The Ruins of Detroit

[white87911]

For those who were wowwed by the pictures from the Chernobyl website and thought how erie it would be to be around all that vacant stuff, look o further than Detroit. Below you will find a link to photographers website dedicated to the vacant building of Detroit. The website is a little hard to navagate but you can see some pretty amazing photographs. Most of this is due to the car manufactures leaving the area. A friend of mine from a local car club visisted these areas over the winter. He said areas are a ghost town. Huge multi-million square foot factories vacant with the front doors wide open, most still have curtain in the offices etc. The is a section of residential mansion type homes that were in the early part os the centurty that all stand vacant, some street are just blocked off with concrete barriers.

Have a look around.

If anyone has seen these areas please give us your thoughts to.

Just to help with the website navigation the "DETOUR" button takes you to the next photo in the series.

The "EXPRESS" button take you to the next section

http://detroityes.com/home.htm

[white87911]

Here is a much better link that shows all of the sections to the website.

http://detroityes.com/index.html

[Sarc]

I'm constantly dumbfounded by the people that live here in surrounding burbs that NEVER go to Detroit. Sadly, D-town will probably never return to it's former glory.
I hope others will take the time to surf the site to see some forgotten gems.

Thanks for posting!

P

[Sarc]

Originally posted by white87911
Most of this is due to the car manufactures leaving the area.

Actually....this is a result of the surburbia boom, white flight, and a dirty administration present since the late 70's.

This website is a little easier to navigate.
http://www.forgottendetroit.com/

[tabs]

White Flight after 1967.....

African Americans took D city block by block....they would pay a premium for a house on the block and all the rest of the white people would get scared and dump their houses cheap....

The contrast between white and black areas was like the 3rd world to the 1st world....in the white areas the houses would be immaculate...gardens, paint etc and in the black areas the house were all delapated there would be no gardens or paint and houses that were abandon would be torn apart...

when visiting Michigan in the mid 90's I happenend to talk to a couple who purchased RE, he said a brick house in D city was worth 5K or less, that in a one year period there wasn't ONE new building permit issued in the city....You couldn't build a house outa brick for 5K....

There is a sign on the gate where my Grandparents are buried that says to keep your car doors locked...or you might be joining your relatives a bit early in their repose...

I was in Detroit during the riots in 1967...my Daddy and I landed at Willow Run and took the Airport Shuttle to Downtown, where we caught the Bus out to GrandaMa house out on Van Dyke (she lived on the west side of Detroit Airport) the night before the riot started...We went through areas that a day later erupted into mayhem...all those areas we passed through were burnt to the ground... the next night on the way back to Gm's house from visiting relatives I remember passing burning buildings...I saw the US Army come into town and I saw them leave after order was restored...

But on the bright side I just ordered 10lbs of Kowoski's Holiday Kiebasa....

[tabs]

BTW....My Dad's 1st Cousin and his wife retired to Florida and returns to Por Huron for the Summers...Anyway the point is that they will drive 50 miles out of their way so they don't have to drive through Detroit.

[tabs]

Personally there are only a couple of cities that remind me of Detroit....one is San Bernardino, CA, parts of Las Vegas, North Long Beach and Compton... Detroit is a tough, tough town...

[kumma]

yep its a ghost town, until you reach the casinos. man they pack them in there. greektown is actually jumping during the summer, maybe there is hope yet.

i remember when ford field was going up. i went down brush street, nothing but blown out buildings and everything in the shadow of ford field and comerica park.

sadly my visits are few and far between no that the NHL is shutdown. might have to pop over to the anchor bar for a beer or two, its been to long.

[project935]

Originally posted by white87911
... Most of this is due to the car manufactures leaving the area.

Obviously you've never been to the DaimlerChrylser Jeep/Truck building. It's in the middle of hell located in a burb on the fringes of Detroit city limits. Nothing but run down/boarded up and barred windows/doors in that neighborhood. A 8' high fence w/razor wire surround all of the Jeep/Truck parking and property. Always fun going to meetings there ...

I know an African American entrepreneur who is trying to bring the auto industry back to Detroit. He purchased up an entire city block in Highlan Park and is slowly opening his auto engineering services business - directly across the street from the original Ford Model T assembly plant (very, very vacant and run down). I give him credit and wish him luck ... but ...

Some of those old vacant-looking buildings have some really cool surprises inside though ... I once went down to one for an impromptu work meeting. Inside was Ford's historic storage facility. We were there to look over Ford's unrestored 1901 racer to reproduce it for the Ford 100 B-day festival, but there was all kinds of cool and unique stuff in there ... and a lot older than the 1900's.

[project935]

Originally posted by kumma
... might have to pop over to the anchor bar for a beer or two, its been to long.

Not the same, but check this out ... on our dining room wall (we found in on a FL trip)



Points to the basement stairs where our 16' long bar is! I won't charge ya the $0.15 cents ... if beer is in the fridge, it's free.

[86 911]

But on the bright side I just ordered 10lbs of Kowoski's Holiday Kiebasa....

