture and history”.

The Mayor said the city is looking for realistic business plans that “Will take this building and turn it into something that embraces its history but is also an active use of the building for the next generation.”

Unlike the Brewster-Douglass Housing project, whose structures were longer no longer viable and could not be saved, Duggan said the recreation center is the last “visible reminder” of the significant history of the Brush Park neighborhood .

The Mayor spoke of the Center’s historical significance beyond recreation. The first African American hired by the Recreation Department was Leon Wheeler who managed the Center from 1929 to 1945. Duggan said Wheeler “Had to fight for the right to be supervisor and asked to be judge3d regardless of his skill color.”

Wheeler established programs at the Center including swimming, boxing, billiards, woodcraft, glee club, tap dancing, ukulele, track, tennis, drama and dancing. In honor of his service the Center was renamed the Brewster-Wheeler Center in 1969.

The Mayor said since word of Brewster Wheeler Recreation Center being on the demolition list got out, District 5 Council member Mary Sheffield began calling every day.

“She has been an extremely powerful advocate saying this is too important for our city, we can’t let the rec center be demolished without out doing everything possible for its reuse” said Duggan.

As an important partner in the process, Sheffield who is was out of town, appeared via Skype to lend her support. “I am very happy to work with the community and the Mayor to see if we can bring this historic community center back to life.”

Mona Ross, long time president of Brush Park Community Development Council and an ardent supporter of preservation will be part of team reviewing redevelopment proposals. A site walk-through will take place pm September 22nd and Requests for Proposals must be submitted to the City of Detroit, Planning and Development Department by September 22nd.