It was located in the Brush Park section on the east side of Detroit, Michigan, United States, near the Chrysler Freeway, Mack Avenue and St. Antoine Street.

The housing project is named after Brewster Street, which ran through the area, and Frederick Douglass, African American abolitionist, author, and reformer.

The complex was home to such notable figures as Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard, Loni Love, and Etterlene DeBarge, during their early years.

With the addition of the high-rises and an influx of people moving into the housing, Hastings Street was billed as the place one could fulfill any conceivable need.

Two of the six 14-story Frederick Douglass Apartments towers, 303 and 304, were demolished in 2003, in an effort to consolidate living space and reduce maintenance costs.

[7] On July 29, 2013, 23-year-old French artist Bilal Berreni was found dead from a gunshot wound on the property of Brewster-Douglass, having last been seen the day before.

From historic marker on the site of Brewster Homes Between 1910 and 1940 Detroit, Michigan's African American population increased dramatically.

In 1935, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt broke ground for the Brewster Homes, the nation’s first federally funded public housing development for African Americans.

Former residents described Brewster as 'community filled with families that displayed love, respect and concern for everyone in a beautiful, clean and secure neighborhood.'