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A few years ago the Detroiters who proposed the Adamah project, an agricultural project, made the uncovering of creeks on the east Side, such as Conner's creek, a key component of the project.
A lot of people were mystified about how it would work and if it would work.
Today's NYT has an article about the concept, and identifies several U.S. and world cities that are doing that very thing - uncovering long-paved-over waterways:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/wo...html?ref=world
K-zoo is doing this through their downtown. San Antonio actually built canals for the riverwalk and just expanded them. It has been a very successful tool for community and economic development. The more waterfront property the better off a community is.
The Riverwalk in San Antonio is just beautiful. There is some kind of floodgate to control how much water can get in, as the river can flood. In addition to a bustling retail and restaurant area, there are barge rides down the river.
There are riverfront developments in other communities as well, Lansing along the Red Cedar has some, with the walkway and museums, and proximity to the Farmers Market. Here we probably need to concentrate on the Detroit River for retail development first.
If we opened up some of the riverways in Detroit, greenways might be a good start, with parks and walkways. Conner Creek might be a good one, as a fairly large waterway. There is one along Mark Twain on the west side, and many more.
I visited the Museum of the American Indian in DC. One of the southwestern tribes had showcased their river development project. It was primarily meant to bring water to the arid lands by management of an existing dry riverbed. They went in and rebuilt historic water diverters and retainers, and indeed, they did succeed in getting the river to run again. The banks were then developed to a green space with native plants and pathways, as well as irrigation for crops placed along the way.
I'd love to see the Savoyard uncovered through downtown with covered bridges and rope swing. Nothing quite like crossing a creek on a rope swing ... or better yet by pole.
For years there has been talk of uncovering the Clinton River in Pontiac. Can't say I can see that plan coming together any time soon.
Believe me, no one would like to see the Savoyard River uncovered than I! But unfortunately, the original /Savoyard became an open sewer somewhere in the 1800s, and was bricked in around that time. As Detroit grew, the land was more important than an open sewer. I was lucky enough to tour [[about 10 years ago) the bricked in version of Savoyard. It's still there, with an entrance around Congress and Washington. Still remarkable, but you'd have to disrupt Congress, Washington Blvd. and much of Jefferson to uncover it. Still an intriguing idea ...
There has been some talk regarding "daylighting" Connor Creek which was orginally called Tromblay Creek. Tromblay Creek because the Tromblay family [[various spellings of the name existed) operated a major windmill at the mouth of the Detroit River.
An odd thing that happened to me was when we lived in GPP. We had a deep back yard and a paved alley. Our bedroom over looked the back of the house. At night while asleep, I would dream frequently that the alley was a canal or river. Much to my surprise, years later, I discovered that my alley was a covered tributary of Fox Creek which connected to the Milk River. I just wonder how I knew?
My question about exposing old creeks and tributaries is I thought most if not all were used to create the existing sewage system. If that is the case, then why open up sewers?
as a young kid before they developed a huge system under Britain Street there was remnants of a small creek running towards Denby...if I wasn't dreaming...I vaguely remember a neighbor who lived on the of Wayburn and Britain say they had a creek running in their backyard when they moved in...in the forties...into the fifties...I looked at an old plat map once and saw a creek that was covered that was near Denby...since this was a long time ago it is very vague...
but having lived in Detroit, San Antonio and Austin ...Las Colinas and other cities with rivers it makes a city so much more inviting for biking an walking when there is green belts running near water...
eventually we will redesign Detroit to attract green development if we want to make it a city where diversity is celebrated and people of all backgrounds come home instead of development going further out...maybe if we committed to green belts, streams and balanced green corridors people would re-invest in the city as a whole...schools and business should jump on these imaginative concepts...teaching ecology and service related projects help kids have pride where they live. .. and water projects are great places for softening tough cities.
