Mayor Mike Duggan introduces Detroit's new interim Executive Fire Commissioner Eric Jones at Engine 54/Ladder 26, located at 16825 Trinity at Grand River on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2015. Jessica J. Trevino/Detroit Free Press
The old Kronk gym, where Tommy Hearns and other Detroit boxers trained, was gutted by what authorities suspect was an arson.
The old Kronk boxing gym, where Tommy Hearns, Milton McCrory and dozens of other notable Detroit boxers trained, was destroyed by a fire Saturday night.
The Detroit Fire Department responded to an emergency call at 9:25 p.m. on Saturday night, arriving at the old, abandoned building at the intersection of McGraw and Junction on the city's west side.
The fire had spread to the second floor of the structure and there was heavy smoke rolling across McGraw Street when firefighters arrived, according to Deputy Fire Commissioner David Fornell.
"We tried to attack it from inside but because of the danger of the roof falling in, the chief pulled the crew out and (we) fought the fire from the outside," Fornell told the Free Press, noting the roof eventually caved in.
The crew was at the scene for about 4 1/2 hours working to put out a "tremendous" fire, Fornell said.
One firefighter who twisted his ankle was taken to DMC Detroit Receiving Hospital. Fornell said the firefighter "will be OK."
Because the original Kronk Gym is in a relatively abandoned neighborhood — "the two blocks around the building are almost vacant, there are no neighbors," Fornell said — the fire was able to spread quite a bit before it was called in.
The fire was labeled as suspicious and an investigation is underway.
"Fires don't start themselves in a vacant building," said Fornell.
He anticipates the investigation will be a long one since the building is still too dangerous to go into right now.
"It was an unfortunate part of history that was destroyed," he said.
The Kronk Recreation Center was built in 1921 and named for Detroit City Councilman John Kronk. Its heyday, however, came five decades later.
"The center rose to prominence in the early 1970s after a young boxer named Emmanuel Steward took on a part-time job as the head coach of the boxing program, leading it to a Detroit Golden Gloves championship title that year," Detroit historian John Grover explains on his blog Detroiturbex, which documents the history of abandoned buildings in the city.
According to Grover, 50 amateur boxing champions, 30 world champions, and three Olympic gold medals came out of the gym, with Tommy "The Hitman" Hearns — who went on to win titles in five weight classes — getting his start at Kronk.
While the gym enjoyed many decades of success, it came upon hard times in the mid-2000s as the City of Detroit, which owned and ran the building, struggled to properly take care of the building and its programming.
Grover points to a 2004 survey of rec centers by the city recreation department, which "found that the Kronk building – by then the oldest center in the city – was in serious disrepair."
While the Kronk was slated to close in 2005 — nine out of 29 recreation centers had the same fate that year — Steward, the prolific coach, offered to buy the center to keep it in operation.
"Steward stepped in with an offer to buy the center rather than see it close, eventually reaching an agreement with the city to pay the operating costs out of his own pocket – estimated to be between $500,000 to $1 million dollars annually," wrote Grover, noting that despite these efforts, the gym eventually met an ending fate, when in the fall of 2006 vandals broke into the building and stole copper piping.
"Without water, the center was forced to close for good that November," wrote Grover.
A new Kronk Gym was opened nearby on Warren Avenue, however, the newer space ultimately closed following the death of Steward in 2012. In 2015, Steward's daughter, Sylvia Steward-Williams, who owns the Kronk Gym brand re-opened the space in the basement of a church on the west side. Still, renovating the original — a place which not only produced champions but worked as a safe space and hub for neighborhood kids — remained a much talked about goal for years.
News of the fire at the old Kronk Gym comes a week after a fire ripped through the auditorium at the old Cooley High School, gutting the vacant but historical space.
Fornell said he doesn't see anything connecting the two fires at the moment — they occurred at different times and in different neighborhoods — but noted this doesn't mean investigators won't look at all angles.
"It's unfortunate that we are loosing these architectural gems, but also, they've been vacant years, nobody stepped up," said Fornell. "Right now the city is working on getting street lights, lowering response times, there are a lot of priorities in the city."
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