DETROIT, MI — City officials on Tuesday are expected to announce plans to redevelop the historic recreational building where Joe Louis learned to box. The redevelopment of the Brewster Wheeler Recreation Center will come after the city demolished the surrounding housing complex that was once home to Motown stars Diana Ross and Smokey Robinson and actress Lily Tomlin.
“Until its closure nearly a decade ago, the iconic Brewster Wheeler Recreation Center hosted a wide range of activities for youth from the surrounding neighborhood and across the city,” Mayor Mike Duggan’s office said ahead of the Tuesday announcement. “… The building has been vacant since 2006 when the city closed the facility due to budget cuts. The building had been recommended for demolition early last year until Mayor Duggan chose to seek redevelopment proposals.”
The facility fist opened in 1929 as the Central Community Center. It was renamed the Brewster Wheeler Recreation Center in 1969, after Leon Wheeler, who became the city’s first black recreation worker in 1919.