Anyone know when Mack Avenue went in?

**buildingsofdetroit** · January-25-12, 10:22 PM

I had someone do me a write-up for HistoricDetroit.org on a house, but he knows only that it was demolished when Mack Avenue was put in. Having a hard time finding it and no time to go to the Burton this week. Any help appreciated!
-d.a.

**Hamtragedy** · January-26-12, 12:03 AM

Before or after the address changes?

**Gistok** · January-26-12, 01:49 AM

BOD.... perhaps your question should be re-phrased.... "at what point did Mack Ave. get straightened?"

I remember Rosalie Kahn, late daughter of Albert Kahn, talk about their family home on Rowena St. Of course that street was later renamed Mack Ave., and the house she was referring to is today the Urban League HQ. Back then Mack Ave. didn't go all the way to Woodward. And at some point in the past a widening closer to Woodward resulted in some home demolitions, realignment of roadways in Midtown, and the complete disappearance of Rowena St.

A good start would be to find some old early 20th century road maps of the Midtown portion of Detroit.

**mikol248** · January-26-12, 10:12 AM

Originally Posted by Gistok

BOD.... perhaps your question should be re-phrased.... "at what point did Mack Ave. get straightened?"

I remember Rosalie Kahn, late daughter of Albert Kahn, talk about their family home on Rowena St. Of course that street was later renamed Mack Ave., and the house she was referring to is today the Urban League HQ. Back then Mack Ave. didn't go all the way to Woodward. And at some point in the past a widening closer to Woodward resulted in some home demolitions, realignment of roadways in Midtown, and the complete disappearance of Rowena St.

A good start would be to find some old early 20th century road maps of the Midtown portion of Detroit.

my father grew up on rowena steet and moved when the street was straightened.his name was abraham kolkowitz..many years ago an apartment building in the area was called the rowena.mikol

**Detroitnerd** · January-26-12, 12:14 PM

Rowena became Mack, although there may have been some realignment. It was still Rowena when Ford had his workshops there around 1901 to 1909 or so.

More interestingly, Myrtle was bulldozed through to Woodward to meet Mack, creating a workable crosstown thoroughfare. The Myrtle work was done in the 1960s, I think.

**Hermod** · January-26-12, 01:23 PM

My father was working in a restaurant on Mack Ave in 1927 when the street was paved. He said they had a lot of business from the construction workers.

**Ray1936** · January-26-12, 01:46 PM

"More interestingly, Myrtle was bulldozed through to Woodward to meet Mack, creating a workable crosstown thoroughfare. The Myrtle work was done in the 1960s, I think."

The late fifties, actually, at the same time the Jeffries Housing Project was built. It never did provide a straight shot thoroughfare, though, as Myrtle still kind of 'dead-ended" at Trumbull, just south of Grand River, and one had to do all kind of zig-zags through that trisection.

**Carey** · January-26-12, 01:53 PM

For what it's worth, maps from the 1880s show Mack on the far east side, cutting through farmland along what is now the Detroit-Grosse Pointe border.

**MikeM** · January-26-12, 05:20 PM

What do you mean by "put-in"? Where along Mack was the house?

**EastsideAl** · January-26-12, 07:04 PM

Further out on the east side Mack is a very old street. It dates back to a time when it was used as a farm-to-market lane. But I believe it ended at Gratiot in those days.

Sometime in the 1920s it was cut through to Woodward using some smaller streets, including Rowena. This was part of a general plan, brought on by increasing auto congestion on city streets that were built for wagon traffic, to cut through direct crosstown traffic routes using mostly existing streets. Vernor Hwy. [[primarily made up of Dix, High, and Waterloo Streets) is the most notable result of this plan.

The west side part of the Mack-Myrtle plan had to wait though, through the depression and WWII until the city again had some money and they were finally ready to build the long-planned "slum clearance" housing that was the Jefferies Project. That was mostly cut out of Stimson, with the final link to Woodward via the former Davenport not finished until the mid-60s due to problems emptying the apartment buildings and hotels that were in the way.