History of hastings st. and many pictures. Oh and some packard info

[hastings paradise]

Hello Detroit yes! I'm working on a book about a young super hero growing up in Detroit during the 1930's and I am trying to get as much info on Hastings street as possible. I hope you guys can help me out. Here is my page https://www.facebook.com/Bee4andafter Also I was driving down Grand Blvd and I noticed concord street going towards 94 was closed off. Any idears on what's going on?

[hastings paradise]

I found a few sites from Google linking me to different forums here. I use google earth to do side by side comparisons of Hastings and I-75.

[jw101]

I can honestly say I have no idea what Hastings St. is...

[mtburb]

I can honestly say I have no idea what Hastings St. is...

The current version of that street is only 6 1/2 blocks long, extending from the alley just south of Harper Avenue north to Grand Boulevard. There are now only three streets it intersects in that stretch: Harper, Piquette [[at the eastern end of Fisher 21) and Milwaukee [[where several railroad tracks also pass over). This part of Hastings Street, which is now the first street west of I-75 in that area, is just a fraction of the 'olden days, when it ran all the way to the river.

@hastings paradise: Actually, if you're interested, I'm working on a project of my own, a simulation of how the area bounded by M-10, Warren, I-75 and Grand Boulevard would've appeared on October 2, 1989, on the Sketchup program. I know this was well after Hastings was reduced to just that short fraction, though.

[Király]

I can honestly say I have no idea what Hastings St. is...

Hastings Street was the main commercial street in Paradise Valley, which was one of Detroit's two main black neighborhoods back in the day when blacks had few options to live elsewhere in the city. Hastings street was home to many black-owned businesses that served the community at that time. Hastings Street clubs and bars were home to some of the best R&B and blues performances of their time and attracted performers from around the country. Some of Motown's biggest names got their start performing there.

All that's left of Hastings Street is the little piece of it that lies between I-94 and Grand Blvd, and that part was never really part of Paradise Valley. The rest of Hastings [[and all of PV) was razed and replaced with I-75 and the housing projects that surround it.

[Detroitnerd]

There isn't much left of Hastings, but the west sidewalk of Hastings remains. It's the sidewalk between Mack and Wilkins on the southbound service drive of I-75. Yes, it's all gone, the bars, the clubs, the People's Hotel. But using an old fire insurance map, an old city directory and the fire hydrants, you can tell where it all was. What service drive need several hydrants on each block?

I've often thought it would be a great project to bring together artists to chalk-draw the various buildings where they used to be right on that sidewalk.

[Richard]

Hello Detroit yes! I'm working on a book about a young super hero growing up in Detroit during the 1930's and I am trying to get as much info on Hastings street as possible. I hope you guys can help me out. Here is my page https://www.facebook.com/Bee4andafter Also I was driving down Grand Blvd and I noticed concord street going towards 94 was closed off. Any idears on what's going on?

Concord was blocked off because scrappers caused a wall of the plant to collapse.

Say hello to the pricks that do not care about the city they live in or the others they share it with.



Photos courtesy of MCM,more here along with the story.

http://motorcitymuckraker.com/2013/1...packard-plant/

[mtburb]

Well, I've found this site that has a photo tour of Hastings and the surrounding area that should be useful, even though it hasn't been updated in slightly over 12 years [[old enough to show Ford Field still under construction):

http://www.paradisevalleyblues.com/t...ingsindex.html

[hastings paradise]

wow scrappers till they die of being crushed by Packard...lol @mtburb I been on that site a lot. and riding my bike thru hastings, Brewster, and eastern market areas. I have to imagine my character walking the streets that was once black bottom. Thanks guys!

[nain rouge]

This is kinda random, but I was wondering if anyone knows anything about the "Casello Block" in the Port Huron community of South Park? I randomly came across some pictures of it one day [[http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mi...s/OtherPlaces/ - keep scrolling down until you see SouthParkMI), and it appears to be a historic black community in Port Huron that may or may not still exist. The pictures are quite intriguing. There has to be some great stories lurking there.

