Riverside and Alter

**jerrytimes** · December-29-09, 01:37 AM

What happened here? Riverside and Alter, northeast side of Detroit bordering Grosse Pointe. I was working in the area a few months ago, was ten minutes early to an appointment so I was driving around to kill those minutes and drove by this area. It's weird. Appears that there used to be a trailer park here and possibly a park/boat launch. It's a completely deserted and nothings left except one borded up building. I asked my dad about it and he did say that a trailer park used to be there [[which is obvious by looking at googlemaps) and that back in the late 60's early 70's he and his friend used to hang there and once found a dead body in car. Whats the story with this place?

**reddog289** · December-29-09, 02:23 AM

I remember a old thread about this on the old forum. It's a Hall of Fame thread if I am not mistaken.

**EastsideAl** · December-29-09, 02:47 AM

It's really the southeast side of Detroit.

When I was a kid my grandpa used to walk his dog down there and had a friend on nearby Klenk Island who let him dock his boat there. There was indeed a trailer park there, which was kind of a cool place full of very old mobile homes. There was also a pretty large hospital at one time too, that closed sometime around the early '70s.. The boarded-up building used to be a sort of boaters and fishing supply place, with a dairy queen-like food stand. We used to get ice cream there on warm afternoons.

The park on the western end of that island [[Angell Park) was a big party spot for my cousins. Lots of teens hung out there for licit and illicit fun back in the day.

The old trailer park thread is pretty cool, if you can dig it up. It goes off into a kind of social history of that entire south of Jefferson neighborhood, where so much of my family lived.

**pgn421** · December-29-09, 07:21 AM

I had a trailer there up untill 2000, we all got eviction notices. It was nice living there.

**Kathleen** · December-29-09, 09:30 AM

Jerrytimes,

Here's a link to the Hall of Fame thread that Reddog mentioned:

http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/...tml?1238