Fabulous Photo Collection of Detroit in WWII 1940's

[dtowncitylover]

Question: I was looking over these photos again because they're simply remarkable. In photo #24, the shot of downtown from the Ford blimp, it appears Washington Blvd [[the boulevard on the right side of the photo) ends at Michigan Avenue. Am I seeing things? If it did, can any explain what was there or why they connected it together?

[Khorasaurus]

Question: I was looking over these photos again because they're simply remarkable. In photo #24, the shot of downtown from the Ford blimp, it appears Washington Blvd [[the boulevard on the right side of the photo) ends at Michigan Avenue. Am I seeing things? If it did, can any explain what was there or why they connected it together?

That's a really good point - it looks that way to me as well.

On Woodward's original plan, the street that is now Washington Blvd from Michigan to Cobo Hall was called Wayne, but I didn't realize it was separate from Washington Blvd until after World War II. I figured it connected long before that.

Also, for as grand as Washington Blvd was/is, that's a really dinky building [[with an ugly billboard) capping it at the Michigan Avenue end. Today, you can see the Free Press Building at the end of the street looking that way. If anything is ever built on the parking lot south of the Gabriel Richard Building, it's going to need to have some architectural significance given the view down Washington.