1991 For 55 years, from 1934 to 1989, Little Harry’s restaurant at , known for its classic American cuisine and piano bar, provided a popular fine-dining experience for loyal patrons including visiting celebrities and corporate titans.
Built in 1850 as the home of Alexander Chene, the rare Federal-style brick residence was renovated in 1902 before it became a University of Detroit fraternity house. After restaurateur Harry Bianchini opened Little Harry’s in 1934, it soon became the place to be seen. “Anybody who was about anything in Detroit had to be seen in Little Harry’s,” a former busboy turned manager told the Detroit Free Press in January 1990. That article was about the building’s new owners: singer Anita Baker and her then-husband, Walter Bridgforth Jr., who bought it promising an unspecified “exciting” development with rumors that it might become a recording studio. The Grammy Award-winning vocalist soon created another legacy.
When the couple petitioned to demolish the building listed on the , Detroit’s Historic District Commission denied the request and told them to sell the building. Just months after Baker and Bridgforth purchased the property for $575,000, they listed it for $950,000 — and found no buyers. They pleaded “economic hardship,” and without any public notice, the commission granted a demolition permit in April of 1991. Enraged preservationists immediately obtained a temporary restraining order, but the next day, despite notices posted on-site, two-thirds of the structure was demolished. It was then completely leveled when a judge lifted the order.
“I’m sure a lot of historians will be disappointed to see a structure so intimately tied to our beginnings so cavalierly destroyed,” former Michigan Gov. John Swainson, who was president of the Michigan Historical Commission, told a reporter at the time. In 1994, an International House of Pancakes restaurant (now Detroit House of Pancakes) opened on the site.
This story originally appeared in the February 2025 issue of vlog. To read more, pick up a copy of vlog Detroit at a local retail outlet. Our will be available on Feb. 10.Plus, find even more The Way It Was articles at hourdetroit.com.
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