[marshamusic]

Here is a link to the excellent “Hastings Street Tour” photographed by Rick Beall, who posts here on DetroitYes. These are modern day photos, of Hastings as it exists – or doesn’t - today. http://bluesharp.org/tour/hastings0450.html

Here’s my own blog memoir of my father’s Hastings Street record shop, the core story of a book and a movie that I am writing. http://marshamusic.wordpress.com/page-joe-von-battle-requiem-for-a-record-shop-man/

I’d also suggest a look at youtube uploads of the Mosaic theatre’s recent production, “Hastings Street”, which, despite the serious content in this clip, it is also quite a whimsical look at Hastings St., and life during those times, keeping with your idea of a comic book hero. http://youtu.be/L5Am3ecccOs


If you do a search [[at the bottom of the forum pages) you will find several good discussions on Hastings Street.

If you have particular questions it would probably make it easier to help you; there’s a wealth of information here on certain aspects of Hastings St.

My best to you; sounds like a great project. Inbox me if you’d like to connect. I remember Hastings St. when I was a small child, hanging out at my father's record shop.

[Honky Tonk]

Concord was blocked off because scrappers caused a wall of the plant to collapse.

Say hello to the pricks that do not care about the city they live in or the others they share it with.



Photos courtesy of MCM,more here along with the story.

http://motorcitymuckraker.com/2013/1...packard-plant/

Well, After looking through the photos on the Muckraker, I'd say yeah, the PP could be rehabbed into condos.

[hastings paradise]

Thanks for all the info. I will keep you guys up to date with book. https://www.facebook.com/Bee4andafter

[Herman Krieger]

I lived on Hastings between Hendrie and Medbury during the 1930s.
www.efn.org/~hkrieger/detroit.htm

[Steve]

Great website, Herman!

[Maof]

Great website, Herman!

Yes, absolutely!

[carolcb]

Yes, Herman's website is wonderful.

[Ray1936]

Please add my applause to Herman's site! Superb!

[gnome]

Dang. Double dang. That is one applause-worthy website.

[Zacha341]

I agree. I love the comparisons.

[EastsideAl]

Nice site Herman. Love the photos and the [[often sad) aerial comparisons. It looks like you are around the same age as my late parents, and lived in some of the same neighborhoods and went to some of the same schools as my mother [[I think you're a couple of years older than her though). It also looks like you were at Wayne at roughly the same time as both of my folks.

It's odd that that's an era I have some great amount of nostalgia for, without having been there. Even more so now perhaps that I am going through and sorting my parents' old photos and their collections of things like old theater programs and now-ancient copies of the Wayne Collegian newspaper. Your site takes me to that same era and I thank you for the little trip.

[night-timer]

The New Center Stamping plant [[on the corner of Hastings and Milwaukee beside the railway tracks) was featured in the Eminem movie, Eight Mile Road. It was re-named Detroit New Stamping and was the place where Em's character, Jimmy Smith, worked his day job.

https://www.google.com.au/maps/@42.3...7i13312!8i6656

[Detroit Stylin]

I have to give you props myself. That is a great website.....albeit sobering....

I had no idea that Woodward just north of 75 was so dense.

[Uncledave54]

I lived on Hastings between Hendrie and Medbury during the 1930s.
www.efn.org/~hkrieger/detroit.htm

Mr father was born at Hastings / Hendrie in 1922. He lived there until about age 10.
His father was a barber. Chances are you knew him as a boy.

I would have loved to see the neighborhood.

[RaumVogel]

Concord was blocked off because scrappers caused a wall of the plant to collapse.

Say hello to the pricks that do not care about the city they live in or the others they share it with.



Photos courtesy of MCM,more here along with the story.

http://motorcitymuckraker.com/2013/1...packard-plant/

https://images.google.com/imgres?img...M:&vet=1&w=481