City Directory help needed - 1800's

[Detroitgayhistoryguy]

Off topic but you guys seem to know this stuff. I have a question that you guys might know the answer to. Sometimes the addresses were changed on streets. I have a friend who owns a bar on Michigan Ave, the building is super old, dating to the 1800's. I cannot find any reference to it in the city directories under it's current address, 1846 Michigan Ave. How would you know what the address was prior?

[MikeM]

The city's addresses were renumbered January 1st, 1921. Directories from that year usually show both numbers. Sanborn insurance maps do too, if you have one from the era. Looks like 1846 Michigan was originally 548.

[Detroitgayhistoryguy]

The city's addresses were renumbered January 1st, 1921. Directories from that year usually show both numbers. Sanborn insurance maps do too, if you have one from the era. Looks like 1846 Michigan was originally 548.

Thanks Mike!

[EastsideAl]

Here is a handy site for figuring out the 1921 Detroit address changes:
http://stevemorse.org/census/changes...itChanges2.htm

[MikeM]

Wow, that took a lot of work. I started out to make a similar list but gave up before I reached the end of the A streets.

[Lowell]

Mikeg, nice work.

You guys are slipping. From my calculations that took about eight hours and ten minutes to figure out.

Thanks! Next time, I'll pull an all-nighter

Straight into the DetroitYES Hall of Fame goes this thread. Great work Mikeg and Ray1936!

[Ray1936]

Well, heck, as long as we've made the HOF threads, I may as well post the photo of the inside of the grocery store on Pallister, c. 1890. I believe the man standing by the "Oysters" sign to be Conrad Volkert.

[Detroitgayhistoryguy]

Sorry another re-numbering question. I don't see areas that were outside of the city of Detroit limits in the re-numbering charts such as old Redford. Where these areas re-numbered as well? And a city directory question, I don't see much of the suburban areas in the city directories such as Redford, Ferndale, Royal Oak, Pleasant Ridge, etc, etc. Are there city directories for these cities? I'm still learning, but you guys have been very patient with me and I appreciate it.

[Ray1936]

Good question. I do know that when my grandparents came to Detroit from Germany [[thanks to cousin Conrad), they bought a house at 12310 Sorrento, in what was then Greenfield Township. When the C of D incorporated that area, their house number was changed to 12316. Minor, but somewhat curious, eh?

[gnome]

Sorry another re-numbering question. I don't see areas that were outside of the city of Detroit limits in the re-numbering charts such as old Redford. Where these areas re-numbered as well? And a city directory question, I don't see much of the suburban areas in the city directories such as Redford, Ferndale, Royal Oak, Pleasant Ridge, etc, etc. Are there city directories for these cities? I'm still learning, but you guys have been very patient with me and I appreciate it.

Not positive on all the particulars, but I would hazard to guess that those far removed areas of the city were not incorporated until after 1921 when the re-numbering took place.

As far as renumbering Woodward N of 8-mile ... each city along that route had separate numbering until the mid-1990s.

[gnome]

Ray-

Found the following and thought you might be interested; it the death cert of one Viola Volkert, 14 yr old daughter of Conrad. Seems she died of typhoid fever, then known as Enteric Fever. Their address is listed as on Clay.

The main site of State of MI docs: http://seekingmichigan.cdmhost.com


http://seekingmichigan.org/u?/p129401coll7,833959

[Ray1936]

[QUOTE=gnome;309349]Ray-

Found the following and thought you might be interested; it the death cert of one Viola Volkert, 14 yr old daughter of Conrad. Seems she died of typhoid fever, then known as Enteric Fever. Their address is listed as on Clay.

Yup, have that, Gnome, but thanks for the effort anyway! Here's little Viola just before her untimely death.