A new beginning: Introducing the Fred M. Alger Center

Written By Alex Szwarc

Since it opened, the Fred M. Alger Center at The War Memorial has hosted events ranging from Veterans Day Breakfast to 250-person weddings.

Opened in November, the Fred. M. Alger Center At The War Memorial serves as a home for art, culture, and the humanities right here in Grosse Pointe Farms. The 25,000 square foot facility with sweeping views features a full restoration of the 1961 crystal ballroom, and a new Colonnade entrance. The Center also affords new spaces for patriotic reflection and community gathering, encouraging patrons to come and simply be. The center was made possible thanks in large part to financial gifts from Fred Alger, prominent member of the Alger Family and founder of the Wall Street firm, Alger Management.

Features of the center include the entrance promenade, main entryway, Reflection Room, Community Room, Ballroom and Pre-function Room. The promenade interior is filled with sunlight, allowing you to focus on the water at the far end, while, at the same time, keeping the historical house anchored to your left with the Ellen Biddle Shipman gardens and the Charles Platt Alger House facade. To the right of the entrance promenade is a reflection space for patrons to consider their personal patriotism. The Reflection Room is centered on a reflective pool and bathed in sunlight from the Pantheon-inspired oculus skylight, and features a framed banner of an authentic Command Flag that was used in battle at Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

Alger Center facts

  • There are 6,200 individual pieces of crystal hanging on each of the 31 chandeliers

  • The ceiling pattern in the Ballroom and Community Room echoes the famous Knot Garden landscape architect Ellen Biddle Shipman installed for the Alger’s

  • The Colonnade’s glass panels are the largest in southeast Michigan, and were produced in Spain

  • There are 72,000 LED bulbs in the skylight

  • The Reflection Pool is of black granite, like the National September 11 Memorial in New York City

  • Alger Center dimensions and capacity

  • Ballroom: 5,200 square feet

  • Community Room: 3,000 square feet

  • Pre-Function Room: 1,300 square feet

  • Reflection Room: 1,257 square feet

  • Colonnade: 2,750 square feet

About The War Memorial

For more than 70 years, The War Memorial has been an arts, culture, patriotic, and community leader organization for Southeast Michigan. The War Memorial annually hosts more than 3,000 performances, classes, and family or community events drawing 250,000 visitors to its campus on the shores of Lake Saint Clair in Grosse Pointe Farms, MI. The War Memorial offers premier hospitality services for community and private gatherings as well as a diverse lineup of innovative programming for all ages. The War Memorial celebrates the ideals of American democracy through its programming while serving as place to honor and remember those who have defended those ideals. The War Memorial is a place for all people with no membership or residency requirements.

Media contact

Alex Szwarc
Manager of communications
aszwarc@warmemorial.org
313.881.7514

Alex Szwarc
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