Were there horse drawn milk wagons in Detroit during the 1950's?

I am an Amtrak conductor and run between WAS & NYP daily. My first introduction to big city railroading began when I stepped off New York Central's overnight train from Cincinnati in 1954. I was 9 years old and traveling from Florida to meet my father for the first time and was immediately knocked off my feet by the magnificent Michigan Central Station, Detroit's grand cathedral of commerce.

Detroit was the industrial capital of the world so it saddens me to tears to see Michigan Central abandoned and deteriorated like so much of Motown. The once dynamic Motor City - and home of The Supremes - looks like a urban ghost town.

I will be visiting Detroit next month to celebrate my favorite uncle's 90th birthday. Uncle Bob and the Jennings family were part of the Great Black Migration who migrated north many years ago looking for jobs, equal opportunity and R-E-S-P-E-C-T in the "Promised Land".

I seem to recall horse drawn milk wagons in Detroit during the 50's but I am not sure. Does anyone know for sure? Thanks for your feedback!

Yes, there were. One came by my Grandma & Grandpa's house on Leslie. I remember going out to feed the horse grass from the vacant lot next door. It was a pale gray horse and wore blinders. He liked eating the grass we carefully held so as not to accidentally give him our fingers. This was just over the fence from Highland Park. At the HP end of the street there was a big iron fence and on the other side of the fence was HP Hospital. That street is under the Lodge Freeway now.

PS. I think it was Twin Pines, because I remember spelling it out and illustrating with my fingers like Milky the Clown. This was around 1950 to 1956.

We had Wayne Creamery for years while I was growing up, and the horses seemed to know the routes by heart and when they got tired, they just started for the stables and the poor milk men would have to run after them. We would have to avoid the steaming "donuts" left all over the streets and run from the neighbors dog who loved to roll in the droppings. Great fun growing up in the Motor City. Sad day when Wayne Creamery closed and the horses were gone. Sort of like the old Gene Wilder film "Quackser Fortune has a Cousin the in the Bronx"

Thank you for the interesting history and confirming my best recollection. While attending Nolan Jr. High from 1957-59 I used to go to a theater on Woodward in Highland Park. I think it was near 6 Mile Road. Another theater [[an arts theater?) was in the same block, maybe the Krim? Anyway "And God Created Woman" starring Brigitte Bardot was playing at one of those theaters and I desperately wanted to see this naked woman but couldn't because I was too young.

Highland Park's commercial district was vibrant and busy with shops, delis, retail stores, and entertainment venues. When visting the Motor City in 1997 my uncle drove [[at my request) up Woodward from downtown to Highland Park and I was completely devastated by the destruction and abandoned buildings along that once busy corridor. It looked like Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the bombs had been dropped.

The racially integrated Nolan and the all-white surrounding neighborhood were now all-black. What are white people afraid of.

My cousin and I did get to see Brigitte at Linwood Theater by hiding under the seats after the Saturday matinee.

Again thanks for the memory.

Thank you. How old are you?

More people will see on on Discuss Detroit, and since it is about Detroit, that is the best place. :) Connections is more to talk about other things that aren't necessarily Detroit related, just conversations or information about different subjects, maybe like the fascinating sounding subject of being an Amtrak conductor. I love the sound of that.

Thanks. Sometimes when you get the chance I would appreciate a brief rundown on Highland Park then and now. Do you still live in Detroit?

I live in Southfield. I was actually quite small when my family left the area and moved to the Upper Peninsula. There are people here who know a lot about HP, and there are threads about it. I'll see if I can find one.

Here, these should get you started:

http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...=highland+park

http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...=highland+park

http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...=highland+park

Thanks.I am checking these threads out now.

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Originally Posted by samtrak

Thanks. Sometimes when you get the chance I would appreciate a brief rundown on Highland Park then and now. Do you still live in Detroit?

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In 1963 I met a guy at a high school dance at the Downtown YWCA who went to Highland Park High. The first time I went to his house on California St. I thought it was the most beautiful street I had ever seen. I remember asking him if his father was a doctor or a lawyer. He said his father worked at Ford Motor Co. I'll never forget the beautiful arch the trees made from Woodward all the way down to Oakland. The whole neighborhood was just beautiful. Especially the section where the streets are named after states. Just before I left Michigan last year I drove through the neighborhood and down California street. It was very sad. Thanks goodness for memories.

