Rare '20s maps of lower E Side

[MrJones]

Search as I might, I never found an online map of Detroit for the 1920s era before 1936. I was able to get some maps which show the lower east side riverfront as it got filled and built upon.
I had no idea the airport was on the riverfront originally. Could explain why one Nike missile radar IFC there was called Det. City Airport.

1919

1925
Enjoy!

[old guy]

Is that the CAY metro airport? If so, the location almost doesn't make any sense. Did they move it?

[old guy]

Wouldn't that be where Maheras -Gentry Park is? And wouldn't there have been homes there in the late 20's? I don't know for sure, just curious.

[old guy]

Not disputing the map. it looks real.

[IrishSpartan]

Detroit City Airport opened at Gratiot & Conner in 1927
http://detroithistorical.org/learn/e...t-city-airport

I decided to add the link but remembered the year from long ago because De La Salle Collegiate High School opened at Conner & Glenfield in 1926.

[EASTSIDE CAT 67-83]

I thought these would be germane to the conversation, the one thing I have always wondered about the early development of the area is where the landfill material to fill the marshland came from. As neighborhoods go, this one made some very dramatic changes in a relatively short time. I grew up on the first block of chalmers and some of the earliest houses built on my block were constructed in 1917. This map is from 1876, 1921,1904 and 1917 sorry they are out of order they didn't want to upload without a fight. In the 1921 map you can see that Port and Starboard lagoon have been dug for the Greyhaven development.

[MrJones]

It could be that the riverfront airport was only planned for there, and they probably realized that was not the ideal location with all the building going on. Maybe Gar Wood asked them to reconsider too.
They had plans for a river side drive for the area like Grosse Pointe has, but they were finding too many skulls and bones near Windmill Point from an Indian massacre there in the 1700s.
It looks like they did a lot of fill on Belle Isle too around this time. Could they have gotten the fill from dredging the river?

Eastside Cat, I grew up on Lakewood near Jefferson until 1972. I was 12 in '72. PM me?

[MrJones]

I found this photo of the area marked 1930, but it looks to be a 1920s image.

[EastsideAl]

The airport shown on that map was proposed, but never built. Actually, Gar Wood was one of the driving forces behind aviation on the east side, and may have been behind that airport proposal. He was an avid aviator and built a hanger on his property near the river from which to launch his seaplane. There was a seaplane area on the river for years thereafter, with its base by the Gregory boat yard down by Waterworks Park.

Here is an interesting video of activities at the DYC in the 1920s. At the end [[beginning at about the 8:50 mark) is footage of Gar Wood taking off from his estate in his seaplane to fly to his Florida estate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22S9ox0VHko

The area marked on the map for the proposed airport was later used for military housing during WWII [[it was covered in quonset huts), then for the Nike missile radar station mentioned in the original post, and is now Maheras-Gentry Park.

[EastsideAl]

Eastside Cat, what is the source of the bottom map you posted above? It shows the "river rat" houses that once stood along the river between Waterworks Park and the Detroit Edison property, which is where my grandfather and members of his family lived [[and a lot of other east side Irish). It's rare to see those shown, as they were never "officially" there. The map looks like a part of a navigational chart, correct?

[EASTSIDE CAT 67-83]

The two pillars in the lower right hand section of the photo you posted were guide posts for freighters. There was also a seaplane hanger at Windmill Pointe back in the very early 1900s thru the teens. Nice Video of Garwood. If I remember correctly I think the maps came from the sanborn site.

[EASTSIDE CAT 67-83]

It shows the "river rat" houses that once stood along the river between Waterworks Park and the Detroit Edison property, which is where my grandfather and members of his family lived [[and a lot of other east side Irish). It's rare to see those shown, as they were never "officially" there.

EastsideAl
What were the "River Rat" houses, just a pet name for a small community or an actual isolated neighborhoods name? My Dad grew up on Harding below Jeff which is near the area your talking about.

[EASTSIDE CAT 67-83]

I found this photo of the area marked 1930, but it looks to be a 1920s image.

I agree 1920s as there are only a few houses on Klenk Island and the foot of Lakewood.

[Packman41]

Those pillars are technical called “range marks” – on is taller than the other so a ship captain could tell if he is to the right of left the correct course.

Below is a photo of the Windmill Point area showing Klenk’s Lighthouse Inn, the Detroit Motor Boat Club [[with a Curtiss,/Scripps? plane on the ramp) and the Windmill Point Light with range lights.

[EastsideAl]

EastsideAl
What were the "River Rat" houses, just a pet name for a small community or an actual isolated neighborhoods name? My Dad grew up on Harding below Jeff which is near the area your talking about.

