Gratiot Conner Area Memories

**mauser** · April-18-09, 11:10 AM

Mike m rox !

**mauser** · April-18-09, 12:10 PM

Um - that last post was supposed to be shouting in all caps..

Hey - anybody in the hood across from City Airport and back to Gunston remember a paperboy named "Don" ? My father in law delivered papers in that hood back in the very early 60's.

He said when JFK came to Detroit, he landed at City.

**swan** · April-19-09, 03:25 PM

If I'm not mistaken the A&W Drive-In at Rosemary and Conner was called Gieger or Gieger's Drive-In in the early sixties. Spent many a weekend evening watching the submarine races at the City Airport Parking Area along Conner Ave.

**mauser** · April-19-09, 07:24 PM

Turns out that my father in law delivered the Eastside Shopper, the precursor to C & G News, which [[for the time being) delivers throwaway advertisement driven papers in Macomb, Oakland and Grosse Pointe. Hilarious !

He said he would stop now and then at Happy Landings for a hamburger deluxe at the end of his paper route.

He was also telling me that the field behind Osborne High was mined for red sand while they were building I-94. Anybody remember that ?

**kville** · April-20-09, 05:43 AM

My wife grew up in that neighborhood during the 50's & 60's. I grew up in an adjacent area farther east. We lived there in the 70's & early 80's when I was a minister at Our Saviour on Elmdale & Dickerson. So many of these posts take me back. Many of my family members were buried through Buehler's [[I went to school with Mark Buehler). My wife remembers how the focus of the area she lived [[on Maiden near Newport) was around the church [[roller skating weekly and other community events), and around Gooddale. All the small family stores interspersed throughout the side streets really helped make it a true neighborhood too. It was a true challenge for outsiders trying to figure out the streets in the area because it seemed that several different patterns converged in the area, with Gratiot and Kelly running on an angle, Outer Drive's curves, the triangle east of City Airport, plus the parallel streets to Harper and then the grid pattern north of Houston-Whittier. It was a special place.

**Flanders** · April-20-09, 10:53 AM

Originally Posted by kville

My wife grew up in that neighborhood during the 50's & 60's. I grew up in an adjacent area farther east. We lived there in the 70's & early 80's when I was a minister at Our Saviour on Elmdale & Dickerson. So many of these posts take me back. Many of my family members were buried through Buehler's [[I went to school with Mark Buehler). My wife remembers how the focus of the area she lived [[on Maiden near Newport) was around the church [[roller skating weekly and other community events), and around Gooddale. All the small family stores interspersed throughout the side streets really helped make it a true neighborhood too. It was a true challenge for outsiders trying to figure out the streets in the area because it seemed that several different patterns converged in the area, with Gratiot and Kelly running on an angle, Outer Drive's curves, the triangle east of City Airport, plus the parallel streets to Harper and then the grid pattern north of Houston-Whittier. It was a special place.

Yes, it certainly was, esp an infamous party store named Renzi's across the street from Gooddale, in the early 70s!!

hic...

**Maxine1958** · April-20-09, 05:20 PM

Originally Posted by 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.

Yes that trailor park was home to many of our customers. Mostly for their daily bottle of booze

. But some for more respectable purchases.

**mauser** · April-20-09, 08:14 PM

My fatherinlaw also mentioned that after WWII they had a small colony of veterans who stayed in little round tent buildings in the area that is now includes Conner Playfield that runs along Conner from Gratiot towards Harper. They lived there until they got homes and jobs and got going again after the war.

Anybody remember these things ? His description leaves me very curious as to what these little huts looked like.

Theres gotta be photos of that out there someplace.

MikeM ?

LodgeDodger · April-20-09, 08:33 PM

Originally Posted by 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?

The Weitenberner Funeral Home was located across from Assumption Grotto Church on Gratiot.

**MikeM** · April-21-09, 07:53 AM

Originally Posted by mauser

My fatherinlaw also mentioned that after WWII they had a small colony of veterans who stayed in little round tent buildings in the area that is now includes Conner Playfield that runs along Conner from Gratiot towards Harper. They lived there until they got homes and jobs and got going again after the war.

Anybody remember these things ? His description leaves me very curious as to what these little huts looked like.

Theres gotta be photos of that out there someplace.

MikeM ?

I believe they were Quonset huts. Do a search on Dequindre housing project; you should find a thread where HornWrecker and I compiled a collection of aerial photos of these projects from around the city. They lined the west side of Conner from Gratiot down to Warren or Mack and also down at the riverfront. You might find some pictures in the Virtual Motor City collection.

**mauser** · April-21-09, 08:34 AM

Thank you again, MikeM.

Do you have a website ? If not, you should.

