It may not have been one of H.H. Richardson’s most celebrated works, but nevertheless, the Light Infantry Armory was the only building in Detroit designed by a man so revered, he has his own architectural style named after him.
It also was the longtime home of a bunch of Moose.
The Detroit Light Infantry
The Light Infantry was a local militia comprised of young men, first organized about 1858. The July 6, 1859, edition of the Detroit Free Press called them "a company of boys from 16 to 20." Most of their duties included marching in parades locally and across the country, presenting the colors at events, and having its band play at funerals. They also formed a baseball team.
But it was also a confusing organization. What follows is what we've strung together from newspaper blurbs written in antiquated prose.
On April 22, 1861, a meeting was held during which the Light Infantry reorganized under the name of the Cass Light Infantry. There were 53 men enlisted at the time. Then a group splintered off forming the Independent Detroit Light Infantry, as to not be confused with the old outfit, and organized under that name on June 19, 1876. The "independent" was quickly dropped.
The company was mostly a social organization that marched and performed drills while dressed up like soldiers and carrying muskets. As evidence of the company not being treated as combat-ready soldiers, its members had to join other units in order to fight in the Civil War. Eight young men "formerly members of the Detroit Light Infantry, who, seeing no hope of their own company being accepted by the government," enlisted in the war by joining the Adrian Guards, the Free Press reported May 19, 1861. That said, the Detroit Light Infantry did join the state militia and were later mustered into state service Aug. 15, 1881. A number of its members enlisted for combat as individuals.
The Detroit Light Infantry was not to be confused with the Detroit Light Guard, which was more of a combat outfit originally led by Detroit Civil War hero Gen. Alpheus Starkey Williams. (Though the groups would later merge. Confusing, we know.)
From a social perspective, the Detroit Light Infantry was incredibly popular and performed from Philadelphia to Buffalo, N.Y., to Atlanta, and even marched in President James A. Garfield's funeral in Cleveland.
But nowhere were they cheered as heartily as here at home.
"The members of the company are composed of Detroit's most popular young men, and their celebrations are always looked forward to with considerable interest," as the Free Press noted June 10, 1883.
In January 1879, the infantry moved into the old Board of Trade Building at Jefferson Avenue and Randolph Street. But what they really wanted was a brand new home of their own. A few years later, they'd get their wish.
On June 19, 1883, when the outfit celebrated its seventh anniversary since the company's organization, there were 75 active members.
A master’s not-quite-a-masterpiece
The Light Infantry Armory (again, not to be confused with the Light Guard Armory a few blocks away) was designed by Richardson for the estate of former Michigan Gov. John Judson Bagley.
Henry Hobson Richardson is considered an architectural master, and is almost always on the list of the American greats, right up there with Frank Lloyd Wright, Daniel Burnham and Louis Sullivan.
Plans were announced for what the Detroit Free Press called “an attractive home for the flower of Detroit’s chivalry” in the Jan. 21, 1886, edition of the paper. The brick and ironwork were performed by Alexander Chapoton Jr. The carpentry work went to Underwood Armstrong & Son, and the plumbing contract was awarded to Lane Bros.
The building was located on the south side of East Congress between Randolph and Bates streets, with an entrance on Congress. It would not only be “a handsome building,” the paper noted, but “remarkably convenient for the gallant company that is to occupy it.”
As handsome as it may have been, it was not particularly large, at 120-by-75 feet and 68 feet high. Richardson, known for his use of thick stone construction and heavy, large archways, designed it with three large arched openings that were 18 feet wide and 44 feet high. The gables above the archways had decorative panels, with “Light Infantry Armory” carved in the center panel. Where stone was not used, red brick would make up the rest of the facade. Completing the look were large show windows of plate glass and iron columns, which would be used by three stores occupying the ground floor.
The second floor was reached by a flight of stairs along the western end of the building. Being a mostly social organization, this floor featured separate parlors for ladies (16 feet by 32 feet) and gentlemen, as well as another parlor that served as the billiards hall and smoking room. Also on this floor were two headquarters rooms of 46 feet by 35 feet that could be joined together by opening a set of folding doors. The 44-foot-by-33-foot dining room and kitchen were also located on the second floor.
