Highland Park Today

[jgavrile]

There are no words to describe the decline.
Just look and wonder, What Happened?
http://www.flickr.com/groups/358912@N20/pool/show/with/3148611678/

[Bearinabox]

Can't get in. It's password protected.

Eh, whatever. I know what Highland Park looks like.

[spiritofdetroit]

Visteon, eh?

Hmm...

[jgavrile]

lets try again
http://www.flickr.com/groups/358912@...th/3148611678/

[TKshreve]

Looks good dude. That's a pretty long slide show btw.

[Blueidone]

Great pictures! My parents grew up in Highland Park. My father was born in 1916, mom in 1919. Mom is gone now, but next time I see my dad, I will show him these pictures. He lives in Grand Rapids now and hasn't been to HP in years.

[jgavrile]

Well it sure was a great place while I was growing up in the 40's and 50's
It had about everything you needed. Best schools, cleanest streets, great city services, great shopping, centrally located,nice looking homes and streets, etc.
Don't know what else anyone could ask for? The corporations leaving and the lack of tax base sure did a number on this town.

[PeachLaser]

Thanks for the photos!

A few months back, someone posted a school safety patrol video that was produced in Highland Park. Can anyone provide that link? Thanks!

[lugotown]

Yes, I keep hearing that HP was the envy of Michigan. I would love to learn more about the history of Highland Park. The more I learn about this city amazes me. Truly a shame what has happened. I would also love to learn about the family or families that lived in the home we're in. It needs a ton of work but I can imagine it was a showplace at one time. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to take some time to do some research.

[douglasm]

Highland Towers are getting a little shabby looking.....

[Wintersmommy]

Great pictures! My parents grew up in Highland Park. My father was born in 1916, mom in 1919. Mom is gone now, but next time I see my dad, I will show him these pictures. He lives in Grand Rapids now and hasn't been to HP in years.

my grandfather was born in 1916 and lived in HP too..they lived on California i believe.. ask your dad if he remembers Elmer Hammond i imagine he wont given how long its been but theres always a possibility. My grandfather taught at the HP
career academy
[[or at least i think thats what it was called )

[jgavrile]

RobTruth did you have Mr. Brusca over there at Thompson School? He was our gym teacher over at Barber schoolin the 50's. Then he became the principal of Thompson School in the 60's. He was the keeper of the paddle. When you screwed up bad enough, they would send down to Brusca's office and he would administer the long paddle with the holes in it.
Those guys at Chrysler would become targets at lunch time. They would wait for them to go up to Woodward on payday and cash their checks, and then they would jump them when they were coming back to work at lunchtime.
My Dad took off after one of those thiefs with a pipe wrench and caught him. My Dad was in his late 70's and sitting on the porch on day across from Thompson school on Winona and he saw a guy jump one of the Chrysler workers and try and get his money , but my Dad took off of the porch and gave chase. My Mother meanwhile called the cops and they were there in a heartbeat.
So much for Thompson school ,as it is a wrecked shit hole now. wasn't worth the trouble to build it.

[RobTruth]

Yes I do remember Andy Brusca and the paddle with the holes in it. I never heard of any one getting jumped though. Thompson is a wreck like you stated. I spent a lot of time on Winona, at the playground. There was a square on the wall that was a "strike zon"e and a lot of kids learned how to pitch fastball accurately from that. If you were there in the 60s and 70s maybe you remember the Hamood, Forsythe, Smart, and Huddleston families. Do you rememer Frank's store on Brush just south of the service drive? That's where workers cashed their check on Fridays, drank beer and ate those hot Polish sausages and skins.

[Blueidone]

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?

[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!!

[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.

[lugotown]

This is from some research I found for a project I'm working on.

In 1987, Chrysler announced that it was leaving Highland Park for new facilities and everyone knew Highland Park was in for some very tough times. The problem was that the city continued to spend as if they still had the same resources coming in. What happens to a city that looses 70 percent of its tax revenues seemingly overnight? Boarded up houses, disappearing services, collapsing infrastructure, sky rocketing crime rates, and no oversight or a plan, eventually the state takes over.
Unfortunately, that became the legacy of Highland Park.

[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.

[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.

[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?