Boynton and Oakwood Heights

[j32885]

Went thru Oakwood Heights en-route to Delray to watch some trains recently. Most of the neighborhood looks gone, thanks for Marathon. Gonnellas and the Citco gas station were only businesses still open there.

[Gary]

I didn't live in the neighborhood, but one of my neighbors was a teacher at Boynton School. I remember her telling us kids about an area near the school called "Hobo Woods" "Hobo Jungle" or "Hobo Village" or "Hobo" something. Those of you who grew up over there probably remember it. Anyway, it was like an undeveloped marsh/swamp/wetlands area where kids could find frogs, salamanders, turtles and [[reportedly) snakes. My neighbor took us down there to explore a couple times and even though we never caught any frogs or snakes, it was such a cool outdoor space for kids to explore. We are all jealous of the kids in that neighborhood because they had such a neat place at their disposal and we had nothing even close to it in our boring-ass neighborhood.

[Jaybiz]

Today I was in the area so i decided take a little tour through the neighborhood, as an eastsider I've always found that area interesting and liked the sandwiches at Gonnellas. Its essentially an inner-city white ghetto [[I know it's not all white) and I mean that with no disrespect because I feel it's like a window into a different time. It's got really old shotgun shacks backing up to the polluted water that's littered with rusted out tugboats and there's burnouts buildings full of graffiti next door to tidy little homes with nice landscaping flying America flags all within a backdrop of insane looking heavy industrial structures. Also it's a little unnerving because it's a tough isolated neighborhood where everyone knows everyone so when driving around everyone notices your presence and they let it be known. Today, it the place was teaming with construction demo crews leveling homes and what seemed like 50% of the homes were professionally boarded up and marked for near future demolition and Gonnellas was busy with construction workers and marathon workers, but with all this the holdout who won't sell we're in full effect; sitting on porches, a skinny white-trash kid with girlfriend mean mugging me, old guys working on lawns. What I did see that I couldn't understand was real estate for-sale signs on front lawns, in an area where Marathon offered all residents 40k for homes which has to be at least 5 times what they are worth and in an area that is being abandoned by more than half residents, who on the planet would buy a home there and if they did who would pay what Marathon is offering. I decided to go online and see what's up with the for sale signs and when I looked online I saw that these people have put their homes up for anywhere from 80-100 grand. So basically i believe these people don't wanna move but if they are gonna be basically forced they are gonna try to squeeze more cash from Marathon which they won't get. Anyway from what I've seen today this neighborhood will cease to exist within a year or two, so if you wanna see an interesting Detroit relic, I'd check it out before its gone.

[Rocko]

Both neighborhoods were served and connected to the "outside world" by the electrified interurban and streetcar lines in the late 19th Century and first half of the 20th. They were on the main interurban route between Detroit and Toledo, which connected to several lines in Ohio. I believe interurban service ended sometime around 1933. The Fort streetcar route came down from downtown over the Fort Street drawbridge, hung a left on Fort and made another sharp left on Stocker Street, crossed the Wabash and Penna. RR, then entered private right-of-way down the median of Electric Street through the downriver farms and 'burbs. You can still trace the right of way all the way to Monroe on Google Maps. The city cars turned back at Gleason Street on a Wye. I think the DSR service ended in the late 1940s, when the route switched to rubber tires.

[Danny]

Not to meantion the Visger families who used to a farmland where it used to be Ecorse Township. I know a couple descendents of the Visger families and I go one of their private parties in Grosse Pointe Park every year. One of first mayor of River Rouge was a Visger. Ann Visger was the head of River Rouge Public School district later in the 1940s

