On this Date in Detroit History - DetroitYES 25th Anniversary Flashbacks

[jcole]

Did you miss the It's Jeff plaque picture Lowell posted above?

Is no one going to mention ItsJeff, Jeff Colby? We became e-mail pals off of the forum.

[Kathleen]

And surely there will be more memories of ItsJeff share soon as the anniversary of his death draws near. On February 14, it will be 17 years since we lost our dear friend and DetroitYES leader.

[Lowell]

Thanks again for all the kind remarks and, I must say, it is great to see some 'old' members resurface and chime in!

[Kathleen]

You're in for a treat Kathleen, particularly in the now-spectacular Book Building Atrium.

Lowell: We dropped by the Book Tower yesterday for a look-see! Magnificent!! The Atrium is stunning!! The glass dome is really beautiful. Happy to see the lobby clock all restored.

We spent a few minutes in the Book Tower historical exhibit. Very interesting. Brought back some memories.

And we wandered about the atrium lobby, both ground and second levels, checking out the art works done by local artists, including Shirley Woodson, Sydney James, Mario Moore, and Gilda Snowden, and others.

[missn]

Did you miss the It's Jeff plaque picture Lowell posted above?

Thanks. I did miss it.

[beachboy]

Thank you, Lowell, for maintaining this wonderful site!!

I lurked for several years before signing up ... your Ruins of Detroit site dispelled any fantasies of what Detroit had become since I left Michigan c.1976. And DetroitYES offered a glimmer of hope ... now it's great to be able to see the city rising from bankruptcy and despair ... Thank you a million times!!

[Lowell]

On this date February 14, 2002, the Belle Stables, ravaged by fire and the elements awaits eventual demolition. Reportedly elements of the stables were salvaged and turned over to the Henry Ford Museum for possible reconstruction, but I have no confirmation of that. Does anyone?

The stables once connected to a network of bridle paths that criss-crossed the adjacent Belle Isle forest.

[Gistok]

Detroit's Central Market, built in 1861 on Cadillac Square closed in 1894, and spent the next 110 years at Belle Isle changed almost beyond recognition to being the Belle Isle Stables, which had that fire back about 20+ years ago.

Greenfield Village dismantled it, and restored the framework of the building back to its' 1861 look... job well done! Although I thought that it would have made a nice addition to historic Eastern Market on the site of where the former Shed 1 was located [on the parking lot in front of R. Hirt Building].

But anyway... it's great that it is reborn!!

https://www.thehenryford.org/visit/g...entral-market/

[Lowell]

Greenfield Village dismantled it, and restored the framework of the building back to its' 1861 look... job well done!
But anyway... it's great that it is reborn!!

https://www.thehenryford.org/visit/g...entral-market/

Awesome! Thanks for pointing that out Gistok and its interesting history. Reminds me the I am overdue for an update visit to Greenfield Village / Henry Ford Museum. Here it is from their site.

[PlymouthRes]

Congrats to you, Lowell, for your longevity and devotion to DetroitYes and providing such a great platform to highlight the CoD! I guess that I would be considered an "old-timer", as I joined this site in around 2004 or so. I still check in every once in a while, but I haven't lived in Michigan since 2021, so I really only stalk the posts now. I still consider D'Yes to be the go to for all things Detroit, but the players that made it what it was for me have all but disappeared or are no longer with us. Gone are the days of Gannon, Django, Ravine, the irascible ItsJeff, BobL, Hornblower, Scs101, Jams and the list goes on. Good to see gnome, Gistok, Stromberg, jcole, Kathleen, Lowell and several others, too. May this forum go on for another 25 years. Take care everyone!

[Zacha341]

^ Well stated PRes!

[Kathleen]

^^

Hello to PlymouthRes! Hope all is well. Thanks for checking in!

[Lowell]

On this date March 6, 2010 the one room former country school Thayer School sits boarded up amid Metro-Detroit's ever-encroaching urban sprawl in Northville Township. Behind it rests Thayer Cemetery. A TV antenna, now a relic too, curiously sits atop it.

