If the marquee above the entrance was to be believed, there was “nothing nicer anywhere” than the Princess Theatre. Over the next eight decades, the building would go from hosting movie shows to freak shows to fashion shows.
About 1870, a commercial building was erected on the site, located on the east side of Woodward between Congress and Larned. It is possible that a theater was carved into this existing building.
In February 1903, “The Exhibit” opened at this address. It billed itself as "the place you hear the tunes for 1 cent” and "the evening pleasure parlor," though it was surely not as sultry as it sounds today. In addition to a theater, The Exhibit had a music department on the second floor that sold sheet music.
In December 1907, The Exhibit offered a passion play "presented with accessories never before used in the United States, making the situations so realistic that one would almost feel that he was in Bavaria." Admission was 5 cents. In 1907, the building also was home to the John T. Woodhouse & Co. tobacco wholesalers.
In February 1908, the City fire commission warned of unsafe conditions at nickelodeons and movie houses. Packed houses, people stumbling over loose chairs in case of panic, and projectors being positioned over main entrances all posed safety risks. The Exhibit was among those cited, with its location on the second floor with a stairway leading up from the rear of the building and the projector at the head of the stairs, was a problem.
On March 1 of that year, an ad appeared in the Free Press saying that the entire contents, fixtures, 250 opera chairs and more "must be sold at once at a sacrifice." The Exhibit was done, but it wouldn’t be long before the building would be turned into the Princess Theatre, showing movies and "illustrated song exhibitions."
‘Nothing nicer anywhere’
It opened either April 15 or 16, 1908. That uncertainty is because there was an ad in the April 14, 1908, edition of the Detroit Evening Times that said it was “opening tomorrow”; an ad in the April 15, 1908, Detroit Free Press also said it was "opening tomorrow."
"Thousands of dollars have been spent by the owners in making this the handsomest, cleanest and best ventilated theater in the city of Detroit, catering principally to ladies and children in regard to refinement and educational pictures of true merit and interest," the ad in both papers read. "The entertainments given will be strictly high-class, consisting of the crowning features of the motion picture industry, interspersed with gems of the most popular songs."
Doors opened daily at 9 a.m. and ran continuously until 11 p.m. You could plunk down a nickel (about $1.75 in 2023 valuation, when adjusted for inflation) and stay as long as you wanted.
Words above the Princess' main entrance promised that there was “nothing nicer anywhere.” To be clear, the Princess was a relatively small theater, with a capacity of 316, but where it lacked in size, it made up for in bravado. No interior photos exist to show whether the Princess was even remotely a movie palace, but its exterior did have decorations resembling pearl necklaces.
Another ad, this one from April 19, 1908, boastfully proclaimed that "Life is now worth living in Detroit since the new Princess Theater ... has opened its doors.
"There one can see the cream of Moving Pictures accompanied with the natural effects, making them appear lifelike and realistic. Also hear the gems of popular songs sung by accomplished singers, vividly illustrated with beautiful colored dissolving slides. ... Just think, for 5c you can enjoy 30 minutes of clean, wholesome amusement in the handsomest and best ventilated Theater ever equipped for Moving Pictures. ... It is orderly. It is refined. It is for ladies and children. It is high class. It is strictly up-to-date."
On Jan. 14, 1914, disaster was averted by a quick-acting projectionist. A roll of film caught fire as it was being run through the machine, but Wilbur Jose was able to extinguish the blaze "so rapidly and quietly that the audience never suspected that it was close to danger until it was past," the Free Press reported the following morning. There were 125 patrons in the theater at the time.
Ads for the Princess disappeared from the papers in October 1920, but the theater operated until 1922, according to Andrew Craig Morrison’s “Opera House, Nickel Show and Palace.”
Sharing the Princess’ throne
On March 25, 1920, the Victory Cafe opened at 520 Woodward Ave. An ad in the March 21, 1920, edition of the Detroit Free Press said, "Detroit's newest and finest Chinese and American cafe" would offer dancing and entertainment every evening from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. Opening day featured Wolff's Orchestra and soprano Elsie Moore.
That fall, an optometrist opened on the main floor of the building, then being called the Weslow Arcade.
