Many older residents of Detroit’s Gratiot Woods neighborhood have fond memories of the three-story building at 5900 McClellan St.

For years, it has served as a community center, a gathering place for young people, and an activity center for local residents. The building opened in 1940 as a gymDirector of the DPCA John Thorne and activity center linked to a parish of the Catholic Church. Then, in the 1970s, it found a second life as the only urban 4H club in the United States. Unfortunately, it closed its doors in 2010 due to lack of funding and the retirement of its historic director who suffered from health problems.

Now, thanks to a partnership between Terry Payne, a local entrepreneur, and the Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance (DCPA), the building has another opportunity to serve the Gratiot Woods area as a community center.

“We hope that when the doors open we can serve approximately 3,000 people per year,” said DCPA Executive Director John Thorne. “And there will be opportunities for community members to use the space for any programs they may have.”

Renovation and collaboration

The effort to bring back the facility, which has been renamed the Brighter Detroit Community Center, began with Payne, who is perhaps best known as the owner of the Payne Landscaping and They Say company, a popular Detroit restaurant.

Payne grew up on the East Side of town and has had many great experiences at the 4H Center, including playing basketball in the gym and volunteering there as an adult.

“I started going to the community center in 1974 when I was 10 years old,” says Payne. “I grew up in the gym and went to city gardens. It made me a better person and got me going in the direction I’m going now.”

Knowing how spending time there meant a difference in his life, he wanted to make similar opportunities available again to young people in the area. Payne bought the old community center in 2015, choosing a new name for it since he was no longer affiliated with 4H. However, several years of vacancy had damaged the establishment, so he was unable to reopen it immediately. The gym floor had warped from the heat, so Payne had to fix that. He also converted the gym lights to LED lighting, added a weight room on the third floor, and attached doors throughout the space.

In 2018, however, Payne began to run out of funds for the renovation. He eventually came into contact with DCPA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the Gratiot Woods neighborhood formed by a group of local Catholic priests interested in promoting community healing after the riots of 1967.

Shortly before the onset of the pandemic, DCPA signed on as a code developer with the project and agreed to oversee programming after installation was complete. The Terry Payne with the 4H basketball jersey nonprofit has an earlier history with the facility, having invested in an exterior renovation that included the construction of basketball hoops, playing field equipment, a small football / soccer field, and a community stage at the early 2000s, when it was still managed by 4H. On September 15, at its annual harvest dinner, DCPA launched its Raising Hope fundraising campaign of $ 2,500,000 to complete renovations and deliver programs to the building.

Some of the biggest changes coming with the renovation are installing a new roof and making the installation ADA compliant by doing things like adding an elevator and modifying the bathrooms. In response to community feedback, the co-developers will also equip the building with a computer lab, audio and video recording studio, computer lab, and Wi-Fi. also a large hall on the first floor that DCPA hopes to use for movie nights and other events currently taking place outside.

As for regular programming, plans are underway to offer an after-school program, as well as activities for seniors and classes focusing on cooking, audio and video media skills, graphic design, life skills and language. financial literacy. Thorne is particularly interested in the possibilities that the recording studio will offer to young people in the region.

“We have musicians in the community who want to teach them in the recording studio”,
He says. “The children will be able to do voiceovers, but also record the stories of the elders in the community. We will therefore have a living history ”

“Good for our community”

Thorne isn’t the only one excited about the opportunities the Brighter Detroit Community Center brings to the neighborhood. Tammara Howard, 52, is aTammara Howard (center) with local youth. Long-time resident of Gratiot Woods who runs the Belvidere Community Youth Block Club and the non-profit youth association What About Us, Inc., and serves on the board of directors of DCPA. She spent time at the community center in her youth and believes that its reopening will be a real boon for the community.

“It will be a nice place for the kids to do extracurricular activities,” she says. “Some people don’t have computers so they can do their homework there, and they’ll also have fitness and nutrition classes there. I think it will be really good for our community.”

Steven Dearing, a retired dance teacher who lives in Gratiot Woods, is also excited about the reopening.

“I think it will allow our children to enjoy positive things in the community,” he says. “This will give them a place where they can meet other peers. [and give] seniors a place to go and do activities.

Forward momentum

Currently, DCPA is focused on raising funds for the project with its fundraising, which will involve a combination of events, grant writing, online crowdfunding, and contacting supportive organizations from around the world. long time. Thorne estimates the process will take anywhere from a year to a year and a half, after which the developers will begin to focus more on the renovations themselves. As of now, they don’t have a specific timeline for when the Brighter Detroit Community Center will be open to the public.

Despite the obstacles, Payne is grateful to collaborate with DCPA on the project and happy to see it moving forward. And he looks forward to that day in the not-so-distant future when the residents of Gratiot Woods will once again have a community center of their own.

“There are a lot of good things we have done [there] when we were kids they don’t have today, ”he says. “I want to give children and [others in the neighborhood] somewhere to go and for young people to experience some of the great things we did growing up. “

Resilient Neighborhoods is a reporting and engagement series that examines how Detroit residents and community development organizations are working together to strengthen local neighborhoods. This is made possible thanks to funding from the Kresge Foundation.