Venue: The Crofoot
Town: Pontiac, US

The Crofoot is a mixed-use independent entertainment complex made up of 3 venues in one building (The Crofoot Ballroom, The Pike Room, The Vernors Room) in Pontiac, Michigan. The Crofoot is a busy concert venue for popular music acts, and other larger private events or festivals. All-age shows as well as adult-only concerts are held. Pontiac is the first inland city of Michigan. The Pontiac Company plotted it in 1818 where the Saginaw Indian Trail (Woodward Avenue) crossed the Schiawassee Indian Trail (Orchard Lake Road). The Clinton River created double peninsula where it snaked through what would become downtown Pontiac. The Pontiac Commercial Historic District is located just north of where the Saginaw Trail crossed the Clinton River. Historically, the business district of Pontiac was centered at the intersection of Pike and Saginaw. On April 30, 1840, the entire commercial district on both sides of Saginaw from Pike to Lawrence was leveled in a fire. In response to this event, all new buildings were subsequently built with masonry construction. Between 1840 and the end of the Civil War, many of the buildings along Saginaw were rebuilt. In the early 1960s the entire area on the South West quadrant of Pike and Saginaw, and much of the historic property to the south of the Clinton River (Water Street), were demolished for urban renewal. The Crofoot Project survived both the fire and the widespread demolition. The building on the southeast corner of Pike and Saginaw was not burned down, and it was spared demolition in the 1970s. In 1882, it was rebuilt, re-using the existing foundations, floors and some walls. Michael E. Crofoot, who named the subject property the "Crofoot Block", was a vigorous and active man whose life epitomized the development of Pontiac after its 1818 founding, in the Civil War era, prior to the rapid growth from the expansion of the automobile industry. Michael E. Crofoot was a prominent businessman, attorney, Judge of Oakland County Probate C