Lost Detroit is the latest in the series from Anova Books that traces the cherished places in a city that time, progress and fashion have swept aside before concerned citizens or the National Register of Historic Places could save them from the wrecker's ball. Organised chronologically, starting with the earliest losses and ending with the latest, the book features much-loved Detroit insitutions that failed to stand the test of time. Long before there was a motor industry, the city lost the Central Market (1889), the Belle Isle swimming pool and the Capitol Building (1893). Grand buildings erected in the Victorian era that were too costly to be refurbished, or movie theaters that the age of television made redundant are featured. Alongside the city's iconic and much-missed buildings, Lost Detroit also looks at the industries that have declined or left town. Sites include: Detroit Boat Club, Belle Isle Casino, Pontchartrain Hotel, Hotel Cadillac, Electric Park, Detroit House of Corrections, Federal Building, Temple Theatre, the Tashmoo, Hammond Building, Packard Car Company, Detroit Museum of Art, Waterworks Park, City Hall, Hudson Motor Co, Ford Rotunda, the Opera House, Kerns department store, Union Station, Grace Hospital, Dodge factory, Convention Hall, Olympia Stadium, Michigan Central Railroad, the Tuller Hotel and many more.

Founded in 1701 by Antoine de le Mothe Cadillac as a trading post and fort, Detroit had a turbulent early history. Captured by the British in 1760, ceded to the United States in 1783, and destroyed by fire in 1805, Detroit nevertheless prospered throughout the nineteenth century because of its strategic position. The twentieth century saw the rise and demise of the auto industry and despite the city’s troubled recent past, a new Detroit is rising to meet the economic challenges of the twenty-first century. This book is a fascinating document of history and change in one of the United States’ most important cities. Sites include: Woodward Avenue, Detroit Waterfront, Campus Martius, Jefferson Avenue, Cadillac Square, Capitol Park, J.L. Hudson Company, City Hall, Wayne County Building, Grand Circus Park, Michigan Theater, Capitol Theater, Fox Theatre, YMCA Building, Detroit Athletic Club, Eastern Market, Elmwood Cemetery, Belle Isle Casino, Scott Fountain, Palmer Park, Hurlbut Memorial Gate, Cass Tech, Tiger Stadium, Wagner Baking Co., Michigan Central Railroad, Ambassador Bridge, Orchestra Hall, Piety Hill, Detroit Public Library, the General Motors Building and much more.