Detroit's YWCA lives on in
the Gem/Century Building

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"A Gem of a Century"
Detroit's Century Club Building Celebrates 100 Years of Service to the Community

Century Theatre, entrance The Gem/Century Building, c. 1929

The historic Gem & Century Theatres will kick off their 100th anniversary celebration of the Century Club building with a gala event in December, 2003 with festivities extending throughout 2004. The building, built in 1903, originally served as the headquarters of the Twentieth Century Club — a group of civic-minded women of social prominence — as a facility to accommodate their various literary, musical, philanthropic and social interests.

Today, the Gem & Century buildings are home to the 450-seat Gem Theatre, 192-seat Century Theatre, 100-seat Century Grille Restaurant, and the 250-seat Century Grille Banquet Facility. The two theatres present world-class musical and comedic productions, with the elegant Century Grille open to the public for dinner and Sunday brunch. These historic venues provide a unique environment for a variety of special events, including corporate meetings, weddings, receptions, dinners and group luncheons.

Gem Theatre, interior

The Twentieth Century Club and the Tuesday Musicales became the Century Association, and officially dedicated the Century Club building as their new home on December 26, 1903. Completed in just 6 months, the facility is a Mission-style building constructed of white limestone and red brick, with artistic stone carvings and copper cornices. The rooms and great halls were designed for balls, receptions and social gatherings.

Twenty-five years later, in 1928, the Association engaged the noted architect George D. Mason to build a two-story theatre, adjoining the Century building, now known as the Gem Theatre. The Gem claims its own rich history of sophisticated film screenings and bawdy vaudeville acts.

Century Association Board of Directors, 1903

The Twentieth Century Club kept its headquarters in the building until 1933 when, as a result of the Depression, the Club disbanded and the Century and the Gem real estate ownership was separated by foreclosures. In the mid to late 30's the facility was used by the Concordia Singing Society who restructured the building. In 1948, for a brief time, the building housed the Russian Bear Restaurant featuring an authentic Russian menu and balalaika music.

For approximately 25 years the Century building lay dormant. In pursuit of a plan for restoring Detroit's Theatre District, the Gem/Century buildings were purchased separately in the early 1980's by Detroiter, Chuck Forbes putting common ownership together once again after 50 years of ownership separation of the Century and Gem buildings. Later, in 1997, the newly united Gem/Century buildings faced yet another extinction crisis in view of the city's plan to construct new sports stadiums. Rather than have these historic facilities end up in a landfill, Forbes and his family immediately began preparations to physically move the 5.5 million pound Gem and Century buildings to preserve these historic structures. Forbes' plan was to "save these facilities so that future Detroit generations could see how their ancestors lived at the turn of the last century."

On November 10, 1997, the building completed its five-block, 1,850 foot journey, setting a new Guinness Book World Record as the heaviest building ever moved on wheels.

Gem and Century Buiilding Move

While Forbes had restored the Gem Theatre before moving the buildings, the move prompted a later renovation of the Century Club facility. It reopened in April,1999 as a dinner theatre with the Forbidden Hollywood show in the Century Theatre. The Forbes family owned the beautiful Albert Kahn downtown YWCA building, which was also slated for demolition because of the stadium plan. In that the "Y" was too large to move, Forbes saved many relics from the historic "Y" incorporating these irreplaceable items throughout the Gem/Century facilities, including Pewabic tile from the Y's swimming pool, stained glass panels from the chapel, leaded glass doors, ornate chandeliers, three antique fireplaces, and entire walnut walls.

The grand opening of the Century Grille Restaurant and Century Theatre occurred in June, 1999 completed the painstaking, yet rewarding restoration process of the Gem/Century - a well-loved Detroit cultural treasure intended to serve for at least another Century.

Photos courtesy of the Historic Burton Collection & The Historic Manning Collection.