The coolest building offered by Wayne County for bidding, in the end, really wasn't up for bid.
Bidding for Detroit’s first African American hospital at 580 Frederick in Midtown ended at $196,000 during a tax auction Wednesday, but Wayne County abruptly decided to return the abandoned property to the Detroit Medical Society, Steve Neavling of Motor City Muckraker writes:
The decision came a week after we broke news that the former Dunbar Hospital – a vacant Romanesque Revival home at 580 Frederick in Midtown – was up for auction because the owners had accumulated $3,800 in delinquent bills.
The Detroit Medical Society later claimed it had no idea the house was up for foreclosure and said members invested more than $400,000 into the building....
The Detroit Medical Society pledged to do a better job protecting the house.
Motor City Muckraker reports that in 1919 a group of physicians converted the red brick house into Dunbar Hospital to serve African Americans who were denied health service. The hospital moved to larger location in 1928 and the house reverted back to a private residence.
