Highland Park Today

[Bearinabox]

Art Blackwell has become the subject of a Channel 4 investigation. Although he claimed he would work for $1.00 a year, it turns out he has been billing [[and has been paid big time) by not only the State, but he also writes checks to himself through the HP account. His dollar a year "salary" has hit 6 figures.
Like father, like son. The acorn does not fall far from the tree.

Must be rough, trying to pull yourself out of receivership when the Emergency Financial Manager is walking away with a hefty chunk of the city's budget. No wonder there's no money to light the alleys with. Yeesh.

[jgavrile]

RobTruth, I remember all those kids. I was already grown but my folks lived there. The Forsythe kid use to do erands for my folks. I think he had only one eye. The Hamood kids were always in trouble. especially Norman.
Frank's store must have been there forever? When I was a kid ,some Armenian family use to run it. It always seemed dark and dingy in there.
Mr. Brusca was a very good man to kidss. Always understanding. Mr. Al Halper was good too.
It still seems strange ,when I go down my street and see the school there in place of the homes that use to be there. I never understood how they picked that corner to build the new Thompson school? The old one use to be on Oakland ,south at the city limits. They tore that down and many homes in order to expand Chrysler Engineering center in the late 60's. Right around where Bing Steel is now.
The elm trees use to make the streets look so nice in the sumertime, when they would grow over the street. It was like living in a forest back then. We had a huge apple tree in our yard that was as tall as the house. My Dad told me it was big when they bought the house in the 20's, so it must have been there before the subdivision was built on the farm land that was once there.
Highland Park had some very good black soil, and I imagine that everything there grew real well in the old days when it was farm land.

[GOAT]

It is also what happens when city employees are paid way to much including golden pensions on the back of local taxpayers.

Windsor is next...

[Wintersmommy]

Wintersmommy: I will ask my dad on Saturday. It is his 93rd birthday! We will be travelling to Grand Rapids to visit him. My dad's family lived on Florence, I think. I know mom lived on North. Both graduated from Highland Park High School. Is your grandfather still alive?

No Elmer passed away in 1986 or 87 [[I cant remember i was very young either 6 or 7 at the time)
He was a school teacher in HP and so was my grandmother Dorthy
after they married they moved to San Jaun near Palmer Park. My greatgrandfather [[Elmer's Father)worked for the railroad but i dont know which one off the top of my head. Happy Birthday to your father!!

[RobTruth]

Boy what memories Jgavrile! The kid with one eye was named Greg; he was one of my best friends through early high school. Norman H. was interesting; his sister Suzie was a pistol. One of my earliest memories is Mrs. Hamood asking my mother in her heavily accented...Armenian??..to pick the grape leaves that grew in our backyard. Susie told me her moms would wrap meat and veggies in the leaves and eat them.

Frank's store is stilll standing; it's closed looks pretty bad though. I will never forget my Mom caught Frank cheating a kid outta change and refused to go there any more.

Al Halper hired my Mom to work at Thompson, she worked at Barber and at 20 Bartlett for 22 years.

I remember going too far on my bike one day and getting a little lost by old Thompson. To this day when I ride by there I remember how scared I was that day.


We had a pear tree in our yard and back then "The Park" was truly the "City of Trees".

[jgavrile]

Mr. Brusca died a few years ago. However Al Halper is still around. I try and have lunch wuth him at least once a year. Beluieve it or not he plays soft ball avery day in the summer on some league. He looks like a million bucks. Stays in shape.
Funny story about the Hamoods. The father ,who I am not sure where he worked , but they had a bunch of kids and the Father fancied himself as some kind of dude? He would go out with the fellas and get all dressed up and look like he was some high shiek. Anyway one evening in the summer he decided to go out and for what ever reason, the Mother was all pissed off about it and as he was walking out of the front door she was right behind him, hollering and screaming in Arabic at him, and grabbing him as if to stop him.
Well,as you can imagine, he was the boss, and he turned around and proceeded to slap her around/ The man that lived next door to us was a WW II veteran ,and quite the outdoorsman,and a pretty tough guy. He was sitting on his porch and saw all this take place, so he did a dash over to the Hamoods and grabbed Mr. Hamood and beat the hell out of him, while telling him he was a sissy and that if he wanted to beat on someone ,well come over to him and see if he can start slapping him around. He didn't take too kindly to a man beating up a woman`. The cops came and all that and of course Hamood wanted the neighbor arrested and he told Hamood that if he did get arrested, that when he got out ,he would come back and beat the shit out of him again. Well that ended the whole scene and I don't think Hamood ever beat his wife up again. Not in public anyway.
there sure were a lot of Syrian families on Winona. Half of them related to each other. We all got along great . They were pretty nice people. The Hamoods were the only ones that seemed a little backward.
Yea we had a pear tree in our yard and some peach trees along with that big apple tree. It was great.