"Built in 1877 on land purchased from Rufus Thayer, the first settler at 6 Mile and Napier Road, Thayer School is the oldest one-room schoolhouse on its original site in Northville Township. It was a school until 1952 when it was closed and purchased by Mr. Thayer’s great granddaughter and then was a home for 40 years until being sold to Arbor Hills Landfill. Thayer Cemetery was created in 1838 when Mr. Thayer and his wife lost their infant son George who was buried on their property at 6 Mile and Napier. The historic district was created by the Northville Township Board of Trustees in 2011." Source

I have passed this many times; it's on my backroad route to Ann Arbor. It is also cater-corner to a massive landfill. From this latest Google Street view it appears to have been sand-blasted with a new roof and be undergoing a restoration.

[mikefmich]

This has been a great place to visit over the years. My current profile says Apr 2010, but I was on here while I was still living in the metro Detroit area. [[pre-2007)

I thought I knew my east side history, but there was/is a couple folks that boggled my mind with their knowledge. Educated me a lot more about the Leesville area which my people were around by the 1840's. One kind soul, another name I don't remember even gave me his copy of Wm Sugar's 1953 book about Leesville. At least thru marriage I think I was related to all the big families from that area.

I loved the many threads on Detroit history, and the help I got from some other kind souls, handle names I don't remember now. A former MichCon boy like myself, got me a couple MichCon history books that was printed long ago.

One name I do remember is tponetom. A lovely kind soul, that I miss exchanges with. His missives about him and wife Peggy who were then living in the UP always warmed my heart.
Thanks so much for your dedication to this site Lowell. I don't visit much in recent years, the bickering is distasteful and one poster in particular who is fond of making War and Peace level posts, makes me ill, he is hard to ignore or avoid since he chimes in on almost every thread.

[Zacha341]

^ That UP connection was very nice from tponetom.

[Lowell]

March 21, 2003 the remains of the gilded age Ransom Gillis mansion lie in seemingly hopeless ruin.



It would be magnificently restored showing that if the will is there, nothing is beyond hope of restoration.

Speramus Meliora Resurget Cineribus!

The Completely Restored Ransom Gillis House - December 3, 2015


October 4, 2018, once a lonely ruin the Ransom Gillis House is now in the center of the massive redevelopments of Brush Park. Read more here >>

Ransom Gillis House - August 2, 2000


Ransom Gillis House Oct. 24, 2015


Ransom Gillis House Sept. 25, 2015


And with it a newly revitalized Brush Park neighborhood would rise.



Ransom Gillis in Winter 2005

[canuck]

Thank you for updating this, Lowell. It is really amazing how they brought back this building from near oblivion. Triumph of the will and a lot of heart.

[Gistok]

Lowell... when seeing photos like the Ranson Willis house, I am sadly reminded of driving thru this neighborhood back in the 1980s, when there were about 4 times the number of these homes still intact, but derilect. The city did some street work to highlight these homes, but no one was interested back then.

That was so sad to see because had they all survived, then much of Gilbert's Brush Park development would have had to have been built elsewhere. But as the decades progressed, fewer and fewer homes survived... and today we have these restored gems interspersed with modern construction, which is an odd mixture of styles.

Although I am glad they are restored, these streets just don't have the feeling of a neighborhood that streets like West Canfield and East Ferry have. But that is obvious.

[Lowell]

April 4, 2015 we head "Down Riveria" shoreline city of River Rouge for visit to Belanger Park.

This lovely carved-out niche sits tucked between a massive Great Lakes Steel facility and the Detroit Edison Plant seen the background.


A lone fisherman tends his lines on this beaming early spring day.


Beyond him the skyline of downtown stretches across the horizon. The landmark Renaissance Center sits across the elbow of Canadian land that marks the big bend toward Lake Erie in straits of Detroit.


Remarkably he had caught a rainbow trout, a species the Detroit River is not know for.


A commerotive plaque dating from 1978 announces the creation of Belanger Park. Bravo to the City of River Rouge for creating this moment of beauty amid the grinding industrial shoreline.

[Lowell]

It's April 16, 2006 as we visit the empty streets of Downtown Pontiac where the elegant Strand Theater sits vacant and boarded up. Downtown Pontiac, filled with beautiful architecture, faced, and still does, an uncertain future.



Further north on Saginaw Avenue the centerpiece of Pontiac, the 1929 art deco gem, the Oakland Towne Center, formerly the Pontiac State Bank Building, beamed in the spring sunlight.

[Lowell]

On the positive side, this Google Street view image from 15 years later in 2021 shows the Strand restored.