Thanks for the memory. Every time I return to the Motor City I feel great joy and even greater sadness when I think of what was while looking at what is.

Borden's had motorized their milk trucks by the late 1940s. Sealtest still delivered by horse and wagon.

Thank you. I thought milk wagons roamed the streets in the W. Philadelphia/Windermere neighborhood where my Uncle Otis lived but I feared I might be having a "senior moment".

I remember the horses too. I think they went back to someplace on Holden when they were done. Don't remember the name of the dairy. I remember
horse troughs for the horses on Trumbull and other places. This was in the
40's and 50's.

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Originally Posted by shirlselects

I remember the horses too. I think they went back to someplace on Holden when they were done. Don't remember the name of the dairy. I remember
horse troughs for the horses on Trumbull and other places. This was in the
40's and 50's.

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Sealtest had gray horse drawn wagons. Borden's and Twin Pines had yellow trucks when I was a kid. Neither the trucks nor the wagons were refrigerated. they used blocks of ice to cool the milk. As the milk was delivered and the wagon/truck emptied, the drivers would toss the unneeded blocks into the street and we would run out and get them, rinse them off, and chip them up for ourselves.

Thanks for the feedback.

Samtrak--I believe the theatre you went to at Woodward and 6 Mile was the RKO Uptown, and the arts theatre a couple of blocks to the south of it was the Krim.
As am Amtrak conductor, I bet you could tell some very interesting stories! Sounds like an interesting job. I bet you would have been right at home being a conductor on the old NYC 20th Century or the Detroit Twilight. Even the Westbounds out of Detroit's old Union Depot, or the Northbound
Grand Trunk out of Brush street station to Durand.

Thanks for verifying RKO Uptown and Krim theaters. I regret never visiting the other train stations when I was living in Detroit and exploring the city by bus, but I used to take NYC's overnight "Motor City Special" to Chicago to connect with the "City of Miami" to Florida.

At 68 I would love to retire bit can't afford to so I keep workin on the railroad.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by samtrak

Thanks for verifying RKO Uptown and Krim theaters. I regret never visiting the other train stations when I was living in Detroit and exploring the city by bus, but I used to take NYC's overnight "Motor City Special" to Chicago to connect with the "City of Miami" to Florida.

At 68 I would love to retire bit can't afford to so I keep workin on the railroad.

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All the live-long day?

http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/imag...art=;resnum=20

pic of milk wagons, looks to be around the late 1950's or early 60's.

And all night long...sometimes!

It seems to me the old Detroit-based Koenig Coal Company used to have horse-drawn coal wagons, but I would think they were gone by the 50's. But if horse-drawn milk wagons were still around then, maybe horse-drawn coal wagons were too. I assume oil was pretty much replacing coal by then to heat homes.

When I was a baby, we had coal heat in our house in Brightmoor. It was a brand new house. I remember when it was converted to something in about 1950, I THINK natural gas, because we didn't seem to have an oil truck coming around. I don't remember the coal truck, but I am pretty sure it was a truck, not horse drawn. It had a chute that went into the house and very noisily and scarily dumped coal into the basement coal bin.

You guys are making me thirstyful. Now all this about the milk truck pulled by horses was nice and all, but how about the beer trucks pulled by teams of horses?

My folks often talked about the Carling Black Horse beer wagons pulled by black horses and how impeccable these hand lettered trucks were up until the late forties I guess...

Montreal's breweries were Molson's, Frontenac, Dow, O'Keefe and had pretty colorful liveries, I guess the same thing could be said of Detroit's brewers also.

It wasn't horse drawn but I remember our Twin Pines Milk man driving his cool old truck with the big round fenders in front down Chalmers back in the early 70's. Dude had a big old handle bar mustache that curled up to thin wispy ends. He would load up our milk chute and then putt on down the street. Not sure what year that kind of service stopped but it is a great childhood memory for me.