This Block in Downtown Lansing was Once Michigan’s ‘Sin Strip’

In the shadow of the Michigan state capital in Lansing one block of East Michigan Avenue was once known as 'Sin Strip.'

From the mid-1900s to the 1990s the block of Michigan Avenue between Cedar and Larch Streets was filled with adult book stores and theaters.

A photo shared recently to the Historical Society of Greater Lansing's Facebook page shows the New Art Adult Theatre (note the highfalutin spelling of theater) and an adjacent business that offered a "Topless Game Room," whatever that was.

The block was demolished in an urban renewal project that built Cooley Law School Stadium, the current home of the Lansing Lugnuts on the north side of the street and a mixed use condo-retail-office space on the south side.

The Outdoor Moovies YouTube channel has footage of some of the demolition of Sin Strip and describes the block:

There was a huge second hand store called Wilcox Trading Post, a camera shop, a paint company, a restaurant. Yes, there were a few "adult businesses, too. The building you are seeing being demolished here was a former adult book store that shared the North side of East Michigan avenue with an adult movie house called the Fine Arts. On the south side of the street there had been two adult book stores.

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