The City of Flint just recently did this exact thing with the restoration of Gilkey Creek running through the campus of Mott Community College. It looks great now that it is done.
http://blog.mlive.com/flintjournal/newsnow/2007/09/gilkey_creek_project_could_bec.html
http://blog.mlive.com/get-healthy-in..._proves_u.html
http://www.allbusiness.com/environme...1915121-1.html
Pontiac's master plan calls for "uncapping" the Clinton River. Metromode ran a story about this back in May: http://www.metromode.com/devnews/cli...8-1d38b1b5f8cd
A major component of that plan calls for eliminating "The Loop" around downtown--a physical and psychological barrier between neighborhoods and Pontiac's central business district. The Clinton River and riverwalk would replace Wide Trac east of downtown. Wide Trac to the west would become a two-way Woodward Avenue extension.
A nice idea, but the city cannot afford to pay its own employees, let alone tackle the $50 million or more it would take to make it happen.
This is a fascinating topic. Some of the old covered creeks and rivers might be used now and underground sewers. For those, we would have to build a new sewer too and stop dumping stuff into the old covered creek. That sounds pretty expensive. Hopefully, for some of these projects that would not be necessary.
But imagine the combination of the controversal organized tearing down of neighborhoods and the resurgence of some old creeks. It could make the property really valuable.
How did they go about "covering" these creeks? Did they fill them in or just place a cap over them?
I know in the case of the old Savoyard River, first the sides were lined with brick walls. Then they built brick vaulted ceilings over it, with the ends of the ceilings resting on the walls. It's the identical technique used to build parts of Fort Wayne. End result looks like old sewers in NYC and Paris. I was told that many of the workmen hired to build Ft. Wayne built the Savoyard system. That would place it around 1840-60.
Connor Creek flowed through what is now Mt. Olivet Cemetery and now flows underground under the City Airport.
In the cemetery there are what looks like foot bridges over what was once a surface flowing stream and a depression that looks like it once held a small lake or pond. Anyone with info concerning the existence of such a body of water ,since I'm speculating based on topography of the area in the cemetery just west of Connor in the older section of said cemetery ?
I read on the Catholic church web site, "SWEETEST HEART OF MARY", that that was Conner creek. Also, the rolling hillside in the cemetary is representatiave of what all Wayne county around inside Detroit was like. The site said that it took a generation of laborers to level the land so it looks like it does today.
Even the north end of Kalamazoo's downtown looks a good deal better than it did a few years ago, with the streamside development a major reason.
Question, where any of the creeks in Detroit covered over because of flooding, or were they all covered so as to reduce the cost of digging new sewers? It's definitely something that'd need to be researched before any of them were uncovered and renaturalized.
I know that the Grand River through downtown Jackson used to be hell for the residents before they covered it because of its frequent floods.
I'd always wished Detroit would have kept as much of its old topography as was feasible, but it seems like the entire bowl the city sits in is artificial. Up in Toronto, they largely built the city around nature instead of trying to conquer it, completely. To this day, Toronto's natural ravines are a huge addition to the quality of life in that city.
Let's write Mountain Dew commercials out of the Michigan film tax credit program.Quote:
Originally Posted by gnome
Some of this has been going on in the Seattle area, taking creeks and opening them back up. It became a topic of interest around Puget Sound due to the decline of Salmon runs because of a lack of spawning areas as creeks and rivers that at one time were habitat got paved over......
so they brick the sides and vault the top....what do they rest the walls on? Cant just lay bricks on mud right?
I myself had often thought of the streams,creeks,and drains around here before they built up the area.At onetime an open drain ran behind where my garage now sits.Now that my garage and my tomato/pepper garden is by where the drain was I myself wonder the "What IF".
For those who may never have seen the idea as it was first advanced several years ago, go here [[the Metro Times) to read about ADAMAH:
http://metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=2625
[quote=sumas;45571]An odd thing that happened to me was when we lived in GPP. We had a deep back yard and a paved alley. Our bedroom over looked the back of the house. At night while asleep, I would dream frequently that the alley was a canal or river. Much to my surprise, years later, I discovered that my alley was a covered tributary of Fox Creek which connected to the Milk River. I just wonder how I knew?quote]
I think the answer has been right there in front of you for years. You are obviously the missing link to the Psychic Friends Network.
