A nonprofit organization is on a quest to restore a jewel of the Motor City’s blues and jazz heritage back to its old luster.
Organizers recently got a critical greenlight from the city to proceed with a massive rehabilitation to revamp the Blue Bird Inn, a birthplace of bebop jazz in the heart of west Detroit at 5021 Tireman Ave. The seminal blues bar opened its doors in the 1930s and operated for decades as a Black-owned touchstone of African American expression.
It was a go-to for legendary musicians like Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Charlie Parker to hit the stage. Other artists who performed there en route to becoming musical royalty paid tribute to the Blue Bird in song.
But the famed cabaret fell into disrepair after its doors finally closed in 2000 and sat vacant for nearly 20 years.
The Detroit Historic District Commission on April 12 granted a certification for exterior work on the building, which city leaders designated as a historic district in 2020.
The effort to nurse the Blue Bird back to its former glory is being catapulted by the Detroit Sound Conservancy, a nonprofit group of musicians, DJs and songwriters “committed to safeguarding and maintaining the cultural experience and authenticity” of the city, according to its website.
The Sound Conservancy was created in 2012 to educate the community on Detroit’s rich history and preserve some of the city’s arts and cultural artifacts.
Saving the Blue Bird Inn is currently one of its most ambitious endeavors as part of that mission.
The Sound Conservancy already has stake in the redevelopment. When the Blue Bird Inn was on the brink of demolition in 2018, the nonprofit made an eleventh-hour intervention and purchased the building courtesy of a grant from the Kresge Foundation.
Once the overhaul is complete, the Blue Bird Inn will become Detroit Sound Conservancy’s new hub, according to the nonprofit.
Wounds from the Blue Bird’s hard times are evident. Doors and windows remain boarded up with plywood. Pieces of the concrete sidewalk outside are cracked and crumbled. The original brick masonry and signature sky-blue mural painted on the front facing are timeworn.
The reconstruction effort aims to rejuvenate the Blue Bird back to its heyday of the 1950s.
The Historic Commission’s sign off this month permitted façade work to begin April 18.
The work will include an extensive rehabilitation to the masonry on the front exterior as well as restoration of the mural. The marquee canopy will get upgraded and the neon “Blue Bird Inn” sign above the marquee will be reinstalled.
Plans also call for replacement of several front doors and windows, brick repointing on the west side of the building, sidewalk resurfacing, a possible chimney rebuild and roof repairs.
One of the key parts of the exterior work is the demolition of a concrete block structure behind the building. It will be replaced with a larger mezzanine that the Detroit Sound Conservancy plans to use as storage for its musical archive.
The rehab inside the building will get underway at a later date yet to be determined. There was no timetable on the overall completion of the project.