**MikeM** · April-21-09, 09:42 AM

Thanks, but no website. I waste enough time on the computer as it is.

Here is the thread I mentioned:

http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/62684/73103.html

**Flanders** · April-21-09, 01:45 PM

I remember that there were a couple of large car dealerships in that area, Dick Green Chrysler-Plymouth and Mike Dorian Ford. I remember hearing rumors of mob ties to the latter. There also was a Dodge? dealership across Gratiot from Dick Green, but it's name escapes me now.

Dick Green had built up their car lot to nearly 5' above street level with dirt and asphalt, in order to prevent their new/used cars from being stolen. I used to walk past it to and from school in the 60s @ St. David Elementary, and the dealership had a large service and repair building that ended at Glenfield. The service employees used to drive their customers' cars out of the automatic roll-up/down service doors at a high rate of speed, and one of them nailed me one afternoon as I walked past on the sidewalk. My books went flying and I slid a few feet,covering my pants with oil from the driveway. I wasn't badly hurt, but I did end up getting a nice sized bruise on my right leg. The service employee cussed me out for "not watching out for their cars" yeah, right!!!

There were a couple of memorable fires in that area, a 3 alarm one summer night @ an A&P located between Flanders and Jane on the east side of Gratiot, and another involving several factory? buildings on the west side of Gratiot between Bradford and Flanders, where the Burger King and a Red Barn fast-food restaurants were later built. The Burger King is still there, I believe. At the corner of Dickerson and Gratiot, a tire or auto repair shop exploded from a bomb or something one night, there were bricks from the building scattered all over Gratiot the next morning.

**Hornwrecker** · April-21-09, 03:11 PM

Originally Posted by MikeM

I believe they were Quonset huts. Do a search on Dequindre housing project; you should find a thread where HornWrecker and I compiled a collection of aerial photos of these projects from around the city. They lined the west side of Conner from Gratiot down to Warren or Mack and also down at the riverfront. You might find some pictures in the Virtual Motor City collection.

There still was one quonset hut left in the 1970s; it was by the lawn bowling area at the north end of the park, near the DetEd substation. I think it was used to store park equipment.

**Maxine1958** · April-21-09, 04:33 PM

Flanders, we lived right there on Glenfield just behind Dick Green's. What years did you attend St. David's? I went there from '64 through '72 - 1st through 8th grades.

Those car lots were the reason weren't allowed to ride our bikes around the block. Mom was convinced I'd be killed by one of those idiots.

Ah, memories.

**Flanders** · April-21-09, 05:15 PM

Originally Posted by Maxine1958

Flanders, we lived right there on Glenfield just behind Dick Green's. What years did you attend St. David's? I went there from '64 through '72 - 1st through 8th grades.

Those car lots were the reason weren't allowed to ride our bikes around the block. Mom was convinced I'd be killed by one of those idiots.

Ah, memories.

I was a couple of years ahead of you, 61-70, then one year @ St David's HS 70-71, then it closed due to allegedly low enrollment the following year. You may have known the Gennriches [[sp?) the Pietrobonos, the Salkowskis, and the Farrs who lived on Glenfield near Gratiot. I had a choice to go to DLS, Servite, or Denby, and chose Denby to finish out HS. Quite a difference between the chaotic druggie Denby and the rigid, controlled, and structured organization of St. David.

There were students selling all kinds of illegal drugs [[uppers/downers either way blood flows) who were lined up along the sidewalks @ both of the entrance doors of Denby all year long, even in the dead of winter. I did not do as well at Denby academically, compared to St. David, not by a long shot, but it was mostly due to my very excessive truancy.

There was a Standard Gas station on the northeast corner of Gratiot/Glenfield where my brother and I would wait for my father to come home from work at the bus stop in front of it once and a while. Across Gratiot was the Bella Cleaners. Further down was the Airport Beer & Wine Store run by a old Italian guy named Joe, where us neighbor kids would buy candy and pop, and later beer, wine and ciggies. My father filled in for Joe a few times, when he was sick or took a vacation, which wasn't very often. There were a LOT of small used car dealerships around that area of Gratiot.

**Maxine1958** · April-21-09, 05:27 PM

Originally Posted by Flanders

I was a couple of years ahead of you, 61-70, then one year @ St David's HS 70-71, then it closed due to allegedly low enrollment the following year. You may have known the Gennriches [[sp?) the Pietrobonos, the Salkowskis, and the Farrs who lived on Glenfield near Gratiot. I had a choice to go to DLS, Servite, or Denby, and chose Denby to finish out HS. Quite a difference between the chaotic druggie Denby and the rigid, controlled, and structured organization of St. David.

