Where is your first home?

[MidTownMs]

When my father returned from WWII in 1946 he bought a house on Conner south of E. Jefferson. I lived there until 1968 when I got married and moved two streets over on Clairpointe the house my husband grew up in. At that time they were building an apartment complex in Lafayette Park and we moved there in 1970. The complex is still very well kept and looks exactly like it did when we moved there. When my parents died last year the house on Conner became mine and I purchased the empty lot next door and donated the property to Habitat for Humanities. A new house is there along with a number of other new houses. The community has gone through a number of changes especially following the riots of '67. It looks like it's trying to make a comback however it will never be the same as I remembered. There are still quite a few burned down boarded up houses on the street. Hopefully they will be torn down and replaced by new houses.

[mikefmich]

Woah!...I grew up at 1413 Royal in Royal Oak! I lived there from 1963-1983.

Block and a half down at 802. Cost my folks the staggering sum of 5k, give or take a wee bit.

It was an awesome neighborhood. Though we left in 1953, along with others, my folks still visited there into the 1980's, and knew where everyone else had moved to, sent Xmas cards for almost 40 yrs, went to weddings & funerals.

They all went thru the war together....wives on the home front. They were a tight bunch of folks. One of them was the founder of the Turkey Roost in Kawkawlin.

[Whitehouse]

My first home was in the city of Hoogeveen. A corner apartment in a small four story flat. Not that remarkable and I don't remember anything about it. I only live there for the first 2,5 years of my life.
My childhood home was in the village of Britsum.


My parent still live there, that caravan and blue Peugeot in the picture are also theirs.

[393Bird]

I was born and raised in Redford Township at 25325 Ivanhoe, between Telegraph and Beech Daily, just south of Fenkell. Most of the houses were built in the 1930s-40s. Very nice area for kids to be raised. Went to Roosevelt School, and Redford Union HS. Moved to Tn while in HS in 1958. Our phone # was Kenwood 1-4712 the best I remember.

[mtburb]

Lived in this house on Sycamore Street in Southgate from my 1981 birth to 1994-ish. Ironically enough, my home was next to that of Southgate's very first mayor!

Here's an August 2007 Street View of my first home:
http://g.co/maps/3zndb

The house I'm talking about that was next to mine was at 13726 Sycamore, 2006 photos can be found at this link [[scroll down to "13726 SYCAMORE [[Southgate)"): http://rimes12.tripod.com/city/southgate.html

This was back when all of Downriver was in the same area code as Detroit [[these days only cities bordering or very close to Detroit still have 313, the rest is 734).

Went to Fordline Elementary at Fordline and Mercier from 1986 to 1992 or 1993. Then briefly went to Davison Middle at Trenton and Leroy from 1993 to 1994 when I moved to Wyandotte.

[fratman]

Our house was in northwest neighborborhood on Ward Ave between Schaeffer&Meyers. 15322 Ward Ave from 1948 to 1971. I believe my parents rented a house 1 block away on Sorrento before buying on Ward Ave. I remember buying my school supplies each school year at our neighborhood drug store Bond Drugs on Fenkell&Sorrento. I remember the Carlton Theater for the Saturday matinees[[Roy Rogers western in color). I remember when Butzel pool opened & Butzel baseball field. My folks moved to Southfield in June 71 after I got out of the Navy in Oct 70.

[detroittrader]

Block and a half down at 802. Cost my folks the staggering sum of 5k, give or take a wee bit.

It was an awesome neighborhood. Though we left in 1953, along with others, my folks still visited there into the 1980's, and knew where everyone else had moved to, sent Xmas cards for almost 40 yrs, went to weddings & funerals.

They all went thru the war together....wives on the home front. They were a tight bunch of folks. One of them was the founder of the Turkey Roost in Kawkawlin.

It's still a very nice quiet neighborhood. I'll check out your old house, I still go to my folks house a couple times a week.

[vivadetroit]

13646 Saratoga, between Gratiot & Schoenherr, a few blocks south of 7 Mile. Loved that neighborhood when I was a kid. I've got some of the same memories that most of you have: playing w/ lots of kids on the street til the street lights came on, Chatam's, etc. We used to go to the pool at Heilman and also sledding at Balduck. I remember walking to the library on 6 Mile and going to the fairs at Assumption Grotto. Moved to Eastpointe in 1984 - didn't want to move, but I was 11. Had to go.

