Belcrest Hotel /

The Belcrest Apartments is an apartment building located at 5440 Cass Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. It was built in 1926 as the Belcrest Hotel, designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1983, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. The Belcrest Apartment Hotel was built in 1926 as a residential hotel, catering to wealthy tenants. The building exemplified what was, at the time, a novel style of living arrangement: an apartment building tha offered amenities normally associated with an hotel. Daily maid service and a restaurant on the premises set this apart from a conventional apartment building. The building was designed by Charles N. Agree in a T-shape. It is twelve stories high, constructed of concrete and steel and sheathed with brick and terra cotta. Three projecting bays surround the base of the T, emphasizing the vertical, while terra cotta cornices on the third, eleventh, and top floors emphasize the horizontal.