Wendel Street

[Steve]

There used to be a Wendel Street near Vernor Highway on the southwest side in the 1920s. It doesn't appear on today's maps. Does anyone know if the name was changed or if something else is on the location of that street now?

[Hardhat]

Still there. Wendell has two Ls. It's about 4 blocks from Springwells and Vernor.

[Hardhat]

Wendell and Vernor

[softailrider]

I've been on that street. It's still there, I think it dead ends at some point.

[Delray Kid]

Wendell Street named after Emory Wendell prominent Detroit banker in the late 1800's. Wendell runs two long blocks north from W Vernor Hwy ending at Woodmere. It basically runs from the old Sammy's Pizzeria to Patton Park. Still a ton of houses and a ton of southwest Detroiters living on Wendell.

[Steve]

Thank you for all your information.

[Trumpeteer]

I lived at 2619 Wendell from 1960 - 1970. This is at the end of Wendell at Woodmere. There used to be a house on the very corner lot where an elderly lady lived while we were at 2619. After she died the house was demolished for some reason as this was WAY before the neighborhood tanked.

[Delray Kid]

Neighborhood tanked is sooo matter of opinion. Sure its not the yesteryear of the 60's but no neighborhood in Detroit is or in the suburbs for that matter. The neighborhood is still alive with a TON of kids creating their own experiences. Beautiful St. Gabriel church STILL has daily mass with a thriving young adult group. The elementary school is STILL in use by CCA [[check out Fr. Bologna Hall during an assembly) Sure Neisner's, Todts Pharmacy, Michael's Clothes, and Barringer's are long gone but the West Vernor Highway corridor STILL has one of the most bustling shopping districts in the city. The 2015 housing stock Wendell Street is just like any street in the neighborhood.....a little spotty here and there, missing a few houses here and there, but still a lot of good families that care and are proud southwest Detroiters doing the best they can.

[Trumpeteer]

Neighborhood tanked is sooo matter of opinion. Sure its not the yesteryear of the 60's but no neighborhood in Detroit is or in the suburbs for that matter. The neighborhood is still alive with a TON of kids creating their own experiences. Beautiful St. Gabriel church STILL has daily mass with a thriving young adult group. The elementary school is STILL in use by CCA [[check out Fr. Bologna Hall during an assembly) Sure Neisner's, Todts Pharmacy, Michael's Clothes, and Barringer's are long gone but the West Vernor Highway corridor STILL has one of the most bustling shopping districts in the city. The 2015 housing stock Wendell Street is just like any street in the neighborhood.....a little spotty here and there, missing a few houses here and there, but still a lot of good families that care and are proud southwest Detroiters doing the best they can.

I visit my old neighborhood every trip I make back to the D and am VERY familar with St. Gabriel's as I was in the last graduating class out of the HS in 1970 before it became Caesar Chavez Academy. Bologna Hall was in fact the former senior class lockers and library on the 1st floor and classrooms on the 2nd. I was also an alter boy for Frs. Bologna and Black during that time. I never said anything about those good families still living there BUT the neighborhood has lost more than those businesses you mention on Vernor. During the 60's we didn't have burned out abandoned houses and many others in the run down state they are in now. Granted there are still those who take pride in their property and keep it immaculate but many don't. Google my old house and you'll see a run down wreck of its former self. The house next to it is falling apart as well.

"Tanked" is absolutely an opinion.

[wilderness]

That area was vastly different and despite being on the decline in the 1960s, was still thriving. There were actually police cars [[multiple) at regular intervals. Lots of small family-corner-stores on the side streets and away from Vernor. At Patton Park: The ball parks were filled all summer long. Many, many families still held picnics there. The Annual 4th of July Fireworks were still going on. Folks still swam in the pool, and there were even some that fished in the small pond.

[Delray Kid]

I guess that I was just trying to say that a ten year old in 2015 may have a similar neighborhood experience, just like a ten year old in 1962. It's all relative. Believe it or not, Vernor has a bustling shopping / business district, Patton Park has a brand new Community Center and new baseball fields opening in the spring, 4th of July parade still going down the middle of Vernor [[Cinco de Mayo too btw) Southwest Detroit Business Association [[SDBA) just raised over $6 million to install these snazzy lightposts with landscaping from Woodmere to Clark. Agreed, burned out houses that have been abandoned throughout the neighborhood is a sad state of affairs. Why did people destroy such beautiful structures? Did the real skid happen during the 80's when Fleetwood and Clark Street closed displacing workers and breaking up families? What was a challenge that kids and residents had in the neighborhood in the 60's compared to today? Was their even blight back then??

