Hotel Savarine

03 / The story of this place

What was here?

The nine-story Savarine opened around Christmas 1926 as a 525-room “stag hotel” for single men working in the east side auto plants, designed by Russian-born architect Louis J. Chesnow. Jack Kerouac stayed here for a time in 1949; his wife Edie Kerouac-Parker recalled that he loved it because many Detroit Tigers players lived there. It became the Newport in 1968, with a bowling alley in the basement, and in 1970 it turned into the 183-unit Apple Tree Apartments co-op. Later called Winston Place, it housed low-income tenants into the early 2000s; a 2006 plan for 118 apartments was never finished.

• Opened 1926 with 525 rooms
• Jack Kerouac stayed here in 1949
• Home to Detroit Tigers players

Former names

Hotel Savarine (1926–1968) · The Newport (1968–1970) · Apple Tree Apartments (from 1970) · Winston Place Apartments (later)

Architect

Louis J. Chesnow

What’s there now?

The nine-story building still stands empty on East Jefferson.