Detroit actually does have a stream that can be viewed in its nearly undisturbed state: Parent's Creek [[also named Bloody Run after a Indian attack that took place there) can be viewed in Elmwood Cemetery. It is not very big in terms of water flow and not very much is exposed [[maybe a few hundred feet), but what is most surprising is the depth of the valley leading to it in relation to the surrounding terrain. It is quite beautiful [[if a cemetery can be considered so!) and one of Detroit's hidden treasures.
I would love to see more streams uncovered, but I doubt any would be as large as San Antonio [[which is natural, by the way, although the flood bypass is man-made). My biggest concern would be mosquitoes. If the streams do not have enough flow throughout the summer, the standing water will be breeding grounds for them. Another concern would be the depth of the stream beneath the surrounding terrain, and how much land would have to be cleared to create a bank that is shallow enough, and the bridges that would have to be built.
The streams were covered because they were frequently used as sanitation sewers, which smell, of course. The streams provided drainage, and when they were covered over, they were deepened/enlarged to help in the drainage. The walls, which were either stone or brick, rested on brick foundations. In the case of Savoyard Creek, the walls were originally made of wood timbers from Fort Shelby.
The Connor Creek sewer which runs under a taxiway at City Airport gave way about 15 years ago and attempted to swallow a small twin-engine plane that was taxiing above it. That occurred just beyond the northern tip of Gethsemane Cemetery, Sludgedaddy.
I find it very interesting in a good way..the two threads on natural waters and red foxes...if you were to design a city knowing what we now know wouldn't you have lots of green spaces...and natural waters....if only ...
But, every city that I have lived in that has creeks and streams...have higher quality of trails and outdoor usages...if we made the cities greener, with trails and parks..we could attract residents that don't use a tank of gas to come into their jobs..bikes etc..then you would have a newer tax base to fix the schools which would help decrease crime..but that would take all working together ...
Green-ways and housing would be one way to revitalize targeted areas along with restoration of historic districts...the city can revitalize itself if the powers that be are really interested in creating a diverse and friendly city...
A lot of people think that the Battle of Bloody Run took place IN Elmwood, but it was actially many yards closer to the River. I am not sure if Jefferson runs along the same pathway as in the 1700s though.
The Battle of Bloody Run was not an "Indian attack." It was a highly effective defensive maneuver by Pontiac and his troops who met an oncoming British force of 250 men to their surprise. The British were attempting a middle of the night surprise attack on Pontiac but he was too smart for them, and he had his troops lined up all ready to meet the British head on. According to the historical marker, the British lost up to 60 men in the battle. Some reports say they there were 20 killed and 34 wounded. It was the British who were attacking.
In his book Pontiac and the Indian Uprising, author Howard Peckham reports 19 dead and 34 wounded. He also reports Indian deaths, but not how many.
I am just trying to enlighten the halls of history here.
This about "unearthing" Bloody run:
In 1979, Stephen Vogel’s firm, Schervish Vogel Consulting Architects, was
performing site analysis work for a string of parks along Detroit’s
riverfront when he learned of a storm drain called Bloody Run. He conducted
some research and found it was named for a creek that had been covered over
and absorbed into the city’s sewer system around the turn of the century.
Vogel began toying with the idea of “unearthing” the former creek, but the
idea languished.
As odd as it seems, the history of Bloody Run Creek and the fallout from
Detroit’s crack epidemic would eventually merge.
In 1987, a year after 46 children in the city were gunned down and another
345 were wounded from the crossfire of battling drug gangs, some Detroit
residents began taking to the streets, marching on drug houses with
bullhorns blaring. Among the leaders of the movement known as Save Our Sons
And Daughters were a pair of longtime activists, Jimmy and Grace Lee Boggs.