[softailrider]

I guess that I was just trying to say that a ten year old in 2015 may have a similar neighborhood experience, just like a ten year old in 1962. It's all relative. Believe it or not, Vernor has a bustling shopping / business district, Patton Park has a brand new Community Center and new baseball fields opening in the spring, 4th of July parade still going down the middle of Vernor [[Cinco de Mayo too btw) Southwest Detroit Business Association [[SDBA) just raised over $6 million to install these snazzy lightposts with landscaping from Woodmere to Clark. Agreed, burned out houses that have been abandoned throughout the neighborhood is a sad state of affairs. Why did people destroy such beautiful structures? Did the real skid happen during the 80's when Fleetwood and Clark Street closed displacing workers and breaking up families? What was a challenge that kids and residents had in the neighborhood in the 60's compared to today? Was their even blight back then??

There are countless areas of the city where the housing was way nicer then Wendell Street ever was and those areas got destroyed too. You see destruction on almost every street in this city. It's enough to make you cry.

[wilderness]

DK, My grandmother's former home was 2719 Springwells, just one block off Dix. Had relatives that still lived in the area into the 80s. As a child younger than 10YO, I saw [[unaccompanied) the fabulous Ten Commandments movie [[and others) at the former theater on Vernor near Central. We frequently walked to Patton Park and up and down Vernor [[even after dark). There was hardly any blight in the 60s and I recall very few blocks with empty lots. Had a aunt whom lived for a while in the large apartment building at Vernor & Lawndale and recall that place [[even back then) being a bit ragged.

[Trumpeteer]

The theatre was the Rio and I went there on Saturdays when you got in for 25 cents or so if
i recall. You could stay all day and see 2 or 3 different movies. Last I saw it was still a furniture store albeit with the unusual aspect of having a slanted floor as a result of the former auditorium seating.

The apartments you mention we lived in for a short time as we always rented in the neighborhood as my folks couldn't afford to buy. Used to walk in the "alley way" between the two buildings in that apartment and recall there was a business who kept their used grease in a drum to sell to a soap making business. God did that crap smell! The retail of the apartments facing Vernor had a barbershop where I got my haircut.

Recall going to my great aunt's house on Senator where my dad was born in 1912 and remember the incredibly beautiful woodwork many of those old homes built just after the turn of the century, 1900, had.

As far as why those homes were destroyed? Most often due to the original owners dying or moving away. Homes became rentals or lost to foreclosure then squatters occupied. Then many fell to the drug trafficing/gangs that were abundant in this and many old neightborhoods in the 80', 90' and on.

Please correct me if wrong but i believe the new community center you mention is actually the long time rec center. You may not know, but thsat center when opened in the 1950's boasted having the country's 1st indoor/outdoor commercial swimming pool. We played ice hockey on the old pond that has long since been drained/filled.

WOW enough reminiscing.

[wilderness]

Trumpeteer, In the 90s the former Rio was a Latino Community Center. BTW, My aunt that moved to from the Apartments, later rented on Senator. Small world.

[Delray Kid]

Trumpeteer...I also graced the hallways of St. Gabes in a later era than you. I did my time in the grade school from the mid 70's to the early 80's, way after the high school closed...then took the Baker bus to HRH. I also was a proud altar boy under Fr. Bologna's watch amongst a few other priests. I remember Fr. Bologna playing kickball with us on the Norman Street lot during my grade school years. He was quite the athlete! The St. Gabriel Parish is very dear to my family as we celebrated every sacrament from baptisms to funerals there from the mid 60's to the late 90's.

The new Patton Park Community Center that I mentioned is indeed the Patton Park Rec Center that you remember on Woodmere just new and improved...Go Piranah's! Patton has a really cool walking/cycling/running trail on the Dix side that stays busy too BTW.

The neighborhood is still making memories for the kids that are born and raised there....regardless of the era.

[Delray Kid]

Wilderness, you are confusing the Rio which was later Azteca Hall in the 80's at Vernor & Central with the LA SED Senior Center at Green and Vernor which is the old Hartmans Appliance Store. LA SED is still up and running doing outreach and serving the youth and seniors of the neighborhood. I believe that Ford Motor Company is a huge sponsor of LA SED.

If you remember Hartmans then you surely remember Buck's!

[Trumpeteer]

The Rio Theatre was in fact a Target Furniture Store after it closed in the early 1960's. According to the latest google streetview from Sept. 2013 it looked to be empty at that time.