Does anyone has photos of Gratiot and VanDyke taken in the late 60s early 70s?
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Does anyone has photos of Gratiot and VanDyke taken in the late 60s early 70s?
The Gratiot and Van Dyke Store is where we frequent all the time when I was a youth during the Seventies.
We went for clothes, hardware, appliances, etc.
Sears sold everything [[as they do today).
We flew model planes on the lot on the weekends.
The only business that I remember on Gratiot near Fischer is the Sunoco gas station. The repair shop on the south side of Gratiot. The boat dealer on the south side. Houstons Grille. That smaill factory that sat on the southwest side of Gratiot and Fisher. Now it is a rental hall
The Sears on Grand River did not have a bridge. It had a tunnel under a railroad. The bridge was between the Montgomery Ward and the Federals. That was several more miles West of the Sears. The Sears was at Oakman and the Wards was at Greenfield.
Wow what an old thread!!!
Great thread. Had to look back to see if I was here then. Traced myself back to 4/08. Wow, people just having a civil conversation about an interesting topic. What a concept. Still love this site.
I knew someone that was a butcher at Laurie Bros. back in the 1960's. Laurie Bros. had the highest amount of retail liquor sales in the State of Michigan for a number of years back then. During the riot in 1967, word was put out in the area that if Laurie Bros. was looted they would leave the neighborhood and NEVER return. They were not touched at all or had a very minor issue.
This is a great thread. So much history and information. This is why I love DetroitYes.
While we're still on the topic of Gratiot and Van Dyke... on the same side of Gratiot [[east) as Sear's... just about a block or so south of the store was Saffron Printing... a 4 story or so very odd looking white factory building. They printed all sorts of media. It to was torn down quite some time ago...
If I'm not mistaken, the building that housed the old Morley Candy Store is still standing at the N/E corner of Gratiot and Fisher. My grandmother lived on Crane near Lambert and we used to walk to Morley's
The area of Gratiot and Vandyke with streets such as Maxwell, Seminole, Seneca Iroquios, Burns, Fischer, Crane and Rohns, from Gratiot to Mack could be designated a historical designation. There are many Victorian style homes and nice bugalows on those streets. The area could be restored such as Corktown was restored. I remember Mr Murphy store that was on the corner of Belvidere and Chapin. There were another store on Rohns and Chapin, Rohns and Moffat, and Fischer had two stores across the street from one another on the corner of Fischer and Moffat. A&P was on Crane and Gratiot. I would love to see photos of the area that was taken in the 40s thru 60s
Harper and Van Dyke... I grew up in that area in the 60's. Shoe repair shop across from Cunningham's, next door to Doc's Bar, Donuts shop on Harper. Went to Easttown show every weekend. Would really like to see photos of that area.
Also Gratiot and Harper on Bessemore St. Al Homes was my first school, the smell of potato chips being made. Good times.
On the 1876 through 1915 Grosse Point Twp. Maps, Vernier meets 8 Mile and 8 Mile doesn't extend any further than that. On the 1930 map, 8 Mile goes two blocks further to Beaconsfield, and East of that is indicated with dashed lines. So "Old 8 Mile" is actually the much newer road.
Up through 1915, Morass only goes as far as about where the I-94 inbound service drive is today, and 7 Mile ends at Kelly. I don't know what the signage indicated for the one block of 7 Mile that's East of where Moross joins it if the Detroit stretch of Moross was officially named 7 Mile back in 1930. I don't know what the signage indicates currently.
Brock7... 7 Mile Rd. does end at Kelly. That one block is still 7 Mile Rd. Moross has always been Moross... but here on the east side old timers have always called Moross and Vernier as 7 and 8 Mile. The shopping plaza known as Pointe Plaza today replace one called 7-Mack Shopping Center.
Interesting about 8 Mile east of Beaconsfield though! Didn't know that it wasn't always there. I knew someone that lived on 8 Mile one block from I-94, and his house was at least 50-60 years old.
I lived first on Fischer off Chapin, then Rohns off Chapin in the 50's. My brother and I went to the Dawn Theater every Saturday with our friends. We would walk down Chapin to Seneca, then Gratiot to Iroquois. Googling the intersection of Seneca and Gratiot sure brought back memories - the 3 foot high round cement posts that we climbed and played on are still there! If they had the balcony roped off, we would try to sneak up the stairs. Made it once but got caught because my brother was tossing popcorn at the kids on the main floor.
I practically lived at the Mark Twain Library. I remember the reading room off to the left when you first came in. I always wanted to be able to go into that room, but it was for adults only. And I was fascinated by the large world globe in the middle of the main room.
We were not allowed to cross Gratiot without an adult, but the lure of Morleys was just too strong. If we had 15 cents we would sneak across Gratiot to sit in a booth eating a 10 cent ice cream cone and putting 5 cents in the tabletop juke box. Only got caught once.
Great childhood memories.