5038 McDougall Street
Stanley Ciborowski Home, Winter Window Store, Stan’s Paint Store, McDougall Market, McDougall Food Center
I believe that this structure was built in the 1950s. However, I can’t be certain when it was completed. In 1948, the plot was still a home owned by Stanley Ciborowski. In June of that year, he was found hanging in the store room at his home by his daughter. She later told police that he had been sick.
I can’t be sure, but aspects of the old structure may have made it into the new one. It’s a cinderblock construction; however, the facade is brick, which wasn’t as typical for a shop like this in the 1950s. The small attached building is brick, too, and looks as if it may have been a service station at some point.
By 1955, I believe that a new structure had been built here. An advert in the Polish Daily News hoped to sell plastic winter windows. The ad said they were “cheap, lasting and best insulator.”
A decade later, it was home to Stan’s Paint Store. There were three ads for the shop in 1965 for BPS, or Best Paint Sold, paints.
In 1966, an advert places McDougall Market at 5026 McDougall, which is the vacant lot next to this structure. At the time, there would have been a building here. This may have been a misprint, or the market later moved next door to the structure pictured here.
By 1982, this building was home to McDougall Market. The only mentions of this business that I’ve found are for the Michigan Lottery. At some point, the building became the McDougall Food Center, which was a corner liquor store with a small selection of foods and snacks.
At some point during the pandemic, the business closed its doors. The hand-painted signs were buffed, the sign was taken down, and the signs for 40 ounces of malt liquor were removed. The structure doesn’t appear to be looked after, but the door is in place, and the building was secure when I shot these photographs.
In 2021, Munther Yaldu incorporated McDougall Food Market, Inc. on the state level; however, I haven’t seen any movement at this property since they painted over the big liquor letting from the facade.
When it was still open, it wasn’t uncommon to see people walking in and out of the store, drinking in the grass, and hanging around in the general vicinity of the shop. If you were cruising down Warren, you’d often see people walking across McDougall with a brown paper bag in their clutches as you passed the intersection. It’s one of those things; you don’t realize how accustomed you are to something until it’s gone. Every time I pass this structure, I have to do a double-take to ensure nobody is there.
This structure isn’t architecturally significant, but it was an important part of the neighborhood until it closed. Now, if you want a pop, snack, or 40-ounce, you’ve got to walk all the way to Gratiot or the gas station at I-94. Structures like this are plentiful across Detroit, and some are far more historically significant than this one. Activating them into small businesses that people in the neighborhood can utilize is imperative to the health of our communities.
February 26, 2024 Update
After posting this structure on Instagram, Detroit-based muralist Pat Perry got in touch with me. They purchased the structure at the tail end of 2023 and have since cleared it out and replaced the roof, planning to use the space as a studio when work is complete. Perry is one of my favorite muralists working in Detroit and created one of the best murals in Detroit on the side of 2933 Gratiot Avenue, which I previously documented.
