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The Vanity Ballroom

The Vanity Ballroom is one of Detroit last remaining dance halls. Located on the city’s east side, The Vanity once anchored the East Jefferson Avenue corridor, a diverse neighborhood that borders Grosse Pointe Park.

Permits for the building were received in June of 1929 with an estimated cost of $200,000 – about $3.7 million in 2025 dollars. Local architect Charles N. Agree was hired to design the building, eventually settling on an Art Deco style with an Aztec theme. The dance floor, which could hold 1,000 couples was built on springs, giving dancers an extra bounce to their step.

Like the Grande Ballroom, also designed by Agree and built a few years earlier, the dance hall was on the second floor of the building above storefronts that faced onto the street. Among the first tenants were stores for shoes, furniture, men and women’s clothing, and a pharmacy.

The ballroom was a hit upon opening in October of 1929, with huge crowds turning out to see big bands fronted by Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Tommy Dorsey. Social groups and societies also rented the venue for special events. In the days before air conditioning the ballroom would close over the summer months, reopening for a new season each September. Until the 1950’s there were regular radio broadcasts from The Vanity.

The decline of big band music led to the closure of The Vanity in 1958, though it reopened in 1964 for weekly dances. With much of the neighborhood around it in steep decline, the ballroom survived mainly through catering to an aging crowd that wanted to relieve the dances they had growing up. As rock music took over the music scene bands like The Velvet Underground, Ted Nugent, and The Stooges played at The Vanity through the 1970’s and 80’s, but by 1987 the venue was vacant once more.

Various plans to renovate the building have come and gone, while the roof has deteriorated, and the dance floor has disintegrated. The Vanity is part of a much larger proposed master plan for the East Jefferson corridor, but aside from some environmental studies little work has been done.