Things had finally calmed down enough within the pandemic, for it to be easier to cross over into the States.

It was time for a big Detroit day and hoo boy was I excited!

My whole reason for getting off the island was a week-long adventure further into the Midwest and today I was simply squeezing in a Detroit day before leaving tomorrow. This meant I had no time to gather my bearings in Belle River - and while I didn't come on a plane from San Diego or Vancouver, I still have to get up at 315am (145am in Windsor) to catch the flight out of Newfoundland. It can leave you quite tired that first day, especially if you need to stay up late the night prior doing house nonsense or packing because you love procrastination.

Barely sleeping on the Deer Lake to Toronto flight, it's uncomfortable to then try and sleep for the 90 minutes you're in Toronto. I instead grabbed some breakfast, caught my flight to Windsor, visited family briefly, then rushed into Windsor. I really should have napped in Toronto or took the time to nap in either Belle River or Windsor, but I was just too damn excited! Finally a new big Detroit day with the whole gang!

Stopping at a reliably decent liquor store on Michigan Ave, Donnie was excited by a big can of "Earthquake" at 8.1%.

Holding the possibility of shifting tectonic plates in my hand, I had to consider that I was tired, it was hot, I'm a lightweight compared to Donnie & there's a whole night ahead of us. Which of course led me to the decision that I also should partake in this fine malt liquor.

Getting back in the car, we headed into Delray and the Peter's Rock Baptist Church, built sometime in the 1920s or 1930s.

About the only information I can find on this building comes from a 2006 comment by Andrew of International Metropolis, "It looks like the church was built after 1923, and when it was built it was know as the Hungarian Reformed Church. There was a 4 car garage on the rear of the property. The building is described in the Fire insurance reports as Wood Floors on steel joists, steel trusses, cinder blocks with brick facing. The spire is 78′ tall. It was sold to Peter’s Rock December 1, 1989 for $35,000."

In the same blog post, International Metropolis also has a picture of the mural that used to be on the liquor store kitty-corner from this church - Auntie Vie's Market. This market has been gone so long that I had completely forgot about it, but I can remember seeing that Delray mural on the side. The Delray mural included the Hungarian Reformed Church in it.

My favourite part of this church and maybe this whole night was how there were a few missing window panes that allowed you a glimpse into the neighbouring yard of derelict vehicles and overgrowth.

We've spent a lot of time down in this area of Detroit and I've noticed the cinderblock fence beside this place plenty of times, but to see what was back there - and have it be so interesting - was really neat. What an awesome backyard.

Staring into that backyard, I noticed that the puddles were disappearing and birds were acting strange. Pulling another sip from the malt, I started to wonder, was an....Earthquake on the way?

Better get down to the safety of the printer room.

Historic Detroit has a photo of this church after it suffered a bad fire overnight on November 3, 2022.

The photo also shows demo crews on site, because of the immense steeple leaning and posing a risk of collapsing.

The Hungarian Reformed Church was a Delray landmark on the corner of a street often travelled by Donnie & I. It will be missed.

Travelling a mere 100 metres (328 ft) up Harbaugh Street, we found Szent Janos Görög Katolikus Magyar Templom (St. John's Greek Catholic Hungarian Church).

Built between 1917 and 1920, it was designed by Hungarian-born architect Henrik Kohner - who would go on to design the even more impressive Holy Cross Hungarian Church, as well as several synagogues near Dexter Ave.

Szent Janos served as a catholic church into the 1980s. Sometime after that but before 1996, it was sold to Bishop Phillip Pulliam, who ran his Jehovah Jireh Full Gospel Church out of this building.

EHerg has an interesting tidbit here that came from The Michigan Chronicle in 2012, where Bishop Pulliam was excited about the new bridge to Canada rumoured to be coming to Delray, but eventually saddened when he found out his church building wouldn't be in the bridge footprint and he wouldn't get a payout for the building.

This led Pulliam to closing the church in 2013, as he was 82 by this time and couldn't keep up with the maintenance of the structure with very few parishioners. There isn't much to show the outside changing except for vegetation growth as you move through Google StreetView years, but a 2018 YouTube video shows people inside and the apse already graffitied.

There was part of me that wishes we were on the ball and checked this out earlier, but the ceiling was still plenty remarkable, even if there was damage here and there.

In this area of Detroit, if something is this far gone, it's quite safe to assume it's going to go away in the near future by arson or the mayor's love for demolition financing.

I wished that these pews could've ended up with a better fate.

