Gothic Room

The Gothic Room in the Polk Family Hall is the first exhibit you enter when coming into the Dossin Great Lakes Museum.  Stepping through its doors is like stepping back in time inside the reconstructed gentleman’s lounge of the City of Detroit III, with a window on the right side of the gallery set up as if you’re looking out at the Detroit shore line in the early 1900s.

The City of Detroit III spent most of her time traveling either between Detroit and Cleveland or Detroit and Buffalo.  On the Detroit-Cleveland run, departure was mid-morning with arrival by evening.  A typical Detroit-Buffalo trip left just before dinner and arrived early the following morning. 

Removed from the vessel before it was scrapped in 1956, this magnificent structure was stored in an Ohio barn for ten years, waiting for a home.  After the Dossin Great Lakes Museum was built, Detroit citizens and maritime enthusiasts raised the funds necessary to purchase the Gothic Room from its owner.  Volunteers spent thousands of hours restoring, installing, and ultimately preserving this unique example of Great Lakes maritime architecture.