Southeastern High School 100th Birthday Celebration

[Former_Detroiter]

Southeastern High School Celebrates 100 years

[EastsideAl]

The alma mater of my grandmother and my uncle. Alas, both long gone.

[Hamtragedy]

Grandfather. Class of 29.

[Former_Detroiter]

Dad '36, Mom '42, Bro '63, Me '66, Bro '68

[Packman41]

Mother '34 - was my local high school, but CT 1965

[1953]

Grandmother, presumably class of '48.

[cla1945]

Dad '36, Mom '42, Bro '63, Me '66, Bro '68

Me, '63; Mom, Dad, Uncles all went to SE from 1939 on. Lived in the district until 1964.

[Dexlin]

Hey, does anyone remember a park around Southeastern called Garfield Park or that was on Garfield? My grandma mentioned that where she met my grandfather; she said the teens used to go down to the park and partner off and walk around flirting, and the two of them didn't were the last ones left and didn't have anyone. lol

But I can't find any mention of a "Garfield Park." This would have been in the late 30's/early 40's. I've just been assuming it was Perrien Park as that's the only existing park near the old school site, but she's never used that name. And as far as I know, there isn't nor ever was a park on Garfield in this area.

[EastsideAl]

There was a Gallagher Park east of St. Jean between Kercheval and Vernor. It was not a public park originally, but was for the transit [[DSR) workers and was mostly baseball diamonds, although it later had an outdoor hockey rink [[I played hockey there as a little kid). The streetcar barn was on the block just south of there, between Jefferson and Kercheval. After the streetcars went away the park was public for several years and then was sold off. St. Maron's church and its side buildings were built on part of it, and Chrysler took most of the rest. If you look on Google maps though, you'll see that an empty piece of land east of St. Jean is still marked as "Gallagher Playground".

[Dexlin]

Oops, total brainfart. I don't know why I kept thinking Southeastern. They went to Northeastern. Please ignore.

[Hamtragedy]

Hey, Eastside, my grandfather used to always talk of taking his lunch to his dad, a motorman, and riding for free. They moved to St Jean in 1914 when he was 3. I've never determined exactly where, but his Mom and the neighbors complained of the bright lights from the massive Chrysler sign near [[and if I recall correctly, on) Jefferson. And as mentioned above, he graduated Jungaleer in '29, perhaps the winter class.

My question is: was that an Interurban yard? Or DSR in its formative years? His dad drove the line to Mt Clemens [[Opa called it the Hotbath line, not to be confused with the hotbath in Wyandotte?? maybe). But he also mentioned a Concord yard, though I've never been able to pinpoint one, though he did work at Packard for a minute, which is right on Concord, unloading bumpers, so perhaps confusing one yard for another.

His stories were endless from that section of the eastside, before he rode the rails and then returned. The oft-repeated stories included running across the rooftops as children, and how his parents rented the attic of their house on St Jean to multiple Chrysler employees, [[who took turns sleeping in shifts, congruent with the plant), and had to use a ladder to get up there, often drunk, because they were too filthy from the plant for his mom to let thru the house.

[MikeM]

That's a great story Hamtragedy. The predecessor to Detroit's municipal street car system was the Detroit United Railway, which was a collection of independent street car lines that were merged over the years. They had a line which ran along Kercheval out to St Jean/Lycaste, with a major car house at the northwest corner of Kercheval & Concord, called the Concord Carhouse, that closed in 1932. They also had one at the end of the line on the northeast corner of Kercheval and St Jean, which Al mentioned, called the Kercheval Carhouse, which also closed in 1932.

Chyrsler had a huge lighted sign, which looks to be at least four stories high, on top of a factory with 6-8 floors.



The DUR also had an interurban line that ran out Jefferson, eventually to Mt Clemens and beyond. Mt Clemens from the 1870s through the 1950s was the "Bath City of America." It was a tourist destination for those who wanted to soak in the mineral waters pumped up from under the city.

The city started its own municipally-owned system in 1922 in an effort to take over the DUR, and started by building a line up St Jean, with a car house at the southwest corner of St Jean and Kercheval. If your great-grandfather moved to the area in 1914, he probably was already working for the DUR before the takeover by the city.

[EastsideAl]

Well Ham, the interurbans were a bit before my time [[although one of my great-grandfathers was killed by a Gratiot line Mt. Clemens interurban car). But, like Mike M says, the St. Jean carbarns were built as DUR facilities, and then became or were replaced by DSR facilities after the DUR sold its system to the city.

I believe that, once it was cleared, the land north of Kercheval became a recreation area for DSR workers. My mother's uncle, who worked as a DSR streetcar conductor, I think used to play ball and go to union events there. The DSR streetcar facility south of Kercheval, which may also have later handled buses, was in operation until streetcar service ceased on St. Jean [[Clairmount line) in 1951. It was torn down and replaced by the DPD 5th Precinct [[a federal immigration facility is on that site now) and St. Maron church.