Harbor Island

[cla1945]

Some interesting reading from an article a couple of years ago regarding Lakewood Street.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...RO01/310040001

[EastsideAl]

My aunt lived on Lakewood for several years, until the state transferred her up north in the late '80s. I always loved her beautiful house and the other houses on that street I visited as a kid.

My cousin lived further down the street towards the park until a couple of years ago, and still owns the house down there [[his work transferred him to NYC). The previous owner had stripped out much of the detail in a misguided "renovation" many years ago [[which also, not coincidentally, allowed him to sell the "salvage" as "architectural antiques"), but my cousin has been slowly restoring the house for the past several years.

My family has very close friends who've lived in one of the small cottage-like houses on Harbor Island for decades now. Despite the fact that they're not 'boat people' [[like most of their neighbors) they love it there, wouldn't live anywhere else, and have never had any crime problems of any sort. My grandfather kept his boat nearby on Scripps for many years, and on Klenk Island during the prohibition years [[better to make the quick runs out behind Peche Island).

Lakewood was built to be the "luxury" street in that neighborhood, and my dad remembers looking with envy on the classy people who lived there when he was growing up around the corner in an apartment on Charlevoix. In the late '50s when he and my mother had scraped together enough money to try to buy a nice house the first place he looked was on lower Lakewood and Harbor Island, but the houses there were still too expensive for them so they ended up buying in Indian Village, which was then, believe it or not, cheaper!

[liam foote]

Thanks to cla1945 and EastsideAl for interesting and informative responses. It's heartening to hear of retired folks taking it upon themselves to sometimes patrol the streets or cut the grass on vacant lots. Shows how much people love and honor their old neighborhoods. Cheers.