The third floor was home to the drill hall, which was sky-lit and measured 75 feet by 120 feet with a 32-foot ceiling, plenty of room for the members to twirl their muskets and practice their synchronized footwork. The roof was semi-circular, which is hard to envision given the exterior appearance of the building; sadly, no photos of the space are known to exist. The drill room also had a 10-by-20-foot bandstand.
The reception room was to be outfitted with settees, armchairs and a large oak reading table. Two billiards tables - one for pool and one carom - were to occupy the smoking room. Members could get a haircut in a barbershop, or bathe, or grab a meal.
The total cost of furnishing the armory was estimated around $4,000, the equivalent of about $138,000 in 2023 valuation, when adjusted for inflation. Despite splurging on the building and furnishings, “the company feels jubilant over the fact that they will go into their new quarters out of debt,” the Free Press wrote.
On June 26, 1886, the Detroit Free Press reported that the new armory would be ready for the company to move into that August, with a formal opening tentatively set for a month later. The paper said the building was expected to “be as fine as is owned by any single military company in the country.”
The estate also hired Richardson to design the Bagley Memorial Fountain, a public drinking fountain that has moved around Campus Martius and Cadillac Square over the years. The fountain is the only surviving Richardson design in the city of Detroit.
On Dec. 12, 1910, the Detroit Light Guard members voted to merge with the Detroit Light Infantry, which had voted in favor of the move a week earlier. The united organization chose to call the Light Guard Armory on Brush and Larned home, meaning the Richardson-designed building would soon be in need of new tenants. On May 18, 1911, the Detroit Evening Times reported that the Light Infantry was "now busily engaged in the work of removing their equipment from their quarters on Congress St. East to the Light Guard Armory ... in consequence of the recent decision of both organizations to amalgamate."
The Moose
The Light Infantry Armory wouldn't have to wait long to find a taker in a different organization, the Detroit Lodge No. 160, Loyal Order of Moose. Detroit was a growing home of “Moosedom,” as it was called, and the national fraternal order had picked the city to host its annual convention in August 1911. This would put greater attention and excitement around growing the order in Detroit and finding comfier stomping grounds for all the Moose.
At a meeting Nov. 8, 1911, Lodge No. 160 announced to its members that it would erect a new clubhouse. As testament to its growth, it had been only two years since the organization had opened its new headquarters in a building at 185 Griswold St. (present-day 1213 Griswold), on Dec. 1, 1909.
In the interim, the Moose would move into the former Light Infantry Armory until construction of its new “handsome and commodious new clubhouse” was finished, the Detroit Free Press wrote Nov. 9, 1911. Because it was expected to take only a year or two to build, the Moose signed only a two-year lease with the Bagley estate on the Light Infantry Armory. The Moose also decided to keep their lease on Griswold Street, too, to give “the herd” extra space.
That timeline proved a bit short, as the Moose would stay in the armory for 13 years.
The Moose dedicated their new temple inside the Light Infantry Armory on March 21, 1912, less than a year after the Infantry had finished moving out. And, “with fitting ceremony and much enthusiasm,” the Detroit Free Press wrote the following morning, initiating a class of 850 new members at the same time. This brought the Lodge to some 6,000, a 16.5 percent increase year over year. Such growth was proof of not only the popularity of the club but that it needed comfier confines.
“The entrance to the temple was prettily decorated with American flags, and the scheme was followed throughout the interior,” the Free Press wrote. “Most of the entire membership assembled in the former drill hall and witnessed the ceremonies.”
Following the initiation rites, remarks were given by C.A.A. McGee of Baltimore, chairman of the supreme ritual committee, and James J. Davis of Pittsburgh, the supreme organizer of the order. Both officials “enunciated the principles of practical fraternalism, and called attention to the proposal to establish a national Moose university … which will become the official hub of Moosedom,” the Free Press noted.
