The Alger Theater was once among more than 100 neighborhood movie houses across Detroit in the 1940s. Today, it is one of only a handful of survivors, albeit a closed one that has been a “renovation work in progress” for nearly 40 years.

The Alger opened Aug. 22, 1935, on the northwestern corner of East Warren Avenue and East Outer Drive. The theater quickly became such a fixture of the neighborhood that residents often referred to the area as the “Alger Theater District.” But the Alger has been more or less dark - but not abandoned - since the 1980s.

An empire expands on the east side

The Alger was built by Detroit developer Saul Sloan and leased to George W. Trendle, president of United Detroit Theaters. Trendle was a Detroit entertainment magnate. He partnered with theater baron John Kunsky to build the Madison, Adams and Capitol theaters in Detroit’s Grand Circus Park theater district. By 1925, their Independent United Detroit Theaters Corp. was the largest business in Michigan dedicated to showing films.

Four years later, however, United Detroit Theaters was bought out by Publix Theaters, part of the Paramount film empire. The sale included a stipulation that Trendle and Kunsky would not run any theaters that competed with Publix and to stay out of show business within a 50-mile radius of Detroit for 50 years. In exchange? They walked away with $6 million, the equivalent of about $114 million in 2025 valuation, when adjusted for inflation. They took their fortune and together bought WXYZ-AM, and would turn around the struggling radio station and make it a giant in the industry by introducing such programs as “The Green Hornet” and “The Lone Ranger.” Trendle is credited with co-creating and producing both of the shows, which went on to be broadcast across some 225 radio stations across the country and were heard by more than 20 million listeners.

But the 1929 stock market crash sent Publix spiraling into receivership, and four years later, receivers sold Publix’s theaters back to many of their previous owners. It also meant the 50-year ban was out the window. Trendle was back in the movie business, and inked a deal that would lead to him scooping up the Michigan, United Artists and State theaters downtown; the Fisher in New Center; Grand Riviera and Annex on the west side; the Ramona and Eastown on the east; and the suburban Birmingham for a paltry $1.5 million, or $38 million in 2025 valuation.

In 1935, the Alger was announced as the latest expansion to his empire. The project was issued building permit No. 20944 on April 4, 1935.

The Alger was named in honor of Gen. Russell A. Alger, who served the Union during the Civil War, and was later elected governor of Michigan to a two-year term, serving from 1885 to 1886. He also served as secretary of war under President William McKinley from 1897 to 1899. He died in 1907, and is memorialized with the Russell A. Alger Memorial Fountain in East Grand Circus Park. Alger Street in Detroit’s North End neighborhood and Alger County in Michigan are named in his honor. The reason for choosing to name a movie theater after him, especially almost 30 years after his death, was not made clear at the time of the building’s announcement or opening.

Theaters popping up like popcorn

The late 1920s and early ’30s saw dozens of theaters erected along Detroit’s commercial corridors, bringing a slice of Hollywood to the neighborhoods and saving Detroiters from having to head downtown. Before television became a household mainstay, Americans went to the theater often - with some 90 million Americans going to the movies every week in 1946. In Detroit - with the disposable income the auto factories provided - many Detroiters attended multiple times a week. Having theaters in their own neighborhood made this easier.

In 1943, there were about 125 theaters in Detroit, both downtown and in neighborhoods throughout the city. Some of these neighborhood theaters were simple; others sought to replicate the opulence of those downtown movie palaces. The Alger was one of the former.

"The Alger will be of (the) modernistic type, of striking design," The Detroit News wrote Aug. 8, 1935. Striking as it may be, it was relatively simple in detail and lacked the over-the-top glitz and glamour of the movie palaces built in the previous decade. Architect C. Easton Allen opted for a blocky, two-story square tower and instepping parapet. Originally, the Alger had sleek, elaborate and distinctive marquees, one vertical and another horizontal, but they were replaced in 1971. The building’s architectural style can best be described as Art Moderne. Attached to the theater are four one-story storefronts along East Warren Avenue, to the west of the theater’s entrance.

On the inside, patrons stepped into a two-story, rectangular entrance lobby tiled in black granite and surrounded by beige linoleum tiles. From there, they walked into a one-story inner lobby. The auditorium lacked a balcony but still sat 1,182 people. The Alger was "equipped with every modern appliance for the comfort and convenience of patrons," including the latest projection equipment and "large, comfortable seats," The Detroit News reported Aug. 23, 1935. The interior was to be of peach and mauve shades with Egyptian figures adorning the proscenium arch and walls. It was also air-conditioned, a major selling point at a time when most folks didn't have an easy way to beat the heat at home.

The Alger opened on Aug. 22, 1935, with the films "The Girl from Tenth Avenue" starring Bette Davis and "Oil for the Lamps of China" with Pat O'Brien, Josephine Hutchinson and Jean Muir. The News reported the following day that "capacity crowds marked the opening.” From the onset, it offered double features with new shows on Sundays and Thursdays.

