Skip to content
Rebuild Detroit

Popular in Metro Detroit

Call (888) 471-3135

Lost stadium, Detroit, 1927 to 1986

Olympia Stadium

Demolished in 1986

Olympia Arena, 5920 Grand River Avenue, Detroit, Wayne County, MI Photo: Carla Anderson, Historic American Buildings Survey, no known restrictions, via Library of Congress
Opened
1927
Torn down
1986

Designed by C. Howard Crane

Olympia Stadium stood in Detroit from 1927 until 1986. Here is what it was, who made it and where to find the spot today.

On the map

Then and now

What stands there now

Then

Olympia Arena, 5920 Grand River Avenue, Detroit, Wayne County, MI Photo: Carla Anderson, Historic American Buildings Survey, no known restrictions, via Library of Congress

Today

A surface parking lot

Map data: OpenStreetMap contributors

A surface parking lot

Detroit's Olympia Stadium, designed by C. Howard Crane, stood on this spot for 59 years. It came down 40 years ago. Today the spot is a surface parking lot.

Walk the block on the map
  1. 1927 Opens Olympia Stadium
  2. 1979 Closes Olympia Stadium
  3. 1986 Comes down Olympia Stadium
  4. 2026 Today Surface parking lot
How we know what stands there
  • OpenStreetMap surface parking lot at the map point

Checked October 25, 2026. We never guess: a site no source speaks for shows no answer.

What is there now

A surface parking lot

  • Today Source: OpenStreetMap
  • Olympia Stadium came down Source: Historic Detroit
See then and now

We checked Wikidata, Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Rebuild Detroit's landmark records and the county parcel records on October 25, 2026.

The story

By Victoria Jackson, Editor in Chief Updated

Olympia Stadium went up in 1927, during the boom years when the auto industry turned Detroit into one of the fastest growing cities in America.

C. Howard Crane drew the plans.

It is gone now, demolished in 1986, and the map pin below marks where it stood.

Timeline

  1. 1927 Built Designed by C. Howard Crane
  2. 1979 Closed
  3. 1986 Demolished
  4. 2026 Today 40 years since it came down

Where it is

5920 Grand River Ave.

On this map

  1. Olympia Stadium This place
  2. Scovel Memorial Presbyterian Church 0.1 mi
  3. Lee Plaza 0.3 mi
  4. Northwestern High School (old) 0.4 mi
  5. Williams Brothers Co. 0.4 mi
  6. St. Matthias Episcopal Church 0.5 mi
  7. YMCA (Fisher Branch) 0.5 mi
  8. King Solomon Baptist Church 0.5 mi
  9. C.L. Franklin House 0.6 mi

Street map from OpenStreetMap contributors

Who made it

C. Howard Crane
Photo: public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Architect

C. Howard Crane

American architect, 1885 to 1952. Designed the Fox Theater Building (1928) and 30 more in Metro Detroit

Also by C. Howard Crane

More from Detroit in the 1920s

Around the block

Photo credits

Every photo on this page is used under its license, named here with its author and a link to the original.

  1. Olympia Arena, 5920 Grand River Avenue, Detroit, Wayne County, MI Photo: Carla Anderson, Historic American Buildings Survey, no known restrictions, via Library of Congress

Sources

Facts only, gathered from these sources. The story above is written by Rebuild Detroit. Every photo names its author and license where it appears.