Drove by this house about 5 months ago and almost cried. It's a war zone. On my block, there are 6 burned-out hulks, 4 boarded up, soon to be burned up homes, and 3 vacant lots where houses used to be. My old house is the nicest one on the block. The current owners just re-sided it in the summer & the owner was kind of was looking at me odd when I was checking out his house. Of course, I told him my story & we had a nice little chat about how Detroit used to be. Ah, the memories..

[DetroitVideoDaily]

@Blueidone Thanks for the welcome!
-DVD

[turkeycall]

Born in 1950 and, until I was 20, lived at 5233 Farmbrook Detroit 24, Michigan.
TUxedo 2-1267. Went on active duty in the Navy in '71, came home in '73. That Farmbrook house sure did shrink a lot in two years!

Attended Bethany Lutheran for grade school, one year at Finney, then three years at Lutheran East.

The far east side of Detroit in the '50s - what a great place to live!

The neighborhood kids - and we weren't called "Incubator Row" for nothing - could go to Balduck Park in the morning with a sack lunch and get back home for supper at 5 in the afternoon. Our folks never worried about our whereabouts - we were with friends and we looked out for each other.

We used to go to the Woods Theater on Saturdays. 25 cents for a movie unless it was a Disney. Then it was 35 cents.

[Jer W]

7758 Granger Det 13 Mich 1950 to 1967 Loved every minite of it
Oh yeah WAlnut 44774

[Herman Krieger]

I was born in Detroit. All the places I where I lived are now gone. You can see it on the website at www.efn.org/~hkrieger/detroit.htm.

[oladub]

Thanks Herman. Well done! Better luck in your next life dodging expressways.

[Pontiac6000]

From mid-1968 to 1988 [[thanks dad): 14943 Sorrento in the Littlefield neighborhood. There was light industry nearby: Strand Heating and Cooling, Bockstanz J. Max Robinson Scenery, and various industry on Eaton. We had Bond Market [[mom says original owners became Efros Drugs on 10 and Greenfield), Brickley Dairy, Wrigley's Supermarket [[for some reason I thought was going to be a Toys R Us? before its opening) , and Hudson Auto at Steel and Fenkell. The Variety Theatre at Ward was a community cornerstone. I went to school at Guest Elem/Middle and watched the building of 'Little Guest' on Sorrento across the street from Sorrento Lunch. We were close friends with the Johnsons'- the first black family on our block, and old man Johnson looked a lot like the guy that started Ebony Magazine.

[Ronjm23]

My 1st home was 5782 Otis in Detroit's west side near St. Hedwig parish. Directly accros the street was Pulanski bakery later called Dalee Bakery where we go for fresh baked bread. Across Wesson Street was a Beer Garden where, in the summer Polka music could be heard. I haven't been back in many years so I checked Google street view and to my dismay the home and the bakery are gone. Both are empty lots. I was born in the mid 40's and realize that change is inevitable.

[Hermod]

My 1st home was 5782 Otis in Detroit's west side near St. Hedwig parish. Directly accros the street was Pulanski bakery later called Dalee Bakery where we go for fresh baked bread. Across Wesson Street was a Beer Garden where, in the summer Polka music could be heard. I haven't been back in many years so I checked Google street view and to my dismay the home and the bakery are gone. Both are empty lots. I was born in the mid 40's and realize that change is inevitable.

To those who grew up in Detroit back in the 1940s and 1950s, Google Street View should come with a warning "Very Bad For Your Heart".

[CassTechGrad]

We lived at 13795 Moenart, near 6 Mile & Davison where my mother lived when she was growing up in the late 1920’s. It was Lot #235 in RED on the original title. Its shows that 6 Mile Road, official McNicholes Road, was originally Jerome Avenue back then. Just down the street was White Elementary school, Lasky Park, and Jayne field. On the corner of Moenart and 6 Mile a little carry-out pizzeria open in the early sixties called “The Home of the Pizza” where I worked as the delivery boy from 1965 to mid 1966. I went into the army in 1969 and my folks moved to Sterling Hts the next year. Very happy memories of the old neighborhood but it’s an urban prairie now. How can it be that everything disappeared so fast?

[thomprod]

From June 1964 to December 1968, I lived at 18510 Greenfield, south of Seven MIle Rd. It was still called postal zone 35 back in the days before Zip codes. We lived in a duplex apartment at the southeast corner of Margareta and Greenfield and walked to Winship School on Curtis and Lauder. I played at Peterson Park in the summer. Milk was 52 cents a half gallon at the little store on the corner of Curtis and Greenfield, and my Mom would let me walk there and back by myself when I was 8 or 9 years old.