McMansion-type home on Belvidere near E. Vernor...

[getmoore]

There's a few houses like this on Marlborough and Mack.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...12,335.48,,0,5

[Al Publican]

For all the pusscake Detroit wannabes *wink*, try taking a crack at "staying" in some neighborhood like the one on Belvidere and E. Vernor. There or my grand parents old 'hood between French Rd and Van Dyke south of E. McNichols. Phew--what another savanna that area has become.

Check out the photo of Lyford St. near French Rd on Viewofhouse.com and see if you know the dude that dumped his sailboat in the middle of the street.

[j to the jeremy]

getmoore, those kids playing b-ball in the middle of the street on Marlborough, what a 21st century moment! Living the city life in a recreated semi-suburban development with some garages out front, moving out of the way as a wierd looking google car with cameras on top drives through their game...

[hybridy]

There's a few houses like this on Marlborough and Mack.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...12,335.48,,0,5

though not of high design, most have alley-loading garages, and they do a nice job of making a street wall

[jbd441]

For all the pusscake Detroit wannabes *wink*, try taking a crack at "staying" in some neighborhood like the one on Belvidere and E. Vernor. There or my grand parents old 'hood between French Rd and Van Dyke south of E. McNichols. Phew--what another savanna that area has become.

Check out the photo of Lyford St. near French Rd on Viewofhouse.com and see if you know the dude that dumped his sailboat in the middle of the street.

Wow, those pics on Viewofhouse.com are old.... or at least the google pics the website uses are old. I looked up the foreclosure I bought in 2007 and the street view that came up was a picture that was taken in 2006 when the house looked like a dump.

[j to the jeremy]

though not of high design, most have alley-loading garages, and they do a nice job of making a street wall

And all brick construction, to boot!

[EastsideAl]

I don't have time to post the image now, but the 1997 aerial image shows that the lot was empty at least then. At some point when I have time, I'll look at the older photographs. I would be surprised if there was not a house or houses where that property is in the 1950s or 1960s.

There were definitely houses there, almost certainly at least 2 of them, as that newer house sits on an extra wide lot. I went to elementary school with a lot of kids from that neighborhood back in the late '60s, and had a good childhood friend who lived right around the corner from there on Louis.

It wasn't one would call a "good" neighborhood back then either, but it was full of people and all of the streets were full of houses. Vacancies would begin appearing in the early '70s. I remember walking down that block of Belvidere several times as a kid, and the only empty lot I recall was the one at the corner of Vernor, which, like a lot of corner lots in the area, had never been built on [[and, ironically, has a 1970s-era house on it today).

Going through that area now, and out through all the now-empty area my family and friends lived in from there out to Alter Rd. is very strange, and sad, for me today, even though I still live nearby. I remember when that "lonely" curve was built on Vernor back in the '60s. It sure wasn't so lonely then. It was built to smooth the great flows of traffic that would come down that street every morning of workers on their way out to the big cluster of factories between St. Jean and Connor, and in the afternoon of workers, shoppers, etc. on their way home from downtown to the dense neighborhoods of the east side.

[Meddle]

How many lots is that house on Belvidere on? Must be several.

Looks like 3

[bartock]

There's a few houses like this on Marlborough and Mack.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...12,335.48,,0,5

Charlevoix and Marlborough. From downtown to the Pointes, Jefferson to Conner to Charlevoix is a most visually fascinating drive.