Wonderful Pictures of the Boston-Edison Neighborhood

[Neilr]

I came across this site by a poster named southofbloor on Flickr today.


http://tinyurl.com/bs5rdmu


It is a wonderful collection of pictures of homes in the Boston-Edison Historic District and several of the nearby neighborhoods. It is slow to load; however if you have an interest in domestic Detroit architecture, I believe you'll find it well worth your while.

[Jimaz]

Wow. Thanks. What a display!

I love the color scheme on the 14th one [[53 Longfellow Detroit). The second floor looks like milk chocolate, awnings too. That hint of red stripe over the windows really sets it off.

[canuck]

I like the one above 53 Longfellow Jimaz, it just looks like it wants to swally you up.

[Gistok]

Wow. Thanks. What a display!

I love the color scheme on the 14th one [[53 Longfellow Detroit). The second floor looks like milk chocolate, awnings too. That hint of red stripe over the windows really sets it off.

Agreed, very nice hose Jimaz....

The house screams "I've been restored!"....

The landscaping screams "I'm rental property"....

[BrushStart]

Stunning. Those are real homes, with true character.

[JenniferL]

What a wonderful find! Thanks for sharing.

[Smirnoff]

Wow - thanks for posting!

[upinnair]

Beautiful!

[jerrytimes]

Nice pics. Id like to drive by this area. How safe is it around there?

[DetroitVideoDaily]

Great photos, thanks for sharing the link! @jerrytimes it's been awhile since I've driven through there, but I don't remember it being unsafe. Been awhile though. Years ago I went on a Holiday home tour there, [[their neighborhood association put it on) it was pretty cool to see some of the insides of the homes and hear about their history.
-DVD

[Detroit68]

Upon driving around the Boston-Edison neighborhood, I stumbled upon the following street. The street was barricaded preventing traffic from entering [[not sure if that is permanent or temporary). I love the concept of a pedestrian friendly street where cars are forced to park in a back alley garage, trash is collected from the alley, etc [[common in Detroit before they started closing off alleys in 70's). Sorry I didn’t get the name of the street. Can someone provide the street name and history? Thank you.

[Neilr]

Upon driving around the Boston-Edison neighborhood, I stumbled upon the following street. The street was barricaded preventing traffic from entering [[not sure if that is permanent or temporary). I love the concept of a pedestrian friendly street where cars are forced to park in a back alley garage, trash is collected from the alley, etc [[common in Detroit before they started closing off alleys in 70's). Sorry I didn’t get the name of the street. Can someone provide the street name and history? Thank you.

The area you were in is the New Center Commons neighborhood. It consists of Lothrop, Bethune, Pallister [[the street in your photo), Deleware, Seward and Virginia Park.


It the 1950's the New Center neighborhood was one of Detroit's early gay neighborhoods. In ±1980 GM bought up much of the housing. They restored what was restorable and rehabed those that were not, giving them exposed brick and chic plaster walls, new kitchens and baths and so on. Virginia Park has the largest, grandest houses. Pallister was converted into a pedestrian mall. The alleys were rehabed and garages were built with alley access. Many of the streets, as you noticed, were closed off turning the area into somewhat of a closed community w/o through traffic on the residential east/west streets.

The neighborhood has mixed use zoning. While mostly single family homes, there are flats, small and large apartment buildings, adult-care homes and businesses.


I'll try to post some floor plans of rehabed houses later.

[stromberg2]

That's a nice looking street. Is everything still safe around there?

Stromberg2

[Neilr]

Here's the floor plan of a 2-family flat on Seward:


A house on Deleware:


And a large house on Virginia Park:

[Vic01]

Nice pics. Id like to drive by this area. How safe is it around there?

Time of day makes a difference, 8:30 to 11:00am, I'll go anywhere [[as needed). Now and then I'll hit estate sales in the area, sometimes just to see the interior of these houses/works of art. Other times, I'll drive around to see the exterior views... I've found that around 9am is a good time, the "night shift" has given up and gotten off the streets... and the "day shift" hasn't gotten started hittin' the street yet. Sunny, but cold weather is even better...

[Vic01]

Here's a estate sale coming up next weekend that I just spotted on craigslist
http://detroit.craigslist.org/wyn/gms/2777228490.html

[p69rrh51]

Before he built 1830 Balmoral Charles Van Dusen built this home at 700 Virginia Park in 1908.

[p69rrh51]

A Rogers & MacFarlane designed home at 660 Virginia Park built in 1897.

[p69rrh51]

George Pottle designed this home at 750 Virginia Park in 1910 as well as the gate at Woodward.

[p69rrh51]

Smith, Hinchman & Grylls designed this home at 866 Virginia Park in 1911.

[p69rrh51]

Although the picks are very nice as usual the western 2/3's of B-E is mostly neglected so here is a Smith, Hinchman & Grylls designed home at 2435 West Boston Boulevard built in 1929.

[cman710]

Time of day makes a difference, 8:30 to 11:00am, I'll go anywhere [[as needed). Now and then I'll hit estate sales in the area, sometimes just to see the interior of these houses/works of art. Other times, I'll drive around to see the exterior views... I've found that around 9am is a good time, the "night shift" has given up and gotten off the streets... and the "day shift" hasn't gotten started hittin' the street yet. Sunny, but cold weather is even better...

I've driven all over Boston-Edison during the afternoon on a few trips and never saw anything even remotely sketchy. Just exercise caution as you would anywhere.