Next up on the silver screen would be "No More Ladies" with Joan Crawford and Robert Montgomery and "While the Patient Slept" with Guy Kibbee.

It also hosted children's parties with cartoons and “Superman” and "Dick Tracy" serials. The theater was also rented out for religious services, including by the Rev. Enno Claus, pastor of Peace Church, in the late 1930s and early 1940s. St. Matthew's American Lutheran Church held services at the Alger from March 1946 until March 1947 while its new church was being constructed at Cornwall and Cadieux avenues.

Changing, and then tough, times

In 1939, Trendle retired as president and chief executive of the United Detroit Theaters in order to focus on his radio business at WXYZ. The Alger was flipped to the Detroit-based Wisper & Wetsman theater chain, operated by Lew Wisper and Frank Wetsman. The chain was relatively new on the scene, having been founded in 1932, but Wisper got started in the business back in 1919, building a small chain of movie houses before losing it in the Great Depression 10 years later.

Under Wisper & Wetsman, the Alger continued to show second-run films, which moved to the neighborhood, cheaper theaters after their debuts in the movie palaces downtown. During the summer, the Alger offered matinees to give patrons a way to beat the heat. For kids, the Alger offered special "cartoon parties" on Saturday afternoon, featuring an hour of cartoons and two serials. It also continued to host church services and the occasional stage show, such as magicians.

On May 16, 1956, a Detroit police squad car crashed into the Alger's box office after being rear-ended by a drunken driver. The box office was closed, but patrons were still in the theater watching the crime picture "Teen-Age Crime Wave."

Detroit’s population peaked in 1950 and started dropping every year thereafter, with more families leaving the city for the suburbs. Following the racial unrest of 1967, the city experienced a major surge in white flight. At the same time that the city’s neighborhoods were bleeding population, fancy new modern theaters were popping up outside the city to serve the newly minted suburbanites.

In 1968, the Alger was bought by the Suburban Detroit Theaters chain. The Alger embarked on its era of new ownership with a showing of “The Fox” starring Sandy Dennis on Sept. 20, 1968.

Three years later, in 1971, the theater got a remodel - inside and out - in order to attempt to compete with the aforementioned modern suburban movie theaters. The brick exterior was painted gray, and the original marquees were replaced with smaller marquees on both facades.

But just six years after that makeover, in early March 1977, the Alger closed its doors because of a lack of business. The theater, The Detroit News wrote March 14, 1977, was "now less costly to keep closed than to show films," Suburban Detroit Theaters said, while an executive blamed a shortage of quality films from Hollywood leading to the lack of moviegoers.

Its closure followed the shuttering of the Punch & Judy Theatre on Kercheval in Grosse Pointe Farms over the winter. "Theater owners have to pay so much for the first-run films, they can't run them at a profit," Robert Edgar, one of the theater's owners, told The News. By showing less costly second-run movies, the theater couldn't draw enough patrons in order to turn a profit. The nearby Vogue Theater at Harper and Cadieux, and the Esquire Theater on East Jefferson in Grosse Pointe Park, also were struggling at the time, the paper noted. "We've got a basic product shortage," Jack Cataldo, division manager for Plitt Theaters, which owned and operated the Woods 1 & 2 on Mack in Grosse Pointe Woods, told The News. "When the movie product was abundant, we used to change films twice a week. Now, between the shortage of quality films and what they're producing on television, the audience is staying at home."

A theater revival

Fifteen months later, in June 1978, Eric and Ervin Steiner Jr. bought the Alger with plans to reopen it for plays, movies, concerts and lectures. The price wasn't disclosed, but the asking price a year earlier had ranged from $80,000 to $150,000, the equivalent of $427,000 to $800,000 in 2025 valuation, when adjusted for inflation.

Even then, the place was said to need work: a new roof, new paint and carpeting, electrical, plumbing and heating and cooling upgrades. Ervin Steiner said he wanted to build dressing rooms for performers, enlarge the stage for plays and install a crystal chandelier for "an extra touch of glamour," he told The News for a June 9, 1978, article. "When people come in, I want them to say, 'My God, it's a new theater.' I want everything to be gorgeous." He set out to Las Vegas to find booking agents, and the talent search was started, "but it won't include rock music shows. (The owner said destructive acts and audiences scare him)," The News wrote.

"The word failure, I can't handle," Ervin Steiner said. "It won't fail - no way. The place is paid for. Taxes and upkeep will be the only costs."

At the same time, the number of seats was reduced in order to accommodate larger, comfier chairs, and several rows were removed from the front when the stage was expanded. This reduced the Alger from its original 1,182 to 825 seats.

