Thank you for those lovely memories. I remember it just as you wrote.
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Thank you for those lovely memories. I remember it just as you wrote.
My parents lived in that area. The younger families could find places to live [[which ultimately ended up being the suburbs). There were bigger concerns with the elderly, old-world families with fixed incomes ... those that already paid off their mortgages. Even though the CoD would reimburse them for the value of their homes [[I think they paid the maximum of around $15k-$16k), they were worried about being able to afford finding a place to live, as well as having to find another ethnically common community. [[Polish or otherwise).
In case you all noticed, Poletown's DEAD! Coleman Young kick it out, The Dodge Main Plant stomped it out and Polish folks took their community to Hamtramck.
A few years back, GM admitted they made a mistake and should have used only about 1/2 the land they ultimately ended up with. I don't think that was much consolation to the families who lost their homes however.
Also, the "hundreds" of spin off jobs that Mayor Young said would spring up around the factory never materialized, with the exception of the trucking company [[Allied, I think is the name) that occupies a small portion off Mt. Elliot.
Ha, ha, ha - that's a good one! Care to provide a source for that whopper?Quote:
A few years back, GM admitted they made a mistake and should have used only about 1/2 the land they ultimately ended up with
So Dodge Main was kind of where the Hamtramck Jail now sits? This makes sense because on the east side of Conant btwn Mt. Elliott & Holbrook you can see old employee parking lots that have the old Chrysler signs around them that indicate hourly & salary parking. Granted at this time of year they're hard to see due to the vegetation, but they're easier to see in the winter.
hello -- the cemetery couldn't be moved according to state law. there are photos on Lowell's Shtetlhood pages on this website and more info here:
http://www.flickr.com/signin/?acf=%2...00046129994%2F
The Beth Olem Cemetery is open to the public 2 Saturdays per year for approximately 2 hours each, in April and September. To confirm the days/times contact the Clover Hill Cemetery in Royal Oak or the Michigan Jewish Historical Society.
My husband had 2 aunts who lost their homes when Poletown was built. They both moved to Warren. One has remained quite bitter about being forced out. His uncle lived on Selkirk near Dwyer off Mt. Elliott. He dodged the eminent domain bullet by a few blocks, but was bitter about his church being torn down.
I work across the street from the plant. Much of the area directly surrounding it is urban prarie. I don't know if it would've stayed a vibrant part of the south side of Hamtramck or not if Poletown hadn't been built. With the auto industry, along with most everything else in SE Mich., in such decline, it's hard for me to imagine that after 30 yrs it would have. In the past 1.5 yrs or so, there seems to a significant decrease in activity at the plant. I only make this as an observation based on the number of cars going in & out of the place & a decrease in railroad activity being conducted there. The gate on Mt. Elliott has been closed & pretty much unused. It really didn't register in my mind until the winter when I noticed this was the first winter that it was unplowed. I can't see everything through the gates & trees surrounding the plant, but what I can see looks to me like not all the land is or ever was in use, so perhaps Detroitej72 was at least partially correct. It may not be half, but maybe a quarter. It doesn't look to me like it enhanced the area at all. Maybe before I worked in the area it did, but I've been in the area nearly 10 yrs. and have that much observation. Anyway, those are just some random, rambling thoughts I have.
How very true that economic opportunies springing up around the Poletown Plant never happened. One however did attempt to cash in on the hoped for influx of assembly line workers.
One would be bar/lunch enterprise called "Mother's" attempted a start-up. Not realizing that robots don't eat or drink, this business soon went under.
It was later sold to a Muslim group , I believe, and converted into a short lived Mosque. In Islam the human figure can not be depicted, but some sort of iconic painting was put on the door that appeared to be an individual in robes without a face and the minerets of Mecca behind it.
Leave it to good old Polish humor. Some wit took a stencil of Mad magazine's Alfred E. Neuman and painted his face in the robe's cowl. It was for a time the unofficial "Welcome to Hamtrack" greeting and was referred to as Allah E. Neuman. Later some other wag painted under the building's marque "Mother's," a tribute to Frank Zappa's boys, by writing "of Invention" under "Mother's".
When the city began the failed effort to sieze the land using the back taxes as their entree [[with the help of Lansing and a private developer who wanted the property on the super-cheap) there were 117 tenants. There's no way in hell the complex was only 5-1% occupied. No way, I was there, I lived it, I didn't read it from someone's website. After the city became involved, they evicted all of the tenants. The complex was deteriorating, there was far more square footage than the market needed, and no owner could keep all of it in good repair. There's still a big difference between this type of ownership [[somewhat common in the city) and total abandonment.
It's only ironic if someone in an official capacity at GM actually made such a statement to the press. Perhaps you should try a Google search.Quote:
I read it, I believe, in the Free Press about three years ago. It was one of those things that was ironic, in spite of what happened, thats why I remember it. Try a goggle search, or are you just trying to be provocative?
I'll take that as a sign that Essex Wire was long gone by then. By 1997 the entire southern side was falling apart around everyone's ears, so you couldn't have been there. Let's clarify what you mean by tenants. It wasn't 117 different businesses, the bulk of the "tenants" were a bunch of flea market type vendors. It was nothing but an extremely poor man's version of the Gibraltor Trade Center. Keep it real.
I myself would never argue with 56packman about anything related to Packards.As for Poletown I mowed the lawn for a lady who worked in the trim shop by Dodge Main.She cried when the people of Poletown had to leave their homes.She loved her house and was upset when she spoke of her old stomping grounds. Not that the two were close.
My points were about 1997. 56packman's argument keeps going back to 1956. I wasn't even born then, so I never tried to indicate what was going on then. But 1997, I experienced first hand and can and have spoken to that. Even his beloved Essex Wire had been gone long before then. Again, when the City attempted to foreclose in 1997, the place was 95-99% empty. It's a 3.5 million square foot facility, the part that was still barely open wasn't that big.
current photos of the Beth Olem Cemetery can be found here http://hamtramckstar.com/index.php?s...&submit=Search
Thanks for some great info on some of the "sights" along Contant/Mt Eliot. I had always puzzled over the parking lots that Jackie5275 mentioned. It never dawned on me that I was looking at the old Dodge Main parking lots. I guess that is the last remaining Dodge Main infrastructure. I'll have to get some pictures.
And I want to thank Sludgedaddy for explaining that "Mothers" building. I always assumed it was an old motorcycle gang building. The real history is much more fascinating. I've watched that building "evolve" for about 14 years.
And I want to thank Norwalk for the pics of the cemetery in the Poletown plant. Man, I always assumed there was just a couple graves on a lawn, I had no idea that the entrance and walls around the cemetery were preserved too.
I live on Conant and drive South towards I-94 all the time. My wife always wonders where I get the strange tidbits of knowledge I bury her under as I drive. He he he ;-) .