Detroit’s Barlum Hotel at Cadillac Square – 1949
Downtown Detroit, circa 1949. The Barlum Hotel looms over Cadillac Square as buses circle the park and workers head toward the courthouse blocks. The bold wall sign faces Barlum Tower—now Cadillac Tower—built in 1927 during the city’s vertical building boom. This view likely sits a block east of Woodward Avenue, long considered Detroit’s spine. The scene is brisk, noisy, and confident, an everyday moment before the hotel’s later conversion to Cadillac Square Apartments.