At the same time, Jimmy Boggs was crusading to block Mayor Coleman Young’s
efforts to bring casino gambling to Detroit. When Young challenged his
opponents to be more than naysayers, Boggs responded with an alternative
vision.
“We have to begin thinking of creating small enterprises which produce
food, goods and services for the local market, that is, for our communities
and for our city,” contended Boggs in a 1988 speech. “In order to create
these new enterprises, we need a view of our city which takes into
consideration both the natural resources of our area and the existing and
potential skills and talents of Detroiters.”
As the crack houses began to close, the community, seeing the results of
grassroots activism, became even more energized.
Their efforts gained added momentum beginning in 1992, with the formation
of Detroit Summer. A sort of activist training ground for people aged 13 to
25, the program imports volunteers who join with Detroit kids to
participate in revitalization projects, including the planting of community
gardens.
Those Detroit Summer gardens became part of a patchwork of similar projects
nurtured by the late Gerald Hairston, who helped create scores of community
gardens throughout the city.
By the mid-’90s, with the assistance of the Hunger Action Coalition of
Michigan and Michigan Integrated Food & Farming Systems, people from those
gardens joined forces to create the Detroit Agriculture Network, which
promotes urban agriculture.
Kyong Park, an internationally known architect who frequently served as a
visiting lecturer at University of Detroit Mercy, became part of this mix.
Park moved to Detroit in 1998, buying a house on the east side and setting
up the nonprofit International Center for Urban Ecology [[ICUE).
The threads of Adamah were beginning to weave together.
A bottom-up approach
“Because he lived in this community, Kyong Park could feel the pulse of
what was happening here,” observed Jim Embry, director of the Boggs Center,
which was founded in 1995, two years after Jimmy Boggs’ death.
Just as Boggs envisioned in his 1988 speech, Park sees Detroit as the
culmination of the industrial revolution. The city that showed the world
how to mass-produce automobiles, that served as democracy’s arsenal during
World War II, that rode a wave of labor activism to middle-class affluence
and model race relations, had fallen farther and hit bottom harder than any
other major U.S. city
“In terms of urban industrialization, mass production, the working class,
and labor history, [[Detroit) is the largest factory town ever built,”
observed Park in an interview last year. “Because of the urban destruction
it has gone through and which is still visibly with us, Detroit also
represents the biggest failure of the modernist city.”
Dean Vogel talked with Park about Bloody Run Creek, and how, if unearthed,
it could provide a lifeline of water to a community seeking
self-sufficiency. Park, as he explains on the ICUE Web site, wanted to
“regenerate” the near-east side of Detroit into “a new model for community
development.”
And, it happened it night so it really must have been a difficult fight. Really, from what I have read, it was a series of skirmishes from ribbon farm to ribbon farm from Parents Creek back to the fort.
Thanks people, for giving me a lot to think about. I am a firm believer in urban gardening and daylighting creeks could truely provide water accessibility. I recently was told that Detroit has more vacant land then any other American city. If we, as residents are smart, we should turn this negative into a positive. Detroit and near environs were largely swamps. If we consider going back to our natural topography, what do people suggest we do to capitalize on our new country look?
To capitalize on our imagined new country look, I suggest we dress like the Amish, only with the zipperless trousers hanging half way down our asses. And for the ladies, along with the required bonnet, a pair of camel toe revealing hot pants.
I'm not sure I support too much more of turning the city back into marshlands. The fishflies and mosquitos are already bad enough as it is. The city needs to be kept well drained. The city, however, can go towards nature without going back to swamp lands.
