Fort Shelby Hotel
The old boarded up Fort Shelby Hotel has stood abandon for over twenty years on Lafayette Street near the outskirts of Detroit’s business district.
For years it was shelter for homeless men who would find there way inside the building to find refuge from the brutal Michigan winters. For years the only tenant in the old hotel was the notorious Anchor Bar a favorite watering hole for reporters from the areas two newspapers. For years it had been known as a place where police, politicians, priests and pressmen could go for a cold beer, a greasy hamburger and place abet on your favorite horse race or football game.
A local street person who was known only as Moe found part-time work doing odd jobs at the bar. After leaving the bar in the early morning hours he would leave the bar and make his way to the rear of the hotel and enter the building through some boards that he had loosened. Moe was a one eyed black man who’s face showed the results of years of drinking and living on the street.He was quiet and polite but he was often seen driving away other street people who might try to make their residence in the ruins of the old building. Sometime during the early 90’s some rotted plumbing gave out in one of the hotels basement levels and unbeknownst to the bar caused all of their sewage to flow out into the hotel basement. For several years people that worked in adjacent buildings noticed and complained about the smell to city officials but it was blamed on sluggish sewers in the area. The bar itself was spared the odor because it was totally sealed off from the hotel proper.
During an unusually rare building inspection the startling discovery of years of human waste was discovered. They say that it was well over four feet deep. Inside one of the rooms they found the skeletal remains of Old Moe. He did not drown in the sewage but it is suspected he became mired in the sludge as he came down a stairwell and could not free himself while in the dark and probably inebriated. Strange as his death may seem the strange part of the story is that people that work in the area still claim to see old Jim walking through the alleys near the old hotel. There are reports of seeing Jim late at night sitting in the alley behind the old Fort Shelby Hotel and some claim to have seen lights moving through some of the lower floors of the building. Some even swear they have heard noises coming from inside the building.
The bar is has moved out long ago and the building is now well boarded and secure. Is it the city steam that pours from the manholes and pavement that people mistake for someone moving through the alleys or is it Old Moe still standing guard defending his turf at the old Fort Shelby Hotel.
