Under the Lodge and Fisher interchange

Guys n Gals,

OK sorry about that......I can't upload the map LOL.

Anyways, under the Lodge and Fisher interchange used to be the site of two parks on an 1889 map. They were shaped strangly and seemed more like intersections. They were called Crawford park and Elton park.

Any info?

Sorry again, and I wish I could post the picture but mu computer's being stupid right now.

Alright here it is.....real, real small, but here it is.



Attachment 7487

Elton was still there until they built the MGM casino there a few years ago. Brain-addled old hippies of the sort that post in the Garwood thread remember that neighborhood as "Plum Street," which you can read about here and here. That's all I got.

Thanks Bearinabox!

This episode was also featured in that BBC documentary about the Detroit Music scene. A grey-haired Sinclair gave an account of what happened back then. It were the days when MC5 ruled.

Ahh, Plum Street. At Cass Tech, driver's ed used local streets for learning. That pocket around Plum Street was bldg free except for Plum itself. Back towards Elton Park the streets were there, stop signs, even sidewalks, but all houses were long gone. Great for practice driving and parking. Even first time driving we'd have to 'do' a bit of Grand River to get over there. Seemed a big deal at the time.

[[Bear I'm only slightly brain-addled!):cool:

Elton Park
Attachment 7492

Below is a photo showing Elton and Crawford Parks in 1961. You can see them just to the right of the Lodge Fwy. Crawford Park was bisected in the 1920s when the Dix-High-Waterloo traffic relief project turned High St. into part of the crosstown Vernor Hwy. Later, Crawford was indeed bulldozed for the Fisher Fwy.

Back when the Lions played at Tiger Stadium we used to park sometimes in the Detroit Edison lot and walk through Elton Park and across the Lodge on the pedestrian bridge shown in this picture. I'm not sure when that bridge was torn down, but I know it stood into the mid-80s. I walked back from a Tigers day game across it once then - in a fit of Plum St.-era nostalgia - and around Elton Park, which still had a couple of dilapidated [[but occupied) houses standing next to it and some old playground equipment in it with chipping brightly colored Parks & Rec. paint.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4091/...1152746d_z.jpg

I wandered around the old Plum street area back in 1990. All the streets, sidewalks, street signs, but it looked more like a parking lot for DTE than anything else. The street names were rather infamous from the Plum Street hippie days and the stories I had heard. It was a cool find. It is great reading this thread on the topic too.

Too bad I can't find it, but I did a post about five years ago, before they built the casino, with pictures of Elton Park and the blocks turned into parking lots.

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Originally Posted by EastsideAl

Back when the Lions played at Tiger Stadium we used to park sometimes in the Detroit Edison lot and walk through Elton Park and across the Lodge on the pedestrian bridge shown in this picture. I'm not sure when that bridge was torn down, but I know it stood into the mid-80s.

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Looking on Google Earth, the bridge came down sometime between March and December 2002

It is good to see that they left Crawford park be when they put in the Lodge. I would hate to see what might happen to the neighborhood if they put any highway in that neighborhood wider than the Lodge, especially one that wiped a nice little park off the map..

bump...

Here is a wee map. Baist's Plat Book of Detroit 1916 - Part of Plate 36.

Attachment 22502

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Originally Posted by southofbloor

bump...

Here is a wee map. Baist's Plat Book of Detroit 1916 - Part of Plate 36.

Attachment 22502

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Those oval parks are so cool. What a shame.

southofbloor , that's a fabulous map! Thanks!

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Originally Posted by Bearinabox

Elton was still there until they built the MGM casino there a few years ago. Brain-addled old hippies of the sort that post in the Garwood thread remember that neighborhood as "Plum Street," which you can read about here and here. That's all I got.

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Brain-addled old hippies my ass! I know who Elton Park was, I saw him in concert a bunch of times!

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Originally Posted by Bearinabox

Elton was still there until they built the MGM casino there a few years ago. Brain-addled old hippies of the sort that post in the Garwood thread remember that neighborhood as "Plum Street," which you can read about here and here. That's all I got.

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Thomas Edison’s mother withdrew him from school at age 7 after being told by his teacher that based on Edison’s hyperactivity and persistent questioning his brain was ‘addled’. Edison credits his mother for believing in him. If modern psychology had existed back then, Edison would have probably been deemed a victim of Attention Deficit Syndrome.Frank Lloyd Wright daydreamed so intensely that his uncle had to shout at him to get him back.
Robert Frost was expelled from school for daydreaming.
Albert Einstein did not speak English until the age of 7.
What if from an early age Edison had been convinced he was incapable of learning, that his thoughts were those of an “addled” mind? What if dreaming were removed from the operating systems of Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert Frost, and Albert Einstein? What if influential adults - teachers - taught them at an early age that daydreaming, questioning, moving or otherwise acting differently were traits born from ignorance, deficiency, or affliction?

Brain addled old hippies? So be it. I can live with that. Happily.

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Albert Einstein did not speak English until the age of 7.

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That's pretty good for a German kid. :) Found this about Albert:


http://www.albert-einstein.org/article_handicap.html

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Originally Posted by pam

that's pretty good for a german kid. :)

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ouch!!!!!!

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Originally Posted by Bearinabox

Elton was still there until they built the MGM casino there a few years ago. Brain-addled old hippies of the sort that post in the Garwood thread remember that neighborhood as "Plum Street," which you can read about here and here. That's all I got.

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I remember Plum Street and I am not a brain-addled old hippie! I am only in my mid-40's. My parents on the other hand were almost hippies, but were probably 5-10 years older. They would take us there to go to the candy stores, the stores selling macrame, the record stores, and candle places.

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Originally Posted by DetroitPlanner

I remember Plum Street and I am not a brain-addled old hippie! I am only in my mid-40's. My parents on the other hand were almost hippies, but were probably 5-10 years older. They would take us there to go to the candy stores, the stores selling macrame, the record stores, and candle places.

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My grandfather used to drive us through there to "have a look at those goddamned hippies". He was quite unhappily surprised one night to run into one of my cousins there!

Thanks for this thread. I, too, recently learned about these parks and wanted to know more about them. Anyone have any photographs of them, especially of more recent vintage?

1953

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Originally Posted by 1953

Thanks for this thread. I, too, recently learned about these parks and wanted to know more about them. Anyone have any photographs of them, especially of more recent vintage?

1953

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Here is a photo my friend dug out of a book somewhere of Crawford.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corktow...ry/9147667792/

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Originally Posted by Pam

That's pretty good for a German kid. :) Found this about Albert:


http://www.albert-einstein.org/article_handicap.html

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Well Pam, I guess I'd find it reasonably hard to argue about this one. Touche. Perhaps I am addled, but happy not to be rote. Not certain where I'm at. Not sure I care. Can't say I remember Plum Street.