REO Town Development

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  • The cow is in the parking lot beside the "mural building". I am remembering going to that store next to the church, oh well I wish they had one there now.
  • Yeah, I wish it was still there, too. I mean, you have the Speedwagon party store down at the corner with Barnes, but it's not the same kind of thing. With the BWL headquarters and plant spurring new development, hopefully we'll see development cross the railroad tracks.
  • The Speedwagon is OK for fast food, lotto, and beer and snacks. I'll take another look at the building across the street,see if I can tell what's going on there.
  • I'd only been to the pool hall ("Pockets") once, though a family member had been a regular. I believe before that it was a bar, but I can't remember. Whatever they are doing, I hope they tear of that siding on it. Unless it's a "newer" building than I realized, I'd imagine there is brick under that siding.

    BTW, does anyone remember the bowling alley where the Cadillac Club used to be? They used to take us there for school celebrations and trips. I can't quite remember the name, nor when it closed down. I kind of wish we still had those options in these neighborhood corridors.
  • Not sure what the name of the bowling alley was, but it was part of the renovation that Riverview Church did to their REO Town venue. They restored all the lanes to serve as the flooring. That portion of the building can be rented out as an event hall under the name "The Cadillac Room".

    http://thecadillacroom.com/
  • The building that they are working on is on the east side of Washington at the north side of Barnes Ave. There is nothing going on in the former pool hall. I wish there was.
    I have heard a lot about The Cadillac Room. What was is a bar, or a function room? Did it have a bad reputation? I have been trying to remember the name of the bowling alley that was there and I really can not think of it.[someone help please] I do remember the bowlers depicted on the front of the building in a sort of 40's style. We use to bowl there all the time in the 60's and early 70's. When the big bowling allies like the Metro Bowl and Pro Bowl opened the older, smaller lanes lost business. I have not been in the church to see the floors, it's nice that they used them. The church is having the mural outside repainted, it has a lot of crazy new stuff painted, it is looking good. I think the church may have bought the white brick building across Washington Ave. They use the lot for parking and lot grass lot behind has been being taken care of. and the for sale sign is no longer there.
  • I mixed myself up, I guess. Yeah, we were talking about the old Little Caesars and not the pool hall.

    I believe the Cadillac Room was one of the rooms in the Cadillac Club which was a restaurant during the day and a club at night. It'd didn't close down all that long ago. While they had the problems a lot of nightclubs have here (fights, shootings every once in awhile, and parking/traffic issues), the biggest reason it closed down is that the owner, Dave Sheets, branched out from his original furniture business next door and didn't really know how to run such a venue, and apparently barely knew how to run his furniture business. I'm not sure when it close down or how long it sat empty - didn't seem that long to my memory, but may be it was longer than I thought - but the church took it over two years ago.
  • Didn't the closing of the Cadillac Club go hand-in-hand with the furniture business burning down? Or was one before the other?
  • edited October 2016
    Hmmm, now that I think about it, I think you're right. In fact, now that I remember, the rumor around town was since the Club kept getting into trouble with the city that he did this to rid him of his responsibilities; he had a convenient health issues upon hearing of the fire that kept him from talking to the police for days. That was never really put out there, and it was never proven, of course - so don't sue me, lol - but you're right about the connection between the two closing. I now that neither business at the club was doing particularly well (and neither was Discount Dave's), though I can't remember if it was the restaurant or the nightclub which was doing worse; I know they kept trying to change the concepts. At the end of the day, he had no business trying to run an old-fashioned furnitue store and a nightclub. He bit off more than he could chew. Had the fire not happened, they'd have both gone out of business, anyway, as far as I could tell.

    Anyway, yeah, the fire in 2009 destroyed Discount Dave's next door and the Cadillac Club suffered damage from the smoke from Discount Dave's as well as their sprinklers going off. This was a strange period for Old Town, that's for sure. Dave tried at a smaller location down the street near the railroad tracks, but that never took off. I see he's now down at South Cedar and Denver.
  • edited October 2016
    Just found out that the old bowling alley was called "Lansing Recreation Center" ...
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