Help Identify Industrial Site

[MikeM]

The trench looking south from the beginning, which is a bit closer to Kercheval than St Paul. Trestle piers along the left:

Attachment 4035


The west side of the trench showing the cement foundation and the exposed earth above:

Attachment 4036

Attachment 4037

[MikeM]

The south end of the trestle, right at St Paul, with the bumper springs:

Attachment 4038

Attachment 4039

[Hornwrecker]

Thanks Mike, that extra info helped confirm what this was. Nice to still find unknown/forgotten [[to us) structures in the city.

[Eastside]

Hey Mike--

Thanks for making a site visit and providing additional photos. I was going to head that way tomorrow but you beat me to the punch.

Interesting piece of property and history isn't it? Makes me wonder what this was like at it's peak.

Thanks for the input all, great stuff.

I'll keep my eyes peeled for other interesting structures.

Eastside-

[MikeM]

Eastside, you're welcome. I happened to be passing by today anyway. The Beaufait/Bellevue area along the Michigan Central was an early industrial corridor before industries leap-frogged farther east to the city limits and along the Detroit Terminal Railroad. I don't remember much about it before it was abandoned because there was nothing remarkable about it - just a bunch of small industries, warehouses, scrapyards, etc. Eastsiders would frequently use Charlevoix and Vernor to get back and forth downtown. I do remember getting stuck at the railroad crossings for long periods of time, watching a train roll by at one mile-per-hour.

Does anyone know any more info about Sibley Lumber? What they did, who the owners were etc.?

From Clarence Burton's CIty of Detroit, 1922:

FREDERIC M. SIBLEY, president of the F. M. Sibley Lumber Company, was born in Detroit, October 29, 1883, and while spending his youthful days in the home of his parents, Frederic M. and Mary J. [[Clapp) Sibley, he attended the public schools, mastering the work of successive grades until he had completed a course in the Central high school. He afterward won the LL. B. degree from the Detroit College of Law in 1908 and was likewise a student for a time in Cornell University.

Mr. Sibley became connected with the lumber trade as assistant to his father, the organizer of the present business, and acted as treasurer of the F. M. Sibley Lumber Company until the father's death, when he succeeded to the presidency. This is a close corporation, his mother being vice president of the company. The business was organized as a corporation in 1908, after many years successful existence under individually controlled ownership. F. M. Sibley, the founder, remained in active charge until October, 1912, when death called him, and his son, Frederic M. Sibley, became then the directing head of the business, which is one of the substantial proportions, four yards being conducted in Detroit and one in Pontiac. Nearly four hundred people are employed in the conduct of this business, which is the second largest lumber enterprise of Detroit. Frederic MI. Sibley of this review is proving an excellent executive and man of board business vision, forming his plans carefully, his purpose being at all times dominated by a laudable ambition and by thoroughly reliable and constructive business methods.

On the 12th of August, 1910, Mr. Sibley was married to Miss Mabel M. Bessenger and they have four children: Josephine, Frederic M., Jr., Dorothy, and Suzanne. They now occupy an attractive home at Grosse Pointe Park. The religious faith of the family is that of the Presbyterian church and Mr. Sibley is serving as a deacon in the First Presbyterian church of Detroit. He gives his political endorsement to the republican party and he has membership in the Board of Commerce and also in the Theta Lambda Phi, a college fraternity. Moreover, he has an interesting military record, for he served in the World war, joining the Signal Corps. He was connected with the bureau of aircraft production, in which capacity he had charge of all airplane propeller production, buying all the mahogany and hardwoods used in their manufacture. He purchased the propellers manufactured in this country and used by the United States forces during the war, being stationed at Washington, D. C., and he saw service from December 15, 1917, until the 1st of January, 1919. During this period his private business interests were placed in the background that his attention might be given to his military duty, and following his discharge he returned to Detroit to assume once more active control of the important and extensive business of which he is the head.