The Belle Isle Ferry

[Lowell]

A long-time friend and photography expert is colorizing this photo of the Belle Isle Ferry and asked me what I knew about it. I said was wasn't familiar with it because I always took the bridge but that I would toss it up to the DetroitYES history sleuths. Here you go, have at it. Is this Detroit side or island side?

[Hermod]

Given the building and the advertising behind the pier building, I would guess the Detroit side.

[oladub]

Another view?

[oladub]

That looks like the St. Clair on the left. Maybe a green roof was added.

[Lowell]

Here is an interesting response from my friend.

I know that the photo was taken at the foot of Woodward in or around 1909. There were several ferries running most of the day to Belle Isle. You could also get ferries to Windsor and even Port Huron although I guess you wouldn't call that a ferry.

They stopped the service in 1957 which surprised me since I never heard of them. They docked on the Windsor side of Bell Isle I am assuming somewhere near the Dossin or the Coast Guard station and I think there is a small building [[shelter) which remains.

As you can see from the spies responses, there are other photos. If you do a Belle Isle search at LOC, you will find many more. Also a search of Lycurgus Glover will turn up a few more. I know my grandfather used to go canoeing on the island in his youth, aka courting but he never mentioned the ferries.

As I said, I only know of one friend who used the ferries. He lived in the barrio near Bagley and his Mexican relatives used the ferry for family parties and events.

[Hermod]

We never used the ferry, but in the 1950s, a small ferry was docked just east of the Belle Isle bridge and shuttled across to the island with a landing just east of the bridge on the island side.

[Zacha341]

Awesome colorization Lowell. I imagine digitally rendered. There was a time this kind of coloring/ tinting of a vintage photo was done with inks and liquid coloring.

[EastsideAl]

My mother's family, who lived on the near west side around Grand River & Trumbull, used to take the Belle Isle ferry regularly from downtown out to the island.

Here is the old ferry dock on the south side of Belle Isle. Built in 1870, and still standing:



Taken from the Belle Isle Conservancy's listing of Belle Isle historic structures and monuments:
http://belleisleconservancy.org/visi...res-monuments/

[EastsideAl]

Awesome colorization Lowell. I imagine digitally rendered. There was a time this kind of coloring/ tinting of a vintage photo was done with inks and liquid coloring.

Many of these mass produced color postcards came from a Swiss-invented process that was pioneered in the U.S. right here in Detroit by the Photochrom Company [[aka Detroit Photographic Co, Detroit Publishing Co.).
A recent Shorpy posting of their building [[with baseball game in the foreground), and a little history too:
http://www.shorpy.com/node/17257#comments

[EASTSIDE CAT 67-83]

A long-time friend and photography expert is colorizing this photo of the Belle Isle Ferry and asked me what I knew about it. I said was wasn't familiar with it because I always took the bridge but that I would toss it up to the DetroitYES history sleuths. Here you go, have at it. Is this Detroit side or island side?
I think I have seen this same photo on the Shorpys site

I think I have seen this same photo on the Shorpys site

[Mikeg]

Not the exact same photo but two others that were taken at the same time:

http://www.shorpy.com/node/6908

http://www.shorpy.com/node/14793