Famous people's places / Detroit – Downtown

Theodore Levin United States Courthouse

Detroit's Art Deco federal courthouse, home to the Eastern District of Michigan and named for judge Theodore Levin, who presided here for 24 years.

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Detroit's federal courthouse opened downtown in 1934 in an Art Deco style, and it has served ever since as the seat of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Judge Theodore Levin sat on the bench here for 24 years starting in 1946, and Congress renamed the building in his honor in 1994. Generations of influential judges have worked from this courthouse, among them Wade H. McCree, Damon Keith, Anna Diggs Taylor, Avern Cohn and Gerald Rosen, who together presided over some of the most consequential civil rights and public affairs cases in Detroit's modern history. Keith kept chambers here even after moving up to a federal appeals court, and Cohn served as a district judge from this building for more than four decades. The courthouse remains in daily use today.

Opened in 1934 as an Art Deco federal courthouse
Seat of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
Renamed for Judge Theodore Levin by Congress in 1994
Judges here included Damon Keith, Anna Diggs Taylor and Wade H. McCree
Avern Cohn served as district judge here for over 40 years

Famous Detroiters

Famous people tied to this place 6

Lexicon entries for the people who lived, worked, performed or liked to spend time here.

Anna Diggs Taylor 1932–2017 · federal judge, civil rights lawyer
Worked here
Detroit's federal courthouse, seat of the Eastern District of Michigan, where she presided.
Damon Keith 1922–2019 · federal judge, civil rights lawyer
Worked here
Detroit's federal courthouse, where he sat as district judge and kept his chambers as an appeals judge.
Avern Cohn 1924–2022 · lawyer, federal judge
Worked here
Detroit's federal courthouse, where he served as district judge for over four decades.
Wade H. McCree 1920–1987 · judge, U.S. solicitor general, law professor
Worked here
Detroit's federal courthouse, seat of the Eastern District of Michigan, where he served as district judge.
Gerald Rosen born 1951 · trial lawyer, federal judge, bankruptcy mediator
Worked here
Detroit's federal courthouse, where he sat as district judge and chief judge.
Theodore Levin 1897–1970 · immigration lawyer, federal judge
Memorial
Art Deco federal courthouse where he presided for 24 years, renamed for him by Congress in 1994.