Frieze Building Blog

Sentimental reasons, good prices draw viewers, buyers
Saturday, September 30, 2006
BY DAVE GERSHMAN
News Staff Reporter
They arrived as soon as the doors opened at 9 a.m. Some came for a last glimpse of the building itself. Others came for the filing cabinets priced for $10, chairs for $5, and metal desks for $1.

The neighborhood garage sale can't compete with the University of Michigan when it decides to sell hundreds of pieces of classroom and office furniture from the Frieze Building.

The building's doors were open to the public on Friday and again today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for the sale. Prospective buyers or viewers should enter through the main doors on East Washington Street. Buyers are required to pay by cash or check, and should be prepared to carry off purchases themselves. Don't expect to be able to wander through the whole building; most of it is off-limits.

Some of the furniture looked old enough to have been in the Frieze Building when U-M took possession of it in 1956 from the city of Ann Arbor, which had used it as a high school. That was just what some shoppers were looking for.

"I just came for any kind of old furniture, '50s furniture,'' said Josh Loerwald, 33, of Ann Arbor. But most of the items on sale didn't fit his tastes. "This is kind of cool,'' he said, holding up a small wooden table for $5.

Up for sale were hundreds of pieces of furniture, sorted among hallways and rooms. Metal desks lined a first-floor hallway. More than 50 filing cabinets stood in a row on a second-floor hallway. On the third floor, hundreds of chairs were priced to move. One room held nothing but metal shelves.

"I'm looking for shelves for my basement,'' said Dawn Chastagner, 23, of Ann Arbor, as she looked around. "They're cheap here, and I don't care what they look like.''

The sale was held in the 1957 addition to the Frieze Building. The original Beaux Arts portion of the building, finished in 1907, was off-limits to the public. The sale is one step toward getting the structure ready for demolition, which is expected to begin early next year.

In its place, U-M will build a $137 million combined academic building and residence hall.

Right now, everything has to go. "U of M property is one of the most interesting garage sales on the planet,'' said Perry Plouff, 54, from Saline, who searched among the rooms for oak furniture.

"I work with wood,'' he said. "I like oak.''

For some, getting an opportunity to see the building up close was what drew them to the sale.

"For sentimental reasons, I just wanted to see the old building before they tore it down'' said Chris Wing, 27, of Ann Arbor, who attended Japanese language classes in the Frieze Building as a U-M student.

Wing spoke while carrying some of the more unique odds-and-ends at the sale - electronics used to calibrate and test video equipment. Film and video classes were held in the Frieze Building. Other electronics being sold included VCRs and computer monitors.

"My project is to convert all my old home movies'' to digital medium, he said.

Sarah Lloyd, 41, of Ann Arbor wasn't interested in the furniture. She worked as an administrative assistant for U-M in the Frieze Building from 2001 to 2003 and has fond memories of it.

Her grandfather went to high school in the building in the 1910s. "I used to like to think of him walking around,'' she said.

She said she wished U-M wouldn't tear it down.

"It makes me kind of sad they're tearing the building down,'' said Jeanne Mackey, 56, of Ann Arbor, as she struggled to open a projection screen she was thinking of buying. "You can almost feel all that's gone on here.''

Reporter Dave Gershman can be reached at 734-994-6818 or dgershman@annarbornews.com.