Woodward Street-Widening in the 1930s

[Detroitnerd]

We just passed the 200th anniversary of the abandonment of Judge Woodward's plan for Detroit. One of the benefits of that plan would have been a Woodward Avenue that ran straight and true, 120 feet wide, all the way out of town.

Instead, thanks to more freewheeling "planning," Detroit got a main thoroughfare that narrowed to 66 feet wide a little more than a mile from downtown. To correct this, the city embarked on an ambitious project to finally widen Woodward Avenue in the 1930s.

I have read that the destruction it wrought was significant. It resulted in the demolition of scores of storefronts and facades on either side of the thoroughfare. It accounts for the slight crooks in Woodward, where a different side of the street was set back. Especially disfigured were the houses of worship along the main drag. As a local website notes, "Almost all of the impressive religious structures facing Woodward from St. John's Protestant Episcopal to the Cultural Center lost much of their attractiveness when Woodward was widened."

It must have been quite a sight, the fronts of the churches and temples being removed, the stones carried down to Belle Isle as landfill in dump trucks [[which were patented by Detroiter Gar Wood in 1918.)

You can see the damage of it today. On one side are historic facades, lending their century of continuity to the road. On the other side are parking lots, cold, institutional buildings, showy could-be-anywhere lofts, and absolutely no ornament. The automobile reformed Detroit like Haussmann reformed Paris, with its fair share of destruction.

Don't get me wrong. Sometimes a bit of demolition is needed. I guess the shame of it is that abiding by Woodward's original plan would have made such destruction unnecessary.

[EastsideAl]

I have read that the destruction it wrought was significant.

Significant, and sometimes rather strange.

[Scottathew]

Fascinating! I feel like I haven't seen Detroitnerd in a while! Good to see you!

[Gistok]

Significant, and sometimes rather strange.

Central Methodist Church had a bay of the nave taken out and the facade/tower moved back. St. Johns dismantled their front and just reassembled it farther back with some of length of the church removed.

Some churches farther up Woodward lost their front porches and steps, and the Bonstelle [[Temple Beth-El) lost its' approach

I could have sworn there were some other threads on this topic, but besides the facadectomy of the Majestic [[lobby removed, Venetian Gothic facade removed and replaced with a set-back Art Deco facade)... I couldn't find any.

[Ray1936]

Same thing happened to Michigan Avenue out to W. Grand Blvd.

[Hermod]

66 feet was the length of a Gunters Chain, an old surveying measure. One Chain = 66 feet = 100 Links = 4 Rods = 1/10 of a Furlong

[Hermod]

Woodward before widening.

[douglasm]

The construction took place from where to where?

[mtburb]

The construction took place from where to where?

Grand Circus Park to I believe Grand Boulevard [[Woodward north of Grand Boulevard I believe was already wider to begin with).

[casscorridor]

Detroit was the pioneer of a city dominated by the automobile and as such needed roads wide enough to accommodate the massive influx of cars. In hindsight, the destruction of urban fabric wrought in the name of the automobile seems outrageously misguided, but at the time it was visionary.

[Zacha341]

Nice to hear from you DNerd!

[detroitbob]

St. John's did not lose any length, the entire building was moved to what is the current location and the tower reconstructed.

[gnome]

66 feet was the length of a Gunters Chain, an old surveying measure. One Chain = 66 feet = 100 Links = 4 Rods = 1/10 of a Furlong

Let us not forget the entire imperial system of measurement is based on the fact that 3 dried barley corns placed end-to-end equals one inch.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r7x-RGfd0Yk