The Nine Lives of 3225 Biddle Avenue

The Nine Lives of 3225 Biddle Avenue. Wyandotte, Michigan. , 3225 Biddle Avenue, has undergone transformative changes over the last 300 years. In the 1730's, this land was a forested area on the outskirts of a small Wyandot Indian village named Monguagon. Beginning in 1818, pioneers established farms along the riverfront., In 1854, the pastoral stillness was lost forever when the blast furnaces, smokestacks and railroad tracks of the Eureka Iron Works and Rolling Mills were built between the Detroit River and Biddle., By the early 20th century, small shops and offices, many of which still survive, occupied these blocks., High on the façade of this structure an inscription chiseled in stone reads: "Fantzia Polska R 1917.” This attests to the fact that the building first housed a Polish vaudeville theater. By 1921, the New Star movie theater took its place., In 1937, the Blossom Bar began a 42-year occupancy. The bar is seen here in 1961, along with two other well-known eateries of their day, the Big Chief Bar-B-Q and the Riviera Café., The photograph of sailors from the Grosse Ile Naval Air Station was taken in 1942. The bar treated each of them to a cigar and a shot in appreciation for their wartime service., During the 1980's and 1990’s B. J. Ryan's Bootleggers Tavern and the R and R's Café operated here., Finally, in 2002, Gizzmos Bistro and Bar opened. With its atmosphere of jazz, antique bar and mirrors, one can easily imagine an earlier era.