Detroit, Michigan: The Tender Trap Nightclub, Highland Park

Highland Park is an enclave city surrounded by the city of Detroit. During the automotive boom, it's several production plants secured the area as one of the most burgeoning economies in the US.

But with the loss of industrial jobs from Chrysler, Ford and others, by the 1960s Highland Park suffered many of the same difficulties as Detroit. Eventually Highland Park would be considered by some as the "pornography capital of the Detroit area", with one of those clubs being The Tender Trap, adjacent to City Hall.

Enter Bob Blackwell in 1968, a Highland Park resident and the first black police and fire commissioner, who would go on to be the nation’s first Black Republican mayor.

While Blackwell was given credit for being a flashy irreverent character credited with securing funds for the city, he also spent a little too much time next door, even holding news conferences in the Tender Trap. He was their best customer by all accounts.

Frustrated with Highland Park's decline, Blackwell was outed after one term; however, he later came back for another in 1979, running this time as a Democrat.

Today, Highland Park records a population of 9,000, down from a peak of 47,000 in its heydey. The Tender Trap, along with a lot of buildings in the area, is no longer there. 

The matchbook used for this tshirt is from the 1960s.