Nancy Brown was a columnist for the Detroit Evening News from 1919 until 1942. She was sort of a predecessor to Dear Abbie or Ann Landers. Noone knew how extensive her following was until she described an exhibit at the Detroit Insitute of Arts and urged her readers to join her there. 30,000 people joined her there. In 1934, she accepted the advice of a reader who suggested a sunrise service on Belle Isle. In 1936, she suggested that her readers donate a nickel to build a Peace Tower on the spot where these services were held. They did and now we have this beautiful tower.
She died in 1948.
The tower stands at 85' tall and is front of a nice looking pond. I tried to get a good reflection in the pond but it was a little windy.
It was designed by Clarence Day who was the brother in law of James E. Scripp the publisher of the Detroit Evening News.
It originally had brass bells but those have since been replaced with electronic bells and they sound pretty nice and peaceful.
I tried to get a better shot of some of the details but this was as close as I could get.
These are some of the details at the top. All in all a very impressive building.
1 comment:
Fascinating!
Post a Comment