The push to protect the building that when housed a historic jazz membership lastly kicked off earlier this month. Detroit Sound Conservancy (DSC) has been working to lift funds to renovate The Blue Bird Inn since 2019 when it purchased the building on Tireman Avenue. After raising $400,000 to turn it back into a venue, the nonprofit began work on the preservation earlier this month. DSC says it can seemingly want one other $400,000 to totally full the work.
The business first opened in 1937 as a bar and restaurant. It ultimately grew to become a jazz membership after its second proprietor put together a house band in 1948. The venue hosted some legendary acts, together with Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sarah Vaughan, and Detroit’s personal harpist (and Cass Tech alumnus) Dorothy Ashby, pianist Alice Coltrane and trumpeter Donald Byrd. By 1970, it stopped placing on reside music, however the business managed to remain open for one more 30 years.
Wayne County put the building up for public sale in 2007, by which era it was vacant and uncared for. DSC managed to spare it from demolition after efficiently lobbying to have it designated as a historic district.
Read a detailed history of The Blue Bird Inn from BridgeDetroit.
Photo credit score: Photo by Carleton Gholz, licensed underneath CC BY-SA 3.0.
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