[RobTruth]

Mr. Hamood worked at drumroll......Chrysler! He used to wear a white suit to work, change at the factory, and change back before coming back home.

Who would imagine now trying to hide that you worked at a Chrysler factory? Imagine two weeks from now getting your paycheck in liras.

[Blueidone]

Wintersmommy: I talked with my dad tonight in preparation for our trip. But he didn't remember Mr. Hammond. But he is 93...and his memory isn't very good to begin with. I sure would love to know more history, but he has lost most of it. I should have asked sooner! Thanks for the birthday wishes!

[terryh]

That neighbor should have minded his own business and let the Hamoods work out their problems...maybe the b was nagging too much or it is a cultural thing for a man in some cultures to keep a woman in line with aggression.....I would NEVER
step in to help a woman...women cause too many problems.

Anyways, I was browsing through some Highland Park yearbooks from the 50's that are in the Burton Historical museum and it appeared the scholl was predominantly Anglo with a smattering of middle class Afridan American and Middle Eastern students.

[jgavrile]

Seemed like there was every nationality you could imagine. Lots of Syrians, Armenians, Southerners,Italians,Scotch,Irish,Hungarians,Roman ians,Germans,Checks,Polish,,Blacks etc. This was all due to both of the Plants being in Highland Park. Chrysler on Oakland and Ford on Woodward. It was a big draw for every immigrant that came here. Everyone seemed to get along.

[xdet]

Seemed like there was every nationality you could imagine. Lots of Syrians, Armenians, Southerners,Italians,Scotch,Irish,Hungarians,Roman ians,Germans,Checks,Polish,,Blacks etc. This was all due to both of the Plants being in Highland Park. Chrysler on Oakland and Ford on Woodward. It was a big draw for every immigrant that came here. Everyone seemed to get along.

What surprised me is that there were even Koreans in Highland Park by the 1920 Census, in the neighborhood my grandparents had lived in [[they returned to Pennsylvania by 1919)
They lived on Stevens Street around 1913 to 1917. When grandpa first started working for Edward Gray on the Highland Park Plant, there were just 4,000 living in what would become Highland Park- it wasn't incorporated yet. A special 1915 census was done as by then it was 27,000 and 46,500 by 1920.
I live in Oregon now, so had to rely on Google for the view 'today' which is a few years old, it may not be there today-

Even in 1913 there were still empty lots, before the $5 day was announced- look behind grandma and my oldest uncle-

The couple in the original photo on the left was George and Mary Bolton- their landlords, as grandma and grandpa weren't sure of how long they'd be in Michigan. He was from England, she from Wales. Not only did they have Koreans in the neighborhood, but also some from 'Bohemia', [[a region of the Czech Republic), Others from Ireland, France, Armenia- this by the 1920 Census.
My grandfather worked directly for Edward Gray, Ford's Chief Engineer from 1909 to 1914. He had worked for him from 1906 in Oil City at Riverside Engine, where Gray sold the first power plants for Highland Park to Ford.

1906 Oil City directory- a 'draughtsman' [[draftsman in today's 'language')
I always thought that grandpa worked for Ford but actually he worked for Gray directly-
1912 City of Detroit directory, before grandma came and they moved to Stevens-

When Edward Gray left Ford, grandpa went with him- he worked on some project at the Connor's Creek Detroit Edison plant, for Gray-

Interesting, Edward Gray's 'home' was this yacht parked at the end of Continental where he started 'Grayhaven' from, maybe the only photo out there of the "Mildred G. III"- [[my grandmother's notes, written years later, but confirmed by a close inspection of the name on the side)

Must have been amazing days!
In 1937 grandpa returned to Detroit at Gray's invitation and worked with Gray and Gar Wood [[Gray died in 1939) He worked in this 'bunker' on Grayhaven near the bridge over the canal-

WWII draft registration-

[gazhekwe]

Love the family time capsule.

I remember when they closed the big Sears store. That was definitely the end of HP for me. The whole downtown shopping street scene had just melted away over time. Of course people don't shop that way now. The beginning of a new era did not look so good in HP.

There are also some wonderful Craftsman bungalow homes there. I really wanted to live in one of those.