It's 6:30a.m. as I read sludgedaddy.The oj is on the screen.Unearthing our creeks would be a great idea.The Clinton River uncapping thru Pontiac sounds like a good idea if we could somehow get the money.I do wonder if the city of Detroit doesn't have more pressing needs.The Rouge flowing thru the west side of the city was treated as an open sewer/dumping ground until the 1990s.Could someone answer this,where are the headwaters of these creeks?Seems like these creeks we are talking about start in Macomb County.What was once higher ground has been turned into miles of subs.and pavement.Hasn't the source of theses creeks also been lost to development?Does I-696 act as a barrier to any water flowing south and east.Or do these creeks flow from springs?Just thinkin'.
All of the headwaters of the Rouge River branches either start in Oakland, Wayne, or Washtenaw Counties.
The main branch starts in extreme southwest corner of Rochester Hills/northwest corner of Bloomfield Township, the Upper Branch in Farmington Hills [[with it's own branches in West Bloomfield and Novi), the Middle Branch in Northville, and the Lower Branch in Superior Township [[the township directly adjacent to Canton to the west).
The Middle Branch actually starts at Walled Lake in Novi. I think that one of the Upper Branch segments in Novi begins further north in Commerce. Many maps here.
http://www.rougeriver.com/proddata/mapcatalog.html
In my earlier comment about Mt. Olivet cemetary and Connor Creek, I had confused it with Elmwood Cemetery I think. Fascinating history, but I got the details all wrong.
I think the residents in the vicinity would welcome flow returning to Fox Creek. It's now kind of a canal instead of a river, and can be fetid in the summer. I heard they were considering installing pumps along the system of Gowanus Canals in Brooklyn. Would be nice, yes?
I know about where the Rouge starts,all 3 branches.I was wondering about the creeks on the east side of Detroit.Looking at old Edison maps and topo maps,it looks like the east side of town has no streams or creeks that can be saved.Need to hear from an expert on this.I find this very interesting,having been a wastewater treatment plant operator in a past career.
Mr. Lucky, The Solution to Pollution is Dilution. Good to see someone who knows how to keep his shit together. Geetings, fellow Shit-head !
Concerning Conner Creek...there was a series of drainage ditches which run parrallel to the railroad tracks on the east side of Detroit, near Hamtramck in the vicinity of old Lynch Road Assembly just north of Forestlawn Cemetery. These were said to drain into Conner Creek. Probably a later addition to the Norris Town Settlement from the 1870's.
Back when I was a kid in the mid 1960's, the area was called either "Bare Ankle" or :"Polliwog Paradise". An excellent place for kids of that era to catch frogs, break bottles on the tracks, etc.
The last couple of years on my way home from work, I was able to hear spring peepers emitting their piercing mating song in Spring from the area of Holbrook and Conant. The ditches still hold water.
....and for some odd reason, I can't seem to get the theme song from the old Walt Disney show "Swamp Fox" out of my head.
Lucky, if you go to google maps and click on terrain you will see these creeks. You can see them as squigglly light gray lines.
Will do.Sludgedaddy,do you work for DWSD,OCDC or some other utitlity?
Mr, Lucky......DWSD....Soon to be a Shit-head Emeritus next year.
i lived for about twenty years in the old redford area and there were many covered streams in the area. i had some friends who lived on cooley just south of grand river and there was a 20' fall in their backyard which they had terraced. the old stream continued under grand river and i was told there was a pond there that in the twenties and earlier they used to cut ice in in the winter . this is the area where the behind what became a chatham grocery store. it continues in a ne direction and many people in the area behind the redford theatre had significant elevation drops in their backyard.
I really enjoy threads that share significant facts, memories and area history. I am always slightly bemused by forumers who try to belittle honest posts. Perhaps I am missing the humor or irony.
Fox Creek now ends at Jefferson. There is a pumping station located on the north side of Jefferson. Hope I am using the right terminology for the facility since I am not an expert on shit, like some others on this thread.
