Cityscape

When Van Morrison And The Allman Brothers Jammed At Detroit's Greatest Vacant Home

October 06, 2014, 9:00 AM

Veteran journalist Ben Edmonds chronicles the improbable saga of Detroit's Gar Wood mansion in a Free Press article tied to the appearance Wednesday of master guitarist Peter Walker, an early practitioner of "world music." 

From 1969 to 1972 the fabled Gar Wood mansion on Grayhaven Island was home to an experiment in communal living and uninhibited artistic pursuit that became notorious and left an imprint on its participants that refuses to fade, Edmonds writes.

Gar Wood was a fabulously wealthy businessman and inventor the hydraulic lift and the modern garbage truck. He also loved designing and racing powerboats, and the boathouse on his Grayhaven estate on the east riverfront near the foot of Dickerson was huge.

The saga begins with a 19-year-old longhair named Mark Hoover, who moved into the Gar Wood mansion in the summer of 1969. Once among the grandest homes in Detroit, the riverfront estate had been empty since its sale in 1955 and had only recently been rented to a group of young professionals. When Hoover started throwing rent parties with live music in the mansion's cavernous ballroom, his more conventional roommates fell away and were replaced by a different cast of characters. They coalesced around a rock band called Stonefront, and the house took on the air of a commune dedicated to countercultural enterprise.

The uniqueness of the surroundings and the loosey-goosey atmosphere of Hoover's parties soon attracted rock royalty. Some bands would finish their shows at the Grande or the Eastown and then repair to the Gar Wood, where they'd perform another whole set. The acts that unexpectedly graced Gar Wood's beautiful ballroom included Van Morrison, Sly & the Family Stone, the Allman Brothers, Cactus, Ted Nugent & the Amboy Dukes, Tim Buckley and Mountain. Leon Russell recorded one of his performances there. Johnny Winter loved the place so much he inquired about renting a room.

Police raids and the passage of time sounded the death knell for the mansion as a commune, but before it was padlocked, Edmonds writes, the mansion was commandeered by the Outlaws motorcycle club as the site of its national run. In their week-long occupation, the bikers did all the damage to the house and grounds that thousands of wild-eyed hippies and wobbly rockers had managed to avoid during the previous three years.


Read more:  Detroit Free Press


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