There were students selling all kinds of illegal drugs [[uppers/downers either way blood flows) who were lined up along the sidewalks @ both of the entrance doors of Denby all year long, even in the dead of winter. I did not do as well at Denby academically, compared to St. David, not by a long shot, but it was mostly due to my very excessive truancy.

Flanders,

I did know one of the Gennriches, one of the girls, but I cannot remember her name right now. She was more a friend of my cousin's.

We did not have the money for Catholic high school, so I went to Osborn, being on the other side of Gratiot was the deciding factor. And it was a HUGE culture shock. I was 2 years ahead in math and at least one year in English and literature. I should have been on the honor roll, but I got lazy and made easy B's through those 4 years.

Some of my friends from St. Davids were the Jurcak, Molitor and Bernard.

I remember the big dust up in the parish when the Archdioses 'sold' the high school to the city. Lots of furious parishoners. I have the book the parish published after the huge fundraiser to build it.

**Flanders** · April-21-09, 06:04 PM

Originally Posted by Maxine1958

Flanders,

I did know one of the Gennriches, one of the girls, but I cannot remember her name right now. She was more a friend of my cousin's.

We did not have the money for Catholic high school, so I went to Osborn, being on the other side of Gratiot was the deciding factor. And it was a HUGE culture shock. I was 2 years ahead in math and at least one year in English and literature. I should have been on the honor roll, but I got lazy and made easy B's through those 4 years.

Some of my friends from St. Davids were the Jurcak, Molitor and Bernard.

I remember the big dust up in the parish when the Archdioses 'sold' the high school to the city. Lots of furious parishoners. I have the book the parish published after the huge fundraiser to build it.

I remember the Jurcak girls, Laura was in my class at St. David, but not the Bernard family. There was a Paul Molitor [[I think) that went to DLS with some of my neighborhood friends. There were a lot of large families that attended St. David,for example, the Mulloys, who had over a dozen kids, directly across Rosemary from St. David, the Bezels, the Grzywacz' and the Fedons, whose mother was the grade school secretary, or something similar.I am ancestrally related to the family who donated the land that St. David Parish was built on in the early 20th century, the Trombly family.

**Maxine1958** · April-22-09, 10:35 AM

Originally Posted by Flanders

I remember the Jurcak girls, Laura was in my class at St. David, but not the Bernard family. There was a Paul Molitor [[I think) that went to DLS with some of my neighborhood friends. There were a lot of large families that attended St. David,for example, the Mulloys, who had over a dozen kids, directly across Rosemary from St. David, the Bezels, the Grzywacz' and the Fedons, whose mother was the grade school secretary, or something similar.I am ancestrally related to the family who donated the land that St. David Parish was built on in the early 20th century, the Trombly family.

I knew some of the Trombly family. I think it was an inlaw that lived across the street from us when we lived on Wilfred. Patricia Jurcak and Sue Molitor were two of my classmates. I knew some of the Mulloys too, who didn't there were so many of them. I knew Mrs. Fedon well as I worked in the school office from 6th through 8th grades.

**Maxine1958** · April-30-09, 12:50 PM

I'm flattered Lowell granted this thread 'Hall of Fame' attention.

And I'm 'borrowing' and paraphrasing a quote from Detroit72 from another thread:

Any more stories? Any one still interested in this thread?

**kat** · August-02-09, 10:25 PM

I lived on Longview and went to St. David's for 1st through 3rd grade and St. Ignatius for 4th grade but cannot remember what public school in the area I attended for Kindergarten. Can anyone help? I would have started 1st grade in the 1960-61 school year.

**kville** · August-03-09, 04:25 AM

Probably Goodale [[at Dickerson between Longview &Chelsea)

**Flip** · August-05-09, 11:54 PM

RJ_Spangler, i remember hass roast beef, TOO bad they closed Great food [[roast beef and turkey) loved their wild rice stuffing !
yes all of those places were great !
Especially JAMES O' DONNELLS siste eileen, a great woman. and a fine girl, in her youth. She was quite a sweetheart ! I really miss that girl !

**Maxine1958** · August-06-09, 12:03 PM

Flip, if you remember Haas Roast Beef, do you happen to remember Heyn Drugs? It was on the corner of Gratiot and Conner. My parents owned it up until about 1972.

**Flip** · August-06-09, 11:22 PM

Hi Maxine,
yes i remember the drug store on connor and gratiot, Someone here on this thread was recalling the "dick Green chrysler and could not remember the dodge dealer across the street wher the 9th precinect of the detroit police now sits, the name of that place was "Eastown dodge"

and bought one of my fav cars there.
My parents had a house on kilbourne [[the Street Dick Green was on)

Let me say lowell, you have done great service for all of us old timers, getting this place to reminece, and relise we mostly have CRS .