Yes Oakwood Heights and Boyton used to be a Italian, Hungarian Catholics and Othodox Jewish, German, French and Polish communities before the time of industializtion. First wave black families and Hillbillies arrived into the Boyton sub-division since the 1950s coming from Del-Rey second wave black families arrived their since the late 1960s. Restrictive convenants allow black families to buy homes in Ecorse-River Rouge and lower SW Detroit neighborhoods west of the railroad tracks, north of Outer Drive and Fort St. Today that piece of areas remains 90% black. Fewer Mexicans arrived in Oakwood Heights are since in late 1980s and grew up to 60% north of S. Schaefer HWY. Hillbillies and poor white families also lived in that area since the 1950s. Some still reside in the area. Yes its true! Today parts of Oakwood Heights from Oakwood Bvld.-Fort St. to Sanders St. will be demolished. Streets of Waring, Greyfriars, Dumfries, Gale, Bayside, Ormond and Powell South of Oakwood Bvld. is on the demo list. Homes are being brought by Marathon Oil company, boarded up and to be demolished leaving a vacant urban prarie. Oakwood Heights will gone for good by 2020. At least those folks don't have to wake up and sell the sulfur-carbon dioxide in the morning.

[GUSHI]

They should give them houses in other parts of the city, I hope they just don't take the cash and leave the D

[Danny]

Both neighborhoods were served and connected to the "outside world" by the electrified interurban and streetcar lines in the late 19th Century and first half of the 20th. They were on the main interurban route between Detroit and Toledo, which connected to several lines in Ohio. I believe interurban service ended sometime around 1933. The Fort streetcar route came down from downtown over the Fort Street drawbridge, hung a left on Fort and made another sharp left on Stocker Street, crossed the Wabash and Penna. RR, then entered private right-of-way down the median of Electric Street through the downriver farms and 'burbs. You can still trace the right of way all the way to Monroe on Google Maps. The city cars turned back at Gleason Street on a Wye. I think the DSR service ended in the late 1940s, when the route switched to rubber tires.

Yes, in fact Electric Street, a two way drive starting from S. Schaefer Rd. going further downriver used to be an interurban electric street car route line.

[313WX]

They should give them houses in other parts of the city, I hope they just don't take the cash and leave the D

Now you know that is what will happen.

[lamptester]

Sorry about the long delay. The streetcar turnaround was at Peters Ave in between the R-Bar and Car Stop bars not Gleason. Peters Ave. ran from south Basset across Fort street to Waring. There wasn't an actual street between Fort St. and Edsel just an empty lot. A carnival would set up every summer between the two bars.

[lamptester]

The jungle was a densely wooded area that was on south side of the road that was built between the Timkin Axel plant and Dumfries. The road may have been an extension of Visger. On the north side of the road was a wooden walkway. Operations at the plant were shut down after the war. The hobo camp was on the west side of the plant and the Pennsylvania railroad tracks.

[lpg]

A couple of years ago I noticed one of the rails from the Interurban at the bottom of a pothole on Electric and Arlington in Lincoln Park. They just asphalted over the line where the rails crossed the side streets along Electric, the rest is under the grass. My mother was born in Lincoln Park in 1915 and told me of watching the Interurban go by.

[melvindaler]

I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think the village of Oakwood Heights [[part of Ecorse Twp) contained all of what is now Melvindale and also contained all of what is now Detroit south of the Rouge River until Detroit annexed that in '22. Then in '24, the part of Oakwood Heights that wasn't annexed by Detroit was renamed the Village of Melvindale, but the area east of Dix was just part of Ecorse Twp and not Melvindale. This probably went on until '31, when Melvindale became a city. [[http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/...1925/Michigan/)

[Rosina]

Fantastic website/forum. I grew up on the 700 block of Bayside Street. Wonderful place to grow in during the 1930’s & 40’s.
Rosina.

[Dumpling]

DetroitYes is a fantastic forum and one of its strengths are
those threads with the contributions from older persons who have
knowledge of what was there before and how things came
to be. Love those.

Looking forward to reading your posts Rosina!

[Lombaowski]

Oakwood Heights was barely ever a neighborhood. I'm Italian/Polish and my Aunt lived there and there never was a whole lot except a terrible smell and nice, well-maintained houses. I have no idea what happened there but she lived on Luther Street which was a full block on both sides as recently as 2010, and now everything is gone. No idea whether this is because of the neighborhood being abandoned, or the Marathon project.

Boynton was always a different neighborhood, I guess they are connected by proximity but they were never that much alike in my lifetime. Boynton was always pretty terrible, I think they led Detroit in single moms well before that was a cool thing.