My grandparents lived just over the fence from Highland Park Hospital and my brother and sister were born there. I got to stay at grandma and grandpa's and walk down to the fence to wave at my mom in the hospital.

There are bright spots in HP today though. I just got an invite to this wonderful Italian restaurant on Woodward in HP, La Dolce Vita. It's number 45 on the list of 50 things to eat before you die.

45. Stuffed French toast

La Dolce Vita [[address and info)
Highland Park
La Dolce Vita is an Italian restaurant, but people really aren't going there for the French food. They're going for the incredible patio, called an "urban oasis" so many times there is no longer any need to, and for the bottomless mimosa brunch with the mascarpone-stuffed French toast topped with sautéed bananas.

http://www.thrillist.com/eat/detroit/detroit-s-best-food-50-things-to-eat-before-you-die

[Bucket]

Love the family time capsule.

I remember when they closed the big Sears store. That was definitely the end of HP for me. The whole downtown shopping street scene had just melted away over time. Of course people don't shop that way now. The beginning of a new era did not look so good in HP.

There are also some wonderful Craftsman bungalow homes there. I really wanted to live in one of those.

My grandparents lived just over the fence from Highland Park Hospital and my brother and sister were born there. I got to stay at grandma and grandpa's and walk down to the fence to wave at my mom in the hospital.

There are bright spots in HP today though. I just got an invite to this wonderful Italian restaurant on Woodward in HP, La Dolce Vita. It's number 45 on the list of 50 things to eat before you die.

45. Stuffed French toast

La Dolce Vita [[address and info)
Highland Park
La Dolce Vita is an Italian restaurant, but people really aren't going there for the French food. They're going for the incredible patio, called an "urban oasis" so many times there is no longer any need to, and for the bottomless mimosa brunch with the mascarpone-stuffed French toast topped with sautéed bananas.

http://www.thrillist.com/eat/detroit/detroit-s-best-food-50-things-to-eat-before-you-die

La Dolce Vita is at 17546 Woodward Ave in Detroit north of McNichols. It's not in Highland Park.

[Danny]

Highland Park went from a Henry Ford white to blue collar boom town filled with Detroit-esque colonials and family flats to a crackhead park filled with poor welfare and bridge card pacifying black folks in 50 years.

[CassTechGrad]

One of my favorite pictures of Highland Park. I started at Cass Tech in 1963 and sometimes instead of riding the 2nd Avenue bus north to 6 Mile Road, I’d walk to Woodward and take the bus to the terminal and then catch the Davison Shuttle. I’m sure that sometime during my three years at Cass Tech I rode that very same bus you see in this picture. I remember that intersection like it was yesterday.

[dtowncitylover]

Driving through Highland Park this weekend on Woodward, like most times I travel through, makes me cringe. I don't want to sound condescending or superior, but I feel like it's a third world enclave with first world make-up. Detroit at least has hope and a sense of renewal. I'm just not sure the same can be said for Highland Park.

[xdet]

Here's a chance to look forward, hopefully, at all of Woodward Avenue [[I just happen to be in Michigan that weekend-no not for one of the 'Oregon vs. Michigan games' but for my nephew's wedding so I'm going. Even though I live in the home of Oregon State now, it's hard to root for a Pac-12 team when playing Michigan!) - http://events.r20.constantcontact.co...&llr=syhbvzbab

[lpg]

In the early 90's I worked for a emergency equipment company. We delivered police cars to HPPD. I saw what looked like bullet holes in the front of the police station. While we were waiting outside the fire department got a call. They started one of the old trucks inside and by the time the door was fully open the inside was filled with blue smoke. As he pulled out it looked like the station was on fire. Stopped at another fire station and the alley looked like it was covered a foot thick in broken glass. A dumpster next to the station had a 20 foot tall tree growing out of it. The inside of the police station looked like something from a Untouchables episode.

[txlady]

I'm just getting 'page not found'. But I spent a few day recently driving around with my brother all over town [[he delivers med supplies) and it's freaking amazing. WTF did happen to a city that was the highest paid per capita, the jewel in the crown so to speak, just 70 years ago?

[txlady]

Well, that was a depressing post, but can I say, I love the old photos and the new corresponding ones. This city has a lot of old stories that I find fascinating.

[EastsideAl]

La Dolce Vita is at 17546 Woodward Ave in Detroit north of McNichols. It's not in Highland Park.

It's in that weird part of Detroit that's part of the same zip code as Highland Park and gets its mail through the Highland Park post office on Woodward. That area is often erroneously called "Highland Park" by GPS and online mapping. But everything north of Six Mile is, indeed, actually in the City of Detroit.