Some years back, Creekside Development Corporation adopted that portion of Fox Creek that is still daylighted. The City of Detroit had to build a berm due to a lawsuit by GPP to take them out of a flood plain. A berm , a seawall and fencing were installed and landscaping was promised but never happened. Suzanne Bishop, now deceased, was the impetus behind turning this eyesore into the Fox Creek Trail. I am pleased to say I helped to write the original grant and volunteered at several plantings. So many people, organizations, non profits and churches have supported this on going effort. 3 /4th of the tree installation has been completed to date for this 1.25 mile canal. Kudos should also go to JEBA [[Jefferson East Business Association)
A small corner lot on the south side of Jefferson and Ashland at the titular end of Fox Creek and previously used as storage for DPSW has been turned into a very lovely community park. Sheila Jackson, who is running for city council was the impetus behind this park happening. Cevan, Jeba's board president did the landscape design. They are both assets to this community.
Settle down sumas,or sludgedaddy and the rest of us "turdherders" will see that you're "treated".sumas, you are correct that the terminology is pumping staion.It can also be called a lift station.I wonder if the Fox Creek pumping station pumps its discharge out into Lake St.Clair,or is it a combind sewage flow into the DWSD system.If it is storm water,is it being treated?If these streams and creeks we are talking about have become storm water drains,then we may want to think again about uncovering them.They were covered for reasons of health and flood control.Nobody would want a combined sewage overflow going thru their backyard.
Hey, Luckeycar, my husband says, just "treat" me well!
Nor sure if Fox Creek is a CSO. A few years back, Connor Creek became a CSO and had to do remediation because they took over a portion of Connor Creeks to do so. As a result, A fish hatchery park was built at Maharis Gentry Park at the foot of Connor. Very cool!
LuckyCar
>>If these streams and creeks we are talking about have become storm water drains,then we may want to think again about uncovering them.They were covered for reasons of health and flood control.Nobody would want a combined sewage overflow going thru their backyard.
To do this right you need a master plan for the entire city. The master plan might include turning parts of Detroit Green again, as in the controversial Flint plan. And you might do it like Flint, where you might "swap" people out of a neighborhood that is to be turned back to woods, and swap them into homes in a part of the city that was designated as to be populated.
Creating less homes will actually entice more people to move back into the city, enhancing the local economy.
Let's grab our crayons and make a shovel ready project!
I want my stimulus!
there is a really nice photo taken in 1906 of "bucolic" conner creek in Frank Angelo's Yesterday's Detroit wriiten in the 1970s. based on the size of the stream it appears pretty far from the detroit river.
When I was a kid we would ride our bikes along the fence at the top of that berm beside Fox Creek. The path was really narrow, no room for error or you'd fall down into the street or into the tangle of brush covering the side. It was strange looking down from above the cars driving on Alter.
This is a blurb from something I wrote for Pipeline. Sorry for the caps, my computer was wanky that day.
Conner Creek has a fascinating history. The creek itself goes from the Detroit River to Vandyke Road. To an area once called Lees Ville. The path roughly following Conner Creek is slated to become a modern greenway.
The street, named Conner, goes only from the river to roughly the current City airport where it connects with Outer Drive. In recent years, a portion of the exposed Conner Creek was shuttered to provide for a sewer over flow system by the city. The state provides that any waterways/wetlands taken for commerce must be replaced. In this case, a fish hatchery park was installed at Maheris Gentry, located at the foot of Conner.
Conner¢s creek was originally called Riviere du Grand Marais.The property was acquired by the Tromblay family. The creek and property was called Tromblay via biae St Paul, Quebec.
They built a grist mill at the site. One of two important mills built by early French families.
In 1750, Peter Tromblay¢s wife Magdeline [[nee Simard) died. He moved farther into the wilderness, what is now City Airport. In 1808, the Tromblay family received the largest land grant in the area. 1640 acres adjoining Conner Creek.
A daughter of Louis Trombley married Henry Conner. Henry Conner was a noted Indian interpreter. The Chippewa gave him the name Wabishkindibe, which means white hair.
Henry and his wife inherited creek property from his father in law. The property was located in what was than Grosse Pointe Township. He became the supervisor of Grosse Pointe Township and the creek was renamed in honor of him.