The Alger reopened Oct. 25, 1978, with appearances by film and TV stars Kitty Carlisle Hart and Peter Lind Hayes. The Steiners’ tamer fare included The Pippin Puppets, talent shows and other acts filling the bills. Erv Steiner Productions put on plays such as “Bye Bye Birdie” and "Play It Again, Sam," and family films were occasionally shown. In 1979, the Alger hosted the event Big Bands Live, featuring jazz giants Dave Brubeck and Stan Kenton and the Tommy Dorsey, the Duke Ellington Orchestra and Glenn Miller orchestras. Crooner Wayne Newton spurned the Alger in March 1979 after being announced by the theater as an upcoming concert. At some point, Erv Steiner must have changed his tune on rock concerts, because Blood, Sweat & Tears played a show at the Alger.

But less than three years after the Steiners reopened the Alger as a performing arts venue, the theater reverted to showing only movies in 1981. By November 1982, Steiner had put the Alger up for sale, "all offers considered," classified ads read.

This move was likely made because, by June 1983, Steiner was in danger of losing both the Alger and the Civic Theatre to back taxes. With interest, penalties and unpaid bills, Steiner owed nearly $24,000 on the pair, or about $78,000 in 2025 valuation.

Fearing the struggling theater would be demolished like so many of its former contemporaries, a nonprofit group called Friends of the Alger Theater was formed in 1983. The organization, composed of about 200 preservationists, theater buffs and neighborhood residents, hoped to raise money to buy and rehab the Alger to once again show plays and family films. Meanwhile, the 100-member Gospel Assembly Lighthouse of God struck a deal with Ervin Steiner to buy the building and four adjacent storefronts for $150,000 - the equivalent of about $462,000 in 2025 valuation - in order to use the theater to hold services.

In February 1984 and July 1984, the Zoning Board turned the church down over concerns about inadequate parking in a busy commercial corridor. The church argued that it would be meeting during nonbusiness hours when its congregants wouldn't be competing with shoppers for parking spots in the area. The Friends of the Alger "had told a lot of people in the area that we were an all-Black church, and we were going to bring in riff-raff into the area," the church's pastor, the Rev. Bobby Johnson, told The Detroit News for a July 28, 1983, article. "I don't want to be un-Christian-like, but the methods being used to keep us out of there do not resemble the methods of God."

The Friends had raised about $5,000 of its $35,000 goal at that point, or about $16,000 of $111,000 in 2025 valuation. It also reached a deal with the group operating the Redford Theatre to help run the Alger. At the time, there were only four neighborhood family theaters still operating in the city: the Civic, Norwest, Mercury and the aforementioned Redford.

However, before the nonprofit could buy it, Ervin Steiner sold the Alger in August 1984 to another group. Its new owners reopened it to show second-run B movies and slasher and horror films. The film fare and cheap ticket prices led to a rowdier crowd of mostly teenagers.

On April 27, 1985, two teenage boys were shot after what police called a "mini-riot" at the Alger Theater during screenings of two films in the "Friday the 13th" series. Police said the trouble started after a film projector broke during the double feature. This led several youths to smash windows in the lobby, and a fight between rival groups erupted inside the theater before spilling out onto the street, where the pair were shot. Both survived. The following day, a fire in the theater caused minor damage; it was unclear whether the two incidents were related. Some merchants in the East Warren Business Association said the Alger was drawing crowds of "undesirables" who did not live in the neighborhood. Georgia Barner, who owned the Village Peddler antique shop, told The Detroit News for an April 30, 1985, story on the shootings that she had been in business for five years and "never has there been trouble. ... We don't want or need anything that could bring this neighborhood down."

The Alger closed shortly after the fire. The block’s final retail tenants - including a shoeshine shop, used clothing shore, shoe repair shop and a stained-glass studio - also were shuttered in the mid-1980s.

40 years of dedication

In December 1986, the Friends of the Alger finally bought the theater. With the building, the group inherited $33,000 in back property taxes and an overdue water bill of nearly $7,000. Those bills would total about $117,000 in 2025 valuation, when adjusted for inflation. That was on top of the daunting renovation the aging building needed. The nonprofit held jazz concerts and other fund-raising events to fund the work and pay off the debt attached to the property.

As of October 2025 - almost 39 years after acquiring the theater - the nonprofit continues to try to bring the Alger back to life. There is renewed hope following a major investment by the City of Detroit to reinvigorate and renovate the East Warren Avenue streetscape.

There is still a lot of work left to be done, as the Alger is in rough shape. However, it still retains many of its historic finishes and materials. You can donate to the preservation effort here.

The plaster ceiling is still there with some of the original stencil work visible in the inner and entrance lobbies. The plaster ceiling of the auditorium has suffered water damage, but still has some of its old color schemes. Four of the original Art Moderne light sconces still hang on the sides of the auditorium.

“The Friends of the Alger have grown to a committed membership, paid off considerable tax debt, gained enthusiastic support from many neighborhood organizations and institutions both public and private and ultimately, have steadfastly continued to move forward toward the realization of their goal – a restored theater, activated commercial space, and artistic destination for our community,” the nonprofit’s website says.