The urban exploration adventures continued this past weekend, as we paid a visit to the United Artists Building on Adams in Grand Circus Park.

The UA, which opened in the late 1920s, was part of a chain of similar theaters across the country. The building is currently famous for having multicolored window paintings that make it probably the prettiest abandoned building in the city.

It was harder than hell getting into that building, perhaps the most difficult building to enter so far. We wound up entering based on a tip from a tagger who explained how people had done it for years. It involved a lot of rather strenuous climbing and dangerous balancing.

Once inside, it was hard to take photos because of the extremely low light levels in the theater itself. I got a few good ones, but some of the best stuff didn’t show up on my digital camera. Once upstairs though, where all the painted windows are, the light was abundant.

The stage had only hints of its former glory, and the main lobby was destroyed. The entrance lobby was still in somewhat nice condition, with large Indian sculptures surrounded by intricate detail, though only one remained intact and on the wall. Beautiful decorative plaster lay strewn about the floor in various sizes and pieces, some several feet long. Ice was everywhere on the lower floors in thick sheets, so water has been flowing through the building for a long time. The roof over the auditorium has gaping holes in the tar, so it’s not surprising that the place has extensive water damage. At one point my friend slipped on a dark sheet of ice and fell hard into a pile of concrete and metal.

We were walking on the 16th floor and my friend tapped me and pointed to a room where shoes were nicely laid out at the door, a bed was visible and it became immediately obvious we were in someone’s home. In almost every building we’ve been in there’s been some evidence of people having lived there at some time or another after the building has closed. But this was the first time we’d seen someone truly make a home of a place, including decorating their room.

I crept up on tiptoe, very slowly, to peek inside, but thankfully found nobody there. The piles of scattered newspapers on the floor were from September-October 1998, so they obviously hadn’t been there in a while.

A closer examination of the scene suggested that it was occupied by two different people at different times. The first seems to have been the person who decorated it nicely, who made a bookshelf for themselves, kept a closet with toiletries such as deodorant, and fashioned a sort of apartment out of it, even setting up a corner with decorative elements near a window with drapes. The second tenant seems to have been a drug addict who lived in filth. Newspapers were strewn about, mixed with bits of food and food wrappers, and jugs of dried something. Other rooms on the same floor were designated trash rooms, with the same mix of food wrappers and newspapers thrown around in giant piles. A pile of receipts showed small quantities of food purchased with food stamps. A note from Detroit Receiving Hospital showed the person was treated for an abscess in the throat. Another letter was from a Wayne County Pre-Trial Diversionary Program.

On the bookshelf was a round cardboard roll, like a cash register receipt roll but larger, with writing all around it. It offers some insight into the person who stayed there. Here is the writing verbatim, strange abbreviations included. It’s a mix of strangely chosen Bible verses and notes to himself:


NO DOPE

I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service

Resist the enemy Phill 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me

BUY FOOD OR YOU’LL I”LL BE SORRY (Note: “You’ll” was first written, then crossed out as he shifted to first-person)

No weapon formed against you shall prosper Isa 54:17

And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.

NO DRUGS

II Co 10:4

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;
Cutting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ

It’s fascinating to see what this person sees as his own weaknesses and temptations, based on what the Bible verses refer to. There’s clearly some attempt to improve himself, especially with the “NO DOPE” admonitions.

We were able to see the famous window paintings close up. Some of them are marvelously strange. Others are more straightforward, like those put there by those idiots from Wisconsin and California (“Coupe” is the tag one of them plastered all over our town) who got busted last year by a crusading Mike Duggan, then-Wayne County prosecutor. There are few things more irritating than out-of-towners coming to Detroit to shit all over our city. The Metropolitan Building is a prime example of their “work.” It irritates me to no end.

As we climbed higher and higher, we kept peeking out the front windows and noticed a number of photographers showing up to take pictures of the building. At one point there were three groups of them arrayed below us in the street. One of them seemed to spot us looking out the window at them and stared back motionless, almost as if not quite believing what he was seeing.

It was when we went to leave that problems arose. It’s often easier to get into someplace than to get out, since it’s often easier to climb up something than it is to climb down. We tried going out the way we came in, but the height suddenly made us nervous, and back in we went. We tried other escape routes, but none worked. So now we were trapped in an abandoned building, after five hours in there with no more drinking water and a considerable thirst.

After some exploration and some calm planning, we found a way out. It was less than ideal, but it beat being trapped in an old building as darkness falls.