Attachment 2555
From Silas Farmer's book on early detroit.
not sure if this link will take you to his book, I fear I screwed up the URL. but it is available on ggogle books: Silas Farmer 1890 ...search for Savoyard.
http://books.google.com/books?id=_Od...20maps&f=false
In short, the Savoyard was a branch of the Huron River which dumped into a marsh near Riopelle and Congress ...
Thank you for this reference from the Farmer book. How wonderful the old-time researchers were - and how wonderful the modern researchers of Detroit are!
No prob, ...The real interesting thing is that Silas Farmer took a 1890 Map of Detroit and laid it over a map his father[[?), John Farmer, made in 1830.
That link worked. Thank you for the amazing resource!
A sewer longing to be a creek. ;-)
Savoyard: Can you provide some more details about how you can see the old Savoyard Creek near Congress and Washington Blvd? Thanks.
My Dad worked for Detroit Edison for 23 years. In the mid-1990s, he got me a summer job working for DE [[they may have been in the process of becoming DTE). He knew of my interest in Detroit history and kept telling me about the covered Savoyard River beneath the Washington/Congress area. I told him that if he ever had an assignment in that area, I wanted to see it. It turns out they used the covered creek to run power lines between major buildings downtown. So one day he calls me and says he has a call to go down "to the creek". The entrance was basically a manhole cover somewhere near the intersection of Congress and Washington. I don't remember exactly where. We went down and entered a bricked-in area about 8 feet wide. The ceiling had a lot of power lines running through it [[at the top of the vault) and about 3 inches of water. No bad smellls, just a lot of humidity. I explored a bit with my Dad, and he showed me some areas that expanded out to about 10-15 feet wide, again with bricked walls and brick-vaulted ceilings. We moved to the area approximately where the Michigan Gas building is. That's an area that used to be the first cemetery for St. Anne's, which was just north of the One Griswolv building. We could see that the walls had collapsed, so didn't venture further. Wish I had taken pictures ...
Very interesting. Thanks.
Nice story, Savoyard! [[And all this time I just thought you were a Gilbert & Sullivan fan!)
Hey Savoyard, I love stories like that. Thanks.
Hello historians.... KI lived on Carlbert Street,once just one block east of French Road and intersecting [[meeting) 6 Mile Road. The neighborhood was demolished due to the efforts of Lydia Wrona, a resident who, for safety reasons fought to have the City of Detroit and airport owners buy us out, so the new runway could be surveyed, researched, and ultimately constructed.
Our front door [[at 13751 Carlbert) faced a tool and die plant on 6 Mile, parallel to French Rd. We were one block north of Aero Mechanics training school. The family names such as Zeamis, Borton, Wrona, and Sandra Cronk or Kronk, were well known from Connor Road to Mt.Olivet Cemetery, and from Holy Name Parish and school? to VerHoven Chevrolet. The neighborhood grade school age kids [[Lynch School) would sneak onto the airport property, next to Aero, and play
In the WW II fighter planes awaiting diagnosis and/or repair. I would climb inside
with my neighbors 1 or 2 at a time and play with the controls. When the airport
police nabbed us because we were walking on the 'active' runways, we were let
go with just a warning because we cried so much !!!!
Don Wrona
Question for anyone: Is there one good reference available for the various streams that ran into Detroit? A map, a book, an article?
Savoyard: Where, exactly, is the entrance to the Savoyard River on Congress? How do you access the site? Tell us all you know about your namesake river....
Refer to Chapter II of Silas Farmer's 1884 book "The History of Detroit and Michigan". Chapter II starts on page 6 of the book [[page 61 of the downloadable PDF document) and is titled "The River, Islands, Wharves and docks, Streams and Mills". Streams and Mills begins on page 8 and page 9 features a map showing the routes of former streams and the old Detroit River line.Quote:
Originally Posted by Carey