There was also a connected rectory here, still in fine shape, even as someone tried to use the fireplace.

Down in the depths, there was an old workbench from St. Alexis, which I thought was cool because I expected to go home and find some long-gone church in Detroit by the name of St. Alexis.

Except the only St. Alexis I can find was located out in Ypsilanti, haha.

Szent Janos was big and convoluted enough that there were times I thought the rest of the group had grown tired and went back to the car. It turns out they were chilling on a rooftop off of the rectory; the same spot where I had popped out for a quick second to take a picture or two before the neighbours spotted me. Donnie may have been feeling the tremors more than me, as he had brought a chair out there, haha.

Anyway, man those Orthodox crosses and domes are cool. Time to go check those out!

Nail had already climbed up to the tower and came back down, while Steve was absolutely not fucking with the wood ladder. That left Donnie and I to climb up before leaving, and even as I was nervous about the surrounding houses, I figured at this point the Earthquake was going to ring the bells whether I liked it or not. And so, Donnie checked off ringing abandoned church bells from the bucket list.

Nailhed would later send Donnie the church bell falling scene from Batman, lol.

More bad news here as Szent Janos/Jehovah Jireh Full Gospel Church suffered repeated fires throughout the spring of 2024, until it was eventually demolished in the summer of 2024.

(One of those fires set off an explosion due to gas leaking in the basement. EHerg has a pretty incredible video shared by a neighbour of the church, if you want to check that out.)

Afterwards, we tried out a new liquor store on Springwells, but it was way too Mexican for us (i.e. it only sold Bud Light, Modelo, Dos Equis & Micheladas).

Really though, there was no way for us to tell from the outside.

We were pretty hungry by this point and Donnie mentioned how downhill one of the local coney islands had become, where one of the things was people just openly drinking inside the restaurant.

Brown bagging and some chili cheese fries? That'll play!

Afterwards, we went and hung out in the old Vernor City of Detroit vehicle garage, a huge warehouse-like structure where they used to fix buses, cop cars, garbage trucks and anything else vehicle-related that the city owned. It was closed in 2011 and served as a great hangout spot for a number of years, as you could drive right in.

Just make sure to look out for the recesses in the floor.

Hmmm, seems like I'm feeling some tremors and the ground is growing unstable...

But how can I turn down an ice cold St. Ides!?

I'll just sip on it and surely the extra 30 minutes bought on by sipping will do the trick!

In addition to this being the last time at the Vernor Transportation Garage, we also went to the Packard for the last time and Nailhed was shocked to learn that Donnie and I had never been in the tunnels.

It's funny because I thought it was so cool being down here, but Donnie and Steve quickly peace'd out and told us to take our time, but that they were all good on this experience.

Also, I left a 40 down here and later, Donnie & Steve were sure that I was repeating our Christmas where I mistakenly insisted that I left a 40 back at that barrel fire. Except I wasn't this time! Returning to the tunnels, I popped down and reappeared with my 40!

Another "last time ever" thing likely happened, as we went to go check out the legendary City Club in the Leland Hotel. We'd done this once before, but wanted to check it out again tonight.

The Leland Hotel was once a fine, opulent hotel, evidenced by its lobby. After being purchased in the 1980s though, not much money was ever put into the building - leaving rooms abandoned, rooms painted by artists, storage rooms, and regular tenants who just needed a place to stay at a decent rate.

Amongst all this, the owner also turned the ballroom into a techno/goth/industrial bar known as the City Club - which has played host to acts such as Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, Rob Zombie, Beastie Boys & Smashing Pumpkins. It's 4 a.m. Friday and Saturday night closing times, as well as the people-watching, definitely overshadow those few passing acts though.

There's also something just fun about being in a hotel lobby and then there's this dark nightclub, like nighttime dark, where the only lights are near the bar.

Unfortunately, it seems like City Club is going to go away as DTE cut power to the Leland Hotel in December of 2025. In addition, a Metro Times article says Detroit inspectors used to look the other way when it came to things like space heaters and exposed wires, but that's not the case anymore. If the hotel changes hands following this power cutoff and auction, the City Club isn't coming back.

The building is currently being auctioned off.

I dozed off yet again as we got back in the car, which was the best course of action seeing as I was about to sit around Donnie's all day tomorrow waiting for my bus to leave. Fight to stay awake or get 17 hours of sleep? No brainer there Navi!

Through the sleepy times, I still consider this a good night myself, but yeah, sorry for my sleepy/passed out/embarrassing ass.