Postwar Apartment Buildings Along Greenfield

I was driving along Greenfield from Grand River all the way to 8 Mile, and I noticed that entire corridor is filled with many postwar lowrise apartment buildings of a similar style, one after the other, mile after mile.

Does anyone know why Greenfield has so many apartment buildings, and all of the same style and era? I don't think there's anywhere else in Southeast Michigan with such a concentration from the 1950's and 60's.

What were the demographics along this corridor back then? Was it mostly Jewish, and perhaps the apartments were kinda the transition between the "old neighborhoods" along Dexter and the like and the "new neighborhoods" in the suburbs? Or maybe the apartments were marketed to the growing African American population, which started expanding to NW Detroit during this era?

It just seems odd to me that there would be so much vacant land along this corridor so late in Detroit's development, and that all the landowners decided to build the same thing. Any thoughts?

i grew up near greenfield north of 6 mile. i can't answer your question. but the area wasn't mostly jewish, and my recollection is that most of those buildings went up before the area was integrated.

i do recall that many vacant lots remained along greenfield. i'm guessing [[and it's just a guess) that the road remained undeveloped because there had been a plan to widen it. at some point, those plans would have disappeared, and then developers would have moved in. that wouldn't, however, explain why the same thing would have been built up and down the road.

the next main road to the west is southfield, which was a highway with wide green spaces on both sides before the much-wider freeway was built.

I don't remember any specific ethnic groups there. At least during the 60s and 70s, it was mostly white working class singles or couples. Probably office workers from Dearborn and Southfield mixed with city employees and some from downtown. That was 'suburbia' during that era.

Greenfield was one of the major north/south thouroughfares and carried a lot of traffic. You had the shopping areas at Grand River and Michigan Ave prior to Fairlane, and of course Northland and the other stores in that area.

Before the Jeffries, Grand River carried most of the traffic between downtown and the northwest area, so it was a natural route to use Grand River to Greenfield to get to and from work. I would imagine that played a big part of the decision to build apartments for those workers who couldn't yet afford houses. Maybe some of the ones moving into the area to get jobs at the Ford offices in Dearborn.

I made good money by washing the second floor windows of those apartments while i was in high school at St Marys of Redford and Cooley in the early 60's. I recall a lot of single women living alone. Teachers and other professionals as well as office worker types. Each of those apartments had 5 windows and I would charge a quarter a window and be able to do 4 apartments an hour to make 5 bux an hour. It was good [[tax free) money for a 15 year old. I lived at Lyndon and Whitcomb and roamed the area within miles of there.
Back when I was a real young codger of about 9 or 10 years, we would hitchhike out Greenfield to 8 mile road to go swimming in a big round pool called Crystal Pool.
The whole area was as white middle class as you could get. Living was carefree and easy and the opportunities for adventure were everywhere.

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Originally Posted by daft

i do recall that many vacant lots remained along greenfield. i'm guessing [[and it's just a guess) that the road remained undeveloped because there had been a plan to widen it. at some point, those plans would have disappeared, and then developers would have moved in. that wouldn't, however, explain why the same thing would have been built up and down the road.

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Thanks for the comments. Yes, this would make sense.

The Southfield freeway hadn't been built yet, so maybe there was a plan to widen Greenfield, or maybe the Greenfield corridor was considered for what eventually became the Southfield freeway.

As to why so many apartment buildings were built in the same area, around the same time, I think it makes some sense. You had this major corridor with all this vacant land, and there was a significant shortage of housing in the postwar era. It would make sense to built multifamily along a major corridor, especially since Greenfield easily connects to Ford HQ, the Northland area, and downtown.

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Originally Posted by Meddle

Before the Jeffries, Grand River carried most of the traffic between downtown and the northwest area, so it was a natural route to use Grand River to Greenfield to get to and from work. I would imagine that played a big part of the decision to build apartments for those workers who couldn't yet afford houses. Maybe some of the ones moving into the area to get jobs at the Ford offices in Dearborn.

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This makes a lot of sense. Ford was growing exponentially back then, as was the Northland area. Downtown was still a huge job center. The Greenfield corridor was considered a better-than-average neighborhood, and housing prices in NW Detroit were quite high back then, generally higher than in comparable suburbs.

Spot-On Meddle!

Greenfield is a major crosstown bus route that moved folks between Birmingham, Northland, and the Rouge Plant. What you are seeing is an early version of Transit Orientated Design. It also connected with downtown via Grand River.

My mom grew up over there during the 1950's. It was a hopping area. The biggest ethnic groups back then were the Irish and the Jews. Red Devil pizza.... yummmmm!!!

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Originally Posted by Bham1982

I was driving along Greenfield from Grand River all the way to 8 Mile, and I noticed that entire corridor is filled with many postwar lowrise apartment buildings of a similar style, one after the other, mile after mile.

Does anyone know why Greenfield has so many apartment buildings, and all of the same style and era? I don't think there's anywhere else in Southeast Michigan with such a concentration from the 1950's and 60's.

What were the demographics along this corridor back then? Was it mostly Jewish, and perhaps the apartments were kinda the transition between the "old neighborhoods" along Dexter and the like and the "new neighborhoods" in the suburbs? Or maybe the apartments were marketed to the growing African American population, which started expanding to NW Detroit during this era?

It just seems odd to me that there would be so much vacant land along this corridor so late in Detroit's development, and that all the landowners decided to build the same thing. Any thoughts?

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Unfortunately living most of my life on the far east side area, I have not been to that stretch of Greenfield. However on the east side there are 2 very interesting streets that sound very similar to that stretch of Greenfield. Those would be Morang and Whittier Ave., which also have a large number of 2-5 story apartment buildings along those 2 thoroughfares... which mainly stretches from I-94 up to Kelly Rd.

I'd like to hear from some folks who have seen both areas...

I've only been on Whittier a couple of times, but yeah, I remember similarities. I never really thought of Greenfield as anything unique though.