1888 Detroit Map - with Hastings

[southofbloor]

That's a very deep statement you make about fire, worthy of further discussion. Do you think the role of fire is more significant than say, San Francisco or Chicago, cities that were destroyed by fire all at once?

These maps you linked to are beautiful. I zoomed in as far as possible so as to see the streets and markers. So much the same, so much different. So many streets gone, altogether. Hastings was a major street.

This Detroit is probaby the Detroit that my grandparents arrived at from the South, maybe around 1920.

I note that Antietam, near my home in Lafayette Park, looks much the same, with that sharp turn at Rivard. I always wondered about the name, was it named after the battlefield?

Thank you so much for posting these.

You're welcome - I was lucky enough to find the Baist's atlas at John King's fantastic bookstore. I get lost in it. I can send higher res if you would like.

I have wondered whether that area just north of Antietam is what Hastings Street generally felt like. Have always liked the spot at Jay and Orleans, and Service Street. Quirky urban meaty... Not sure about the origins of the name though.

Yes the whole fire thing - its disturbing how many times this town has either burned down, or set fires to others' properties as a weapon or warning, or set fire to itself as protest, or for insurance, or out of boredom, or to make a place safer, or entertainment. I've started working on a paper on it a few times but seem to end up dropping it - depressing. Lots of really disturbing material out there in the archives.

Lafayette Park - lucky lucky! The eastern redbuds must be beautiful about now.

[marshamusic]

You're welcome - I was lucky enough to find the Baist's atlas at John King's fantastic bookstore. I get lost in it. I can send higher res if you would like.

I have wondered whether that area just north of Antietam is what Hastings Street generally felt like. Have always liked the spot at Jay and Orleans, and Service Street. Quirky urban meaty... Not sure about the origins of the name though.

Yes the whole fire thing - its disturbing how many times this town has either burned down, or set fires to others' properties as a weapon or warning, or set fire to itself as protest, or for insurance, or out of boredom, or to make a place safer, or entertainment. I've started working on a paper on it a few times but seem to end up dropping it - depressing. Lots of really disturbing material out there in the archives.

Lafayette Park - lucky lucky! The eastern redbuds must be beautiful about now.

Yeah, John King's - a book lover's heaven. Love it.

Are you meaning south of antietam? North would be basically Gratiot. You mention that lovely area of Jay and Orleans. Yes, that is such a peaceful, lovely little corner. The church has been there for a long time, but that beautiful reddish brick home for nuns is a more recent building. I love the "hills" the uneven topography of that raised area adjacent to Parc Lafayette.

In LP, we do have a co-op member who was a resident of LP in the "old days". I've heard him talk about the beauty of that area back in the day [[but it was not a "corner" as it is now; those were just residential streets.

Someone [[Rick Beall, I think) posted recently that Hastings would look much like Hamtramck's residential strip, and I agreed. I remember Hastings, when I was a small child, and it was a hustlng, bustling commercial area.

I think that an even closer approximation would be Greektown [[the storefronts, not the casino, of course), if you would pack those shops tight, on both sides of the street.

Which makes sense, given our earlier discussion in this thread, about the proximity of an enclave of blacks in the old Greektown area, which really was part of Hastings/Black Bottom.

As to LP in the spring - yes, it is glorious here now. The first burst of blooms are fading, and there will be another round of colors soon. I'll try to post some photos.