By 1929, the building was home to a Rheaume's Restaurant, a chain that had nearly a dozen locations around the city. Its location at 520 Woodward would stay open until at least 1940.
In the fall of 1942, the building took an unusual turn and was turned into the International Congress of Oddities, though it’s unclear whether that was an official name. At the same time, Robert L. Ripley of “Believe It or Not” fame opened an exhibition of "believe it or not freaks." It was open daily from 11 a.m.-11 p.m. and cost 17 cents for a matinee or 28 cents for a night show. It’s likely that the show was held in the auditorium of the old Princess Theatre.
Initially, it featured 18 curiosities. Among them was Capt. Lewis, the human corkscrew, who "stretches his arms to twice their normal length," the Detroit Evening Times reported Oct. 8, 1942. Other attractions included Christine the crocodile girl, "whose scaly like skin and reptilian eyes give her the name"; Frances Murphy, “whose gorilla-like appearance proves that Darwin possibly was right”; Sealo, "born of normal parents, but has flippers instead of arms"; Lord Leo, "England's smallest living person"; Waldo, "the human mousetrap who swallows lemons" and Rozelle, "woman sword swallower"; Gravityo, the "Australian wire-hair man"; LaDue, "who lifts heavy objects by his tongue"; Zolla the indestructible girl; and Snake King and the King family. Ripley ran the show until at least October 1943.
In 1948, the building became home to the Riverside Bar B-Q (tagline: "we've never closed"). In 1949, two waitresses of the barbecue joint hoisted $375 from the register and bolted for California after one of them got into a lover's quarrel with a co-worker. Owner James Christoff decided to drop charges against them because, "They are going to pay all the money back. They are such nice girls," he was quoted as saying in the May 3, 1949, edition of the Detroit Free Press. The restaurant operated until at least February 1955.
Suits instead of gowns
The next tenant of the building was far and away its longest.
In October 1956, it was announced that Whaling's Men's Wear was moving into the building, as its longtime home across the street and a block up was being leveled for what is now known as The Qube. The facade would get a total overhaul and would become unrecognizable from its theater days. Whaling’s added a porcelain steel facade and an aluminum grid "to make it fit into the architectural scheme of the Civic Center," the Free Press wrote in Dec. 9, 1956.
The clothing store was founded in 1880 as Beaudry's in a building one door south of its new home. The Detroit Free Press wrote Oct. 21, 1956, that “remodeling of the brick structure, which half a century ago housed the original Princess Theater, demonstrates the firm's faith in (the) Civic Center area."
The men’s clothing store would stay in the building for 22 years. But downtown was changing as business and population fled the city following the rise of the freeways and the unrest of 1967.
On March 22, 1974, Whaling's took out an ad that seemed to foretell the end: "So many of our regular customers have asked how long will Whaling's stay in their downtown location ... We assure you that we will remain in our own present location at 520 Woodward for a lengthy period of time. We will not have to move ... until the block we are in is purchased (by) the city for the purpose of putting up a high-rise building." (This would not happen for another 16 years, but old buildings were already being cleared out.)
Then on March 29, 1974, an ad said, "We have intention of moving in the near future! We're still at 520 Woodward ... the only business between Larned and Congress. Please overlook the barricade next door. Party walls have delayed removal of the adjoining buildings."
But it wasn’t until April 20, 1978, that Whalings (it dropped the apostrophe in there at some point) would close its Woodward location, relocating to the Renaissance Center, effective that May 1.
Yet, instead of tearing the then-City-owned building down at that point, it instead relocated another longtime downtown retailer into it - a men’s clothier, no less.
That October, the store was taken over by Washington Clothiers. Much like Whaling’s two decades earlier, the retailer was displaced by new development. In this case, Washington Clothiers and owner Al Kabak had been forced out of its location at Brush and Larned to make way for the Jefferson-Randolph parking garage. This was despite the fact that 520 Woodward had been "slated for eventual urban renewal," the Detroit Free Press reported Dec. 14, 1978.
Washington Clothiers remained in the building until at least May 1986. The building at 520 Woodward was then torn down shortly thereafter, and what is now Ally Detroit Center was built on the site, with ground being broken for the 619-foot tower on March 21, 1990.