Belle Isle riding stables

[expatriate]

Does anyone have an old map that would pinpoint the exact location of the old riding stables? The only one I could find was a rough map included with a DSR bus route. This map doesn't agree with my recollections, but it was a long time ago.

[Honky Tonk]

Does anyone have an old map that would pinpoint the exact location of the old riding stables? The only one I could find was a rough map included with a DSR bus route. This map doesn't agree with my recollections, but it was a long time ago.

I remember the stables being here from when I was a young kid. I believe the building is still there and was used to house maintenance equipment. I'm not sure if it's still, there, though, the island is flooded out and island traffic has been rerouted. [[zoom in)

https://moovitapp.com/detroit_mi-745...poiType=efsite

[jcole]

They were on Lakeside Dr on the east side of the Island in '76
Horse_stables_on_Belle_Isle__76.pdf
Apparently they closed in 1963 and reopened in 1976
The really old ones appear to be on Loiter Way

[Gistok]

Are you talking about the original Detroit Central Farmers Market building that was moved to Belle Isle as riding stables on the east end of the island, opposite the golf driving range?

That one is now at Greenfield Village... and has not yet been restored...

https://www.thehenryford.org/explore...nfield-village

[Margarite]

[QUOTE=Honky Tonk;596810]I remember the stables being here from when I was a young kid. I believe the building is still there and was used to house maintenance equipment.

That building was used to house the ponies used for carriage and children's pony rides. It's still there.

jcole has the right location. My husband and I used to ride there back in the 60's.

[cla1945]

Does anyone have an old map that would pinpoint the exact location of the old riding stables? The only one I could find was a rough map included with a DSR bus route. This map doesn't agree with my recollections, but it was a long time ago.

Knapp stables. It has been torn down, I have a brick from the demolition. I rode those trails many times when I was a child.

[masterblaster]

They were on Lakeside Dr on the east side of the Island in '76
Horse_stables_on_Belle_Isle__76.pdf
Apparently they closed in 1963 and reopened in 1976
The really old ones appear to be on Loiter Way

I think I finally get it.

There are the Historic Horse Stables [[whose roof was recently stored in 2013) next to the White House and across the street from the conservatory/aquarium complex. These were one-time used for the horse carriage and pony cart rides.

Horse Carriage Rides, 1954 [[with a carousel in the background??):
https://digital.library.wayne.edu/item/wayne:vmc33913

Pony cart rides from 1973:

https://detroithistorical.pastperfec...E-861223413786


Then there was the horse stables [[former Central Market Building once located in Cadillac Square) in the eastern end of the island next to the wooded area that were used for horseback riding in and around the wooded area. Like shown below:

https://digital.library.wayne.edu/item/wayne:vmc77627


This building was carefully dismantled after catching fire, Lowell's picture of the fire-damaged building is below:

https://www.detroityes.com/downtown/...le_stables.php

[cla1945]

The DPD Mounted Division housed their horses in the stables behind the White House.

[expatriate]

I was sure that this stable was on Woodside, rather than Lakeside near the present day Nature Center as my friend contends, but the years have clearly scrambled my brain. Guess I will have to pay up the five bucks.

[MikeM]

Last weekend, I saw this map of Belle Isle, high up on a wall at the Dossin Museum. Shows the "horse shelter" at the east end of the island on Lakeside.

[Gistok]

Last weekend, I saw this map of Belle Isle, high up on a wall at the Dossin Museum. Shows the "horse shelter" at the east end of the island on Lakeside.

That is a very old map of the island [[1920s?), which shows the east end before the expansion of the island to add the Blue Heron Lagoon and the Livingston Memorial Lighthouse [[designed by Albert Kahn).

[MikeM]

1899, or thereabouts.

[Hamtragedy]

1899, or thereabouts.

Let's add to the fun:

Did the infill on the eastern end of the island come from the rapid downtown construction of the next two decades?

[Gistok]

Let's add to the fun:

Did the infill on the eastern end of the island come from the rapid downtown construction of the next two decades?

Since the Livingston Lighthouse at the eastern point of the Blue Heron Lagoon dates to 1930, I would tend to agree that the earth removed from Detroit downtown buildings in the 1910s and 1920s would likely have been used to build up the eastern and western parts of Belle Isle.

The western end had already been infilled by the time the Scott Fountain and basin were completed in 1925, and the eastern end would have had to have had its' final infill by 1930.