Gratiot Conner Area Memories

[Detroitej72]

How long did your dad teach at St. David's Detroitej72? Would he have been there in '72?


My dad only taught there the last year they were open, I want to say 1989. They closed the church and school at the end of the year and he moved on.

[14509glenfield]

Maxine: I delivered the evening Free Press on Wilfred from Gratiot [[starting at the funeral home [[name-ugh?) to Hayes. My neighborhood sidekick did basicaly the same on Glenfield. Single copies were 8 cents, home delivery were .65 daily & Sunday if that dates me. Earlier [[mid-50's) a plane crashed into a home on Glenfield. Were you kickin' then? Saw JFK on his swing through Detroit by the City Aiport. Another buddy worked at Quick Locksmiths, the owner and he were both firemen. I'll get the name.

[Maxine1958]

Maxine: I delivered the evening Free Press on Wilfred from Gratiot [[starting at the funeral home [[name-ugh?) to Hayes. My neighborhood sidekick did basicaly the same on Glenfield. Single copies were 8 cents, home delivery were .65 daily & Sunday if that dates me. Earlier [[mid-50's) a plane crashed into a home on Glenfield. Were you kickin' then? Saw JFK on his swing through Detroit by the City Aiport. Another buddy worked at Quick Locksmiths, the owner and he were both firemen. I'll get the name.

We lived on the other side of Gratiot, between Gratiot and Gunston. First on Glenfield then on Wilfred. We lived there from I'll say 1961 until the late 80's. In those days you knew all the people on your block by name.

[Buy American]

14509...the funeral home was Gordon C.Crabb Funeral Home.

[14509glenfield]

Maxine:
Harold Mader ran/owned Quick Locksmiths. A block then consisted of homes and neihbors like you said.

[Maxine1958]

14509...the funeral home was Gordon C.Crabb Funeral Home.

Crabb Funeral Home was on the corner of Gratiot and Outer Drive.

[14509glenfield]

Maxine: How about the name of the one on Wilfred? First structure East of Gratiot on the right.

[Buy American]

Maxine, you are absolutely right about Crabb Funeral Home, sorry.

The spelling may be incorrect, but I think the one referred to is Whitenburger Funeral Home, [[sp?), near Mapleridge and Gratiot. Or could it have been A. H. Peters Funeral Home?

[Flanders]

Maxine: How about the name of the one on Wilfred? First structure East of Gratiot on the right.

Buehler Funeral Home

[IrishSpartan]

Maxine, you are absolutely right about Crabb Funeral Home, sorry.

The spelling may be incorrect, but I think the one referred to is Whitenburger Funeral Home, [[sp?), near Mapleridge and Gratiot. Or could it have been A. H. Peters Funeral Home?

A.H. Peters Funeral Home was at Gratiot & St. Patrick. The building is still there but its a church now.

[RJ_Spangler]

I lived for a year on Wilfred, by Kaulf's Bar at Dickerson. Even after I moved back to Jefferson-Chalmers, we still went backs to Haas Roast Beef. I sure miss that place.

[RJ_Spangler]

Oh yeah, anyone remember "Learn to Fly with Lank Tygard" and that house with the sign with the Indian Chief right across the street on Connor?

[Maof]

Oh yeah, anyone remember "Learn to Fly with Lank Tygard" and that house with the sign with the Indian Chief right across the street on Connor?

I remember seeing it on our way to Mt. Olivet Cemetary.

[IrishSpartan]

The sign for the Indian was at Conner & Kennebec for decades.

Oh yeah, anyone remember "Learn to Fly with Lank Tygard" and that house with the sign with the Indian Chief right across the street on Connor?

[Flanders]

I lived for a year on Wilfred, by Kaulf's Bar at Dickerson. Even after I moved back to Jefferson-Chalmers, we still went backs to Haas Roast Beef. I sure miss that place.

Kolf's, I used to play pool and foosball games at that bar in the mid-70s, I eventually became so skilled at foosball, that it got to the point that my partner could be a total newbie, and we would still beat most challengers even if they were experienced as well.

[danofcamden]

We were just talking about that Indian sign a couple weeks ago. Do you rememebr what it actually was an advertisemet for or a back story? We couldn't at all.

[Olddetroiter]

Speaking of signs, is the sign on Gethsemane Cemetery [[Drive carefully. We can wait) still there?

[pgn421]

Danofcamden- the sign said "herbal medicines" as I remember

[Maxine1958]

RJ_Spangler - If you'd ever been back in the kitchen at Haas', you'd never eat there again. I'll admit the roast beef tasted wonderful, but after my aunt took a job there, and told us about the kitchen, we never went back.

Lank Tygard and his 'students' were a bunch of 'grabass' trolls. I used to frequent the airport bar in the early days of my wild-wicked-youth. Once those 'fellows' came in, my friends and I would leave.

Danofcamden & pgn421, since my father was a pharmacist, he was quite familiar with that house. It was probably one of the first herbal medicine stores. The man who lived there was supposedly an Indian Medicine Man. People would go there and get the herbal remedies, then when they didn't work, they would come to my father and ask him for something else.

[mauser]

Hey does anybody know what the blown out building along Gratiot next to the tracks and across from Gesthemane used to be ? It sure looks like a church, but its been burned several times so its real hard to tell. It would have been on the same block as the drug store.

It sits in a giant empty field that looks like an old mobile home park. I walked through yesterday, and there is what looks like a mobile home park clubhouse in the middle, and lots of small foundations.

This would be the area between Gratiot and the large factory.

Any recollections ?

Heres the building:

[Sludgedaddy]

Mauser....you hit the nail on the head when you surmised that a mobile home park once existed south of the City Airpot. When I attended De La Salle in the late sixties one of the school's janitors , a Mr. John Pupa, resided there.

As to the identity of the burned out hulk you depicted above...it's where the Morlocks drug my Time Machine.

[lafontaine]

So was my dad. What years was your dad there?

My dad was a sergeant at the 15th from the late sixties to 1977, when he died. His funeral was at the Buehler Funeral Home on Gratiot and he was buried in Gethesame. Our funeral procession down Gratiot stopped in front of the precinct, where all of the police offers lined up and saluted us. It was an impressive display that I have never forgot.

[jcole]

My dad was a sergeant at the 15th from the late sixties to 1977, when he died. His funeral was at the Buehler Funeral Home on Gratiot and he was buried in Gethesame. Our funeral procession down Gratiot stopped in front of the precinct, where all of the police offers lined up and saluted us. It was an impressive display that I have never forgot.

My dad was there quite a bit earlier than that. He retired from Detroit in 73 after 37 years, so he probably crossed paths with your dad at some point in time. He died in 75, a year after he left the city.

[MikeM]

Hey does anybody know what the blown out building along Gratiot next to the tracks and across from Gesthemane used to be ? It sure looks like a church, but its been burned several times so its real hard to tell. It would have been on the same block as the drug store.

That was the "Gary Terminal" for the interurban line on Gratiot. It was built in 1925 as a transfer station for inbound passengers. Congestion was causing D.U.R. cars to get tied up in traffic on their way downtown, so they built this station where passengers would transfer to busses for the remainder of the ride. The busses got tied in traffic as well, so the plan backfired. I don't know when it was finally abandoned. Somewhere on the internets there is a color photo of the station while it was still in use.

A couple of photos from "When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails, Volume II":
Attachment 671

Attachment 672

[MikeM]

Does anybody know what that huge factory used to be, off Gratiot just south/west of Conner [[between Conner and French)?

It was built for Clayton & Lambert, makers of auto bodies. Later sold to Hudson Motors, and later still to Cadillac.