Lee Plaza, located at 2240 West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, MI, is a registered historic site by the state of Michigan and was added to the United States National Register of Historic Sites in 1981. Also known as Lee Plaza Hotel, the 15 floor orange-glazed brick Art Deco building was designed by Charles Noble in 1929. According to the Michigan State Historic Preservation Objects website “the Lee Plaza Hotel is architecturally significant as one of the finest and most elaborate apartment hotels surviving from Detroit’s 1920s heyday.”

Originally, the building served as an upscale apartment with hotel services. At the time, it rivaled the Statler Hotel for its architectural details with exterior tiles and sculptures. The apartment changed hands several times, finally being used as a senior citizen’s home before closing in the early 90s. Throughout its use, the building never underwent any major renovations which left much of the original Art Deco sensibilities intact upon closure.

Although vacant, it has been a hotspot for scrappers and scavengers and much of the artwork, internal wiring, fixtures, and any other materials deemed valuable have been removed for resale. One major loss would be the decorative lions ornamenting the exterior of building between the base and the apartments. It is said that these were stolen from Lee Plaza with no regard to the structural integrity of the historic building. Some of them have been found on the facades of buildings in Chicago and Detroit preservations have sought unsuccessfully to have them returned.