This spaceship-looking building in historic Milwaukee-Junction was built in 1971 as the then-new Stanley's Mannia Café. Stanley Hong came to Detroit in the 1930s from China's Canton Province, now known as Guangdong, working for a Chinese restaurant located in the Black Bottom area. Beginning in 1940, Mr. Hong would go into business on his own, starting with the original Mannia Café, once located at 565 East Canfield and Hastings Street (demolished for Detroit Medical Center expansion). The new Stanley's Mannia Café came next and became among the city's most popular restaurants, frequently by many of Detroit's entertainment and political elite, particularly in the African-American community. Hong also operated Stanley's Other Place, located at 2411 West 8 Mile Road, which opened in 1978 and closed in 2014. The structure was designed by Nathan Johnson & Associates, headed by pioneering Detroit-based African-American architect, Nathan Johnson. It is an example of Googie architecture, which gets its name from a long gone coffeehouse in West Hollywood, designed by John Lautner, a pupil of Frank Lloyd Wright. In the early 1990s, Stanley's became "the original epicenter of the rap music club scene in the early '90s in Detroit.", according to Paul Rosenberg, Detroit native and music executive, when another Detroiter, Maurice Malone, a clothing designer, founded Rhythm Kitchen, a weekly underground night that became a platform for many up-and-coming artists in Detroit hip-hop, including a young Marshall Mathers. Stanley's Mannia Café closed in 1995 and later served two stints as a church - Omega Baptist and Grace Fellowship Baptist - before closing for good. Despite being vacant, the structure was recently designated a local historic district by the City of Detroit, a testament to its importance on a multitude of levels. #Detroit #MilwaukeeJunction #Googie #GoogieArchitecture #Modernism #NathanJohnsonandAssociates #archi_ologie #deserve2preserve #RawDetroit #PureMichigan #PureMittigan #MotorCityShooters #PureDetroit313 #DepictTheD #VisitDetroit #Michiganders #ThisPlaceMatters #ThisPlaceMattersDetroit #MichiganPlacesMatter #SavingPlaces #GalaxyS10 #withGalaxy (at Milwaukee Junction, Detroit) https://www.instagram.com/p/BxKx7IcA1-2/?igshid=e5yey2r4xm53
