Organised chronologically, starting with the earliest losses and ending with the latest, the book features much-loved Detroit insitutions that failed to stand the test of time. Long before there was a motor industry, the city lost the Central Market (1889), the Belle Isle swimming pool and the Capitol Building (1893).

Grand buildings erected in the Victorian era that were too costly to be refurbished, or movie theaters that the age of television made redundant are featured. Alongside the city's iconic and much-missed buildings, Lost Detroit also looks at the industries that have declined or left town.

Sites include: Detroit Boat Club, Belle Isle Casino, Pontchartrain Hotel, Hotel Cadillac, Electric Park, Detroit House of Corrections, Federal Building, Temple Theatre, the Tashmoo, Hammond Building, Packard Car Company, Detroit Museum of Art, Waterworks Park, City Hall, Hudson Motor Co, Ford Rotunda, the Opera House, Kerns department store, Union Station, Grace Hospital, Dodge factory, Convention Hall, Olympia Stadium, Michigan Central Railroad, the Tuller Hotel and many more.