Sorry, I didn't get back to you sooner.

It was a pet name for the people who lived in the houses that made up a small community on the shores of the river and its inlets and canals. This was a line of houses lining the shore of the river that stretched east from Waterworks park out through what was then called Fairview to the Edison plant. These houses pretty much all had boat houses [[some were little more than boat houses with a bed and a kitchen) and were oriented towards the river.

The area was originally outside of the city and the structures were mostly home-built on open swampy land with no regulations. There were also many rather crude houseboats docked up the canals. The folks who lived there mostly made a marginal living from river-related businesses, water-borne activities, boat building, storage, and maintenance, and ice cutting, and were known as "river rats." Some of my family members amongst them.

Prohibition brought a lot more money in, and eventually more scrutiny, to the area. There was a lot of illegal running of liquor from Canada, as well as other smuggling or illicit activity. The shore became home to several speakeasys of ill-repute - one of which eventually became Sindbad's.

The city had annexed the area and the late '20s reform governments were keen to clear out all sorts of riverfront rum-running and vice [[this is also when the amusement park area by the Belle Isle Bridge was condemned and demolished). The buildings had inadequate plumbing and no sanitation, and mostly no title to the land they were on. They held on for some time, but the city was working to evict folks and tear the structures down. By the early '30s it was mostly gone. Many of the people who had resided there scattered up the nearby canals or to other area streets in order to preserve their access to the river. The neighborhood on Harding your dad lived in was one of those places.

Here is an aerial picture of the Edison Connor Creek plant [[with the seven sisters!) from the late 1920s. You can just see the line of houses along the shore on the lower left.



A little closer in

[xdet]

The amusement park and the infamous 'Convict Ship' that was billed as the "Oldest Ship", not close but... Belle Isle- c. 1920s.

[Ray1936]

Fascinating thread. I tip my hat to all.

[Hamtragedy]

I find it interesting on the maps where it says "mud." My grandfather, who moved to St. Jean and Jefferson at age 3 in 1914, told the story of kids diving into the water one summer and becoming lodged head-first in the mud, only to be rescued by several friends, all of them covered head to toe in mud.

[jmpatrick]

The amusement park and the infamous 'Convict Ship' that was billed as the "Oldest Ship", not close but... Belle Isle- c. 1920s.

Are you saying that there was a roller coaster on Belle Isle in the 20's?

[bust]

I find it interesting on the maps where it says "mud." My grandfather, who moved to St. Jean and Jefferson at age 3 in 1914, told the story of kids diving into the water one summer and becoming lodged head-first in the mud, only to be rescued by several friends, all of them covered head to toe in mud.

My dad tells a story of this having happened to him near there a few decades later, head-first up to his neck, except for he freed himself. Not to say I don't trust my dad, but I wonder how many people this really happened to, or whether it was a popular story in circulation.

P.S.: Awesome thread!

[Farwell]

Are you saying that there was a roller coaster on Belle Isle in the 20's?

I think the amusement park [[Electric Park) was next to the bridge access to Belle Isle and not on the island itself.

http://detroithistorical.org/learn/e.../electric-park

[EastsideAl]

I think the amusement park [[Electric Park) was next to the bridge access to Belle Isle and not on the island itself.

Electric Park [[which had a variety of other names through the years) was just east of the Belle Isle Bridge, where Gabriel Richard Park is today. The city's new 'reform' government saw it as an affront to decency and temperance and condemned it, closed it, and tore it down in 1927.

And there was more than one roller coaster there:



This site has a ton of pictures of Electric Park, including pictures of the park's demolition:
http://waterwinterwonderland.com/amu...?type=2&id=305

[kathy2trips]

Thank you to Mr. Jones, Al, Cat, Ray and all the other contributors to this thread for your unselfish gift of knowledge. It's always a good day when I can learn more unknown and forgotten history about my beloved east side. Though I lived closer to Mack, and later in EEV, I'm still proud to be a river rat straight down to my soul. Your outstanding posts and photos have warmed by heart on this cold night. They are greatly appreciated.

[xdet]

I found this photo of the area marked 1930, but it looks to be a 1920s image.

I think that's Grayhaven before the Seven Sisters and I don't see Gar Wood's place, which was built in 1924. Gray started work on Grayhaven fairly early [[1916?) which is the year this ad came out- he left Ford's Highland Park in August of 1914 to work on projects like Grayhaven.
So maybe that photo is between 1916-1924?

[Krawlspace]

1929 Sanborn map of the general area. I can provide detailed maps based on the number sections if anyone would like them.

Also included section 93 which shows Greyhaven and a "Reclaimed Land For Park" [[now Maheras-Gentry) portion to the west.