Thats sounds so good. Can I come over and help you eat it? Tabs, you really are a man of taste .

Matt

[bell]

i goto detroit every year for the auto show......then hit a casino or 2

[Jay H]

I've been paging through the www.detroityes.com site for about an hour now... I've never been to Detroit, but the ruins of these once great factories, hotels and other grand buildings that were in their heyday in the first half of the 20th century is very saddening... Amazing amount of history there...

Turning the Michigan Theater into a parking structure seems to be one of the worst effects of time...those pictures are amazing...

Jay
90 964

[Sonic dB]

Native Detroiter here... have been living out here in So Cal for 2 years and before that spent every year save 2 of my life growing up and living in SE Michigan Detroit Suburbs.

What can be said that hasnt already been said here?

Not much. Its all pretty much true. Brutal winters, a current corrupt mayoral administration etc.... and one wonders how anyone can live there. I wonder myself how I survived. Now I can see the ocean from my window and thank God every day.

The Detroit suburbs are pretty wealthy, ranked third in the US for per capita income.... but the city itself is a shambles.

[Sonic dB]

btw.... I played Paintball once, inside the ruins of the Packard Building...which is shown here on that site. Pretty cool old place.

They need to tear that place down, and then go to old Tiger Stadium and do the same thing...but they will not.

The Lindell AC is closed.... the Post Bar isnt what it used to be...

[WINTER1100S]

Heard on the news the other day the bronze or copper historical markers are being stolen to scrap and meltdown. Nice...

Cheers,
Tim

[Iggy]

Originally posted by tabs


But on the bright side I just ordered 10lbs of Kowoski's Holiday Kiebasa....

I know the current owners of Kowalski....Michael Kowalski and his sister Linda. They're at least the 3rd (maybe 4th) generation of owners of the company. They're both fantastic people who treat their employees very well and give back to their communities.

Plus they're food is pretty darn good, too.

[Iggy]

Originally posted by Sonic dB
btw.... I played Paintball once, inside the ruins of the Packard Building...which is shown here on that site. Pretty cool old place.

They need to tear that place down, and then go to old Tiger Stadium and do the same thing...but they will not.

The Lindell AC is closed.... the Post Bar isnt what it used to be...

I thought someone was reopening Lindell AC? When I worked in Detroit, we used to eat there once a week. Definitely a place where you went for the atmosphere....a hole in the wall with good food and great tradition.


I couldn't agree more that Detroit politics are corrupt. When we represented a client that wanted to tear down and rebuild a shopping center close to Downtown, the commercial residents who had enjoyed rock bottom rental rates (no increases for 15 years) riled up the local residents, making them believe that no new construction would ever happen. Then the residents picketed and protested so the news crews came out....within days a 40 year old shopping center was declared by the Detroit City Council to be a HISTORICAL LANDMARK!!!! That designation prevented the owners from doing anything to the site.

A year's worth of litigation and hassle later, the place is finally being redone. After going through that, I'm surprised ANYONE is willing to conduct business in Detroit. You can't do ANYTHING without "greasing the skids" at every step of the project. Every politician and special interest group will work to block a project until they've been "satisfied" or beaten in court....absolutely disgusting.

I once witnessed a judge in local Detroit district court REFUSE to allow a bank to repossess a Cadillac from someone who had not made payments in over a year. She kept telling the bank's lawyer to "work it out", despite the fact that the buyer was $7,000 behind in payments and didn't have a job. The court system is just a joke. If the clerks don't like your case, your files are "lost" or "misplaced" so that hearings are never held. I know because I've experienced it.

[Sarc]

Originally posted by Jay H

Turning the Michigan Theater into a parking structure seems to be one of the worst effects of time...those pictures are amazing...

Jay
90 964

My girlfriend's (born and raised in Warren) grandparents had their first date in that theater when they were in high school.

[Sarc]

Originally posted by WINTER1100S
Heard on the news the other day the bronze or copper historical markers are being stolen to scrap and meltdown. Nice...

Cheers,
Tim

You'll find as you explore these abandoned buildings, the higher you get the more preserved the interior of the building is. It's not uncommon to find a squatter's surprisenly well kept "living space" in these places.
What's really eerie are finding these spaces that looked like the people left today, but the magazines, prescriptions, etc are dated from 1973 (or earlier). I was in a building last month, a long abandoned (save for the main level beauty supply store) department store that closed in 68/69. I came across the "graphics room" complete with old presses and templates, as well as a phone book from 67! It was if people just got up and left to go to lunch, and never came back.

If there's a boom happening in Detroit, it's the rapid influx of loftspaces. There is high demand for upscale living down in the CBD that hopefully will lead other businesses and restaurants to find they're way down.

For some more interesting reading, here's a blog I check in on from time to time. This guy explores quit a bit and takes some pretty interesting photos.

http://detroitblog.blogspot.com/2004_11_01_detroitblog_archive.html

Check out his archives as I think he's curtailed his exploring recently since he broke his collerbone