At the time of the 1911 announcement, the Free Press said the site of the new, ground-up clubhouse was known “to only a few of the members” and being kept a secret. Therefore, it is not known whether the Moose Lodge on Cass Avenue and Elizabeth Street is the same clubhouse announced in 1911, or whether those plans fell through.
Either way, on Nov. 1, 1925, the Moose formally opened their new Italian Renaissance home - designed by Marcus R. Burrowes and Frank Eurich Jr. - at Cass Avenue and Elizabeth Street, and the organization moved out of the Light Infantry Armory.
Bowling balls, wrecking balls and a dash of tax evasion
During the Roaring Twenties, the building was home to the Commercial Electric Supply Co., which sold appliances for Westinghouse, RCA radios and other cutting-edge electronic gadgets.
It was also home to the Cadillac Bowling & Billiard Co., featuring 20 alleys - "a place where a score or more of the city's zippiest teams gather to produce good games," an ad from the Sept. 2, 1923, Detroit Free Press boasted.
A temporary downtown post office opened in the building on Dec. 17, 1931, to relieve the Christmas rush. The station occupied three stories of the building. This was necessary because the Postal Service was operating out of a small building at East Larned and Bates following the demolition of its home in the Federal Building that same year (and its replacement, the present-day Theodore J. Levin U.S. Courthouse, still being under construction).
Around 1938, the building's ground floor became home to G. Viviano Inc. Importers, a purveyor of wine and champagne. The wine shop would be known as much for its trouble with the law as it would be its spirits.
The Office of Price Administration went after G. Viviano in November 1944, filing a suit seeking triple damages totaling $868,919 for allegedly violating ceiling prices on brandy and overcharges. That’s a whopping $15.5 million in 2024 valuation, when adjusted for inflation. The suit alleged overcharges of $89,639 (the equivalent of $1.6 million in 2024) on the sale of 14,588 cases of Madeira brandy to the Pennsylvania state liquor commission, and $200,000 ($3.6 million in 2024) in alleged overcharges to "divers and sundry" wholesalers and retailers, according to an article in the Nov. 3, 1944, edition of the Detroit Evening Times.
With the feds digging into the store's finances, the feds noticed some fuzzy math with the 1943 and 1944 tax returns of Gaetano Viviano, the store’s president. He would plead guilty in May 1948 to income tax fraud totaling $435,649 - or about $5.8 million in 2024 valuation. He got three years in prison and was fined $30,000 (about $396,000 in 2024). On top of that, the 57-year-old faced a civil suit for $942,408 in back taxes, penalties and interest. That would be about $12.4 million in 2024. Ouch. Also named in the indictment was office manager Peter Raffin.
Somehow, the business stayed open. In 1954, Viviano Importers Inc. - still calling the former Light Infantry home - was found guilty on 74 counts of selling wine to retailers on credit, a violation that ran them afoul of the Liquor Control Commission.
The Armory and other surrounding property was sold by the Bagley Land Co. to Greyhound Bus Lines on April 18, 1955, in order to build a new bus terminal. This modernist terminal, which opened Dec. 16, 1958, was part of the Civic Center redevelopment of the 1950s and early '60s that saw a number of old landmarks torn down for what is now called Mid-Century Modern designs. This includes Old City Hall, lost for an underground parking garage and public space called Kennedy Square; the Majestic Building for 1001 Woodward; the Hotel Norton and a block of 19th century commercial buildings for One Woodward Avenue; the Hammond and Union Trust Co. buildings for what is now called The Qube; and the Avenue Theatre and other structures for what is now known as the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center. At least Richardson’s Light Infantry Armory was in storied company on its way to the landfill.
A demolition permit was pulled Dec. 27, 1956, and the building came down in the new year.
The Greyhound bus terminal was closed in the fall of 1989, and demolition was completed in 1990 to make way for what is now Ally Detroit Center. Today, the site of the old Armory is home to a parking garage built for Ally Detroit Center.