This apartment-hotel was opened in March 1927 kitty-corner from Michigan Central Station.
Architect Talmadge C. Hughes pulled a permit for the four-story building on Aug. 17, 1926. It initially had five storefronts on the ground floor and 97 apartments ranging from one to three rooms. Rents ranged from $60 to $75 a month including utilities - the equivalent of $1,132 to $1,415 in 2026 valuation, when adjusted for inflation. Rooms came furnished and with a shower-tub combo, Soper cabinets, electric refrigerators and more.
"Each apartment is tastefully and luxuriously furnished with every necessity of the modern home," an ad announcing the Tre-Way's opening from the March 20, 1927, edition of The Detroit Times said. "In no other building in Detroit will you find such complete service for such moderate rentals."
As an added bonus, the building's location meant tenants had Roosevelt Park as a front yard and easy access to public transit thanks to Michigan Central Station being practically next door and Michigan Avenue being mere steps away.
The building's unusual name came from the man who developed it, William Tretheway, a real-estate mogul and developer who built several hundred homes and a number of apartment buildings over his life. He also served as president of the Civic Center Commission. A graduate of the Detroit College of Law, during the Great Depression, he came up with the Work-for-Rent plan, which allowed struggling families to work on property maintenance in lieu of paying rent. The program's success and notoriety led him to launch two unsuccessful bids for Common Council and to run for Congress on a "work-for-taxes" platform. He did not win. Following World War II, Tretheway dedicated himself to civic and philanthropic matters, including adding in the restoration of Mariners Church. He died June 13, 1966, at age 80.
The Tre-Way led a quiet and fairly unremarkable existence for more than half a century. But it would not go out so quietly.
The building was ravaged by a four-alarm fire on Jan. 8, 1989, that left some 100 Detroiters homeless and 46-year-old Earl Johnson injured and at Southwest Detroit Hospital, where he was treated for burns and smoke inhalation. Some residents had to jump from the windows to escape. The fire, fueled by strong winds, gutted the top two stories of the Tre-Way, and the other two floors suffered heavy water damage.
"This is a hell of a way to start the new year," Sandra Layne told The Detroit News for a Jan. 10, 1989, story. "Our apartment wasn't too comfortable, but it was home, For $220, we didn't expect much and didn't have much. I'm happy we all got out with our lives."
The Salvation Army and state Department of Social Services worked quickly to place the displaced residents into new permanent housing.
Fire investigators believed that the blaze was caused by careless cooking in a fourth-floor unit.
"The wind-whipped smoke hung over Tiger Stadium two blocks away and clouded much of downtown Detroit," the Detroit Free Press wrote Jan. 9, 1989.
The Tre-Way would sit, encrusted from ice caused by the water used to quench the flames freezing in frigid January weather, for months.
It should be noted that this corner of the city, right on the border of Corktown and Southwest Detroit, suffered a number of setbacks within a year-and-a-half period. The Detroit Public Schools Book Depository about a block-and-a-half away was left in ruin by a fire fueled by thousands of textbooks in October 1987. Michigan Central Station closed almost one year to the day of the Tre-Way blaze.
A permit to repair the fire damage was pulled in March 1989, but that was canceled after it was determined either the cost to save the building was too high or that it was simply not possible to do so. The Tre-Way would be torn down instead, and the site has served as a parking lot ever since, mostly for patrons of the popular Slows Bar BQ and Mercury Burger Bar.
Special thanks to Lucas McGrail for his assistance in researching this building.