Fabulous Photo Collection of Detroit in WWII 1940's

**sg9018** · January-15-15, 03:16 PM

Today Atlantic Magazine posted a photo series on 1940's Detroit.
The pictures induces but not limited to ,
World War II
The race riot of 1943
Sojourners Truth Projects
Check them out,
http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/201...#disqus_thread

**nain rouge** · January-15-15, 04:00 PM

First things first, the photos of the riot are frightening. God, how terrifying. You can see how all of the irrational reactions to the Sojourners Truth was the beginning of the end for Detroit.

Second, I don't know people can see pictures like the last one from the Maccabees and say Detroit was never urban. There was almost 500,000 in Detroit people by 1910, undoubtedly almost all living in urban environments. Even an urban core a few 100,000 would look massive to a modern observer, even if that only constituted a small proportion of Detroit's peak population.

**Lowell** · January-15-15, 10:36 PM

[edit: this subject had already been started by sg9018 - posts merged.]

The Atlantic has published a great album of hi-def B-W of images of Detroit in the 1940's mostly wartime. It also includes some of our ugly and embarrassing moments from the Sojourner Truth homes protests to the racial violence of the 1943 riot. All in all it is a great portrait of Detroit in its most muscular moment.

Watch out for those Detroit girls Mr. Hitler!

**Dexlin** · January-16-15, 05:44 AM

Anyone know where #26 [[the gas station shot) was taken?

**cosine** · January-17-15, 11:13 AM

Originally Posted by Dexlin

Anyone know where #26 [[the gas station shot) was taken?

I think it shows Michigan Avenue near Military Street. The fire station across from the gas station appears to be Engine 22, which has been closed for decades. Here is a google street shot of it today: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3311...AA7A!2e0?hl=en

**DetroiterOnTheWestCoast** · January-17-15, 01:07 PM

The Sojourner Truth and riot scenes are truly disturbing - not the least because of taking place while we were at war "for freedom" and "against tyranny". Just a bit ironic. Makes one wonder what Detroit might be like today if episodes like those could have been avoided.

But I love the ladies lunching at Crowley's. What wonderful hats! Everyone dresses like slobs today.

**Delray Kid** · January-17-15, 10:59 PM

Great eye cosine! I think you nailed it. Can't believe the density and amount of buildings on Michigan Ave.

**313WX** · January-18-15, 02:05 AM

Originally Posted by DetroiterOnTheWestCoast

The Sojourner Truth and riot scenes are truly disturbing - not the least because of taking place while we were at war "for freedom" and "against tyranny". Just a bit ironic. Makes one wonder what Detroit might be like today if episodes like those could have been avoided.

But I love the ladies lunching at Crowley's. What wonderful hats! Everyone dresses like slobs today.

Every major city in the US had episodes like the bolded.

But of course there were other circumstances involved that prevented every other major city from declining to the extent in which Detroit did. Chicago has a racial divide just as extreme as Detroit's, but it's all within their city limits [[instead of city vs. suburbs).

I agree with the way everyone dresses though.

**ABetterDetroit** · January-18-15, 04:47 AM

The black out photo is phenomenal. Am I right that it was taken from the roof of the Penobscot?

**dtowncitylover** · January-20-15, 03:26 PM

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** · January-20-15, 04:04 PM

Originally Posted by 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?

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.

**Neilr** · January-20-15, 05:47 PM

This week Slate is running an article with unpublished Life Magazine pictures by Gordon Parks illustrating black lives in the 1950s. This one's from Detroit.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/20..._of_black.html

[ATTACH]Slate photo[/ATTACH]
Husband and Wife, Sunday Morning, Detroit, 1950.

**MikeM** · January-20-15, 07:30 PM

Originally Posted by Dexlin

Anyone know where #26 [[the gas station shot) was taken?

That was a Texaco station, and that's a railroad tanker car pushed to the end of a siding off a section of track that used to cross Michigan Avenue there. Also, note the worker changing the street light bulb on the right.