Detroit International Exposition 1889

[wilderness]

There's a 2007 thread on this in the old archives.

Bob_cosgrove ended the 2007 thread with the follwoing:

The location of the International Exposition was on the Detroit River immediately west of Historic Fort Wayne on West Jeffrson at the foot of Livenois.

It was later the Solvay Process Company, manufacturers of Soda Ash used in glass making, etc.

For some time I've been interested in the precise street locations of the Expo.
The curator [[Jeff Day) of the Lincoln Park Historical Society suggested that I visit the River Rouge Historical Museum [[only open on Sundays).

Yesterday I decided it was the day, unfortunately the staff was busy preparing for the Anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald which was built in River Rouge.

I was presented with a pic that showed some folks at the 1889 Expo and stated that the property was fourteen acres [[14), The RR curator explained that site was located at the foot of Dearborn Ave in Delary.

Upon returning home, I ventured to google and found some conflicting information from a variety of sources.

1) The actual Exposition was in 1889 however at least a portion of the Exposition property was used until 1892.

2) One article describes 70-acres of Machinery [[farm, industrial and otherwise) being displayed at the 1889 Expo [[this negates the 14-acres of the primary location [[W. Jefferson-Dearborn Ave-West End) as being much larger.

3) The primary race track [[there were two) was a one-mile perimeter. A one-mile perimeter track requires approximately 40-45 acres [[There are mathematical formulas for compiling these areas).

4) The second track the same approximate acreage.

5) 70+40-40 along with other Expo requirements is pretty substantial area.

6) In all fairness, it's likely that the 1889 Expo property extended from Dearborn Ave, and all the way east to Livernois Ave [[i. e. Historic Fort Wayne as Bob indicated).

7) What area precisely remained in use until 1892 is another mystery.

8)This image [[at the beginning of 2007 thread) shows a very good map of the entire area


Burton Historical and Detroit International Exposition images

There a nice 2009 article on the 1889 Detroit International Expo

[wilderness]

Here's an additional and more detailed 1890 map from the old-Delray website.
There are two cropped portions of the same map if you explore their website