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Clay Office and Conference Center

historic place in Midtown Detroit, Michigan

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 3, 2026
Entity authorityQ5129956
Source-derived summary

The Clay Office and Conference Center is a renovated office complex formerly known as the Clay School. It is located at 453 Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It is the oldest school building in the city of Detroit. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1982.

History

In 1873, a frame schoolhouse was built at this location to serve the children living in the area. In 1888, the frame school was moved to the north side of the city and replaced by the current structure. The building was designed by architect J.B. Tarleton, who served as the architect for the Detroit Board of Education from 1884 to 1890. This is the only school he designed that is still standing.

The building served as an elementary school until 1923.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Clay Office and Conference Center” is historic place in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Clay, Office and Conference, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1982, 1873, 1888, 1884—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Clay, Office and Conference is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “historic place in Midtown Detroit, Michigan” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5129956. Authority coordinates are 42.345, -83.062. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1982, 1873, 1888 and 1884.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Clay Office and Conference Center”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Clay Office and Conference Center primary sources, Clay Office and Conference Center archive and Clay research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Clay Office and Conference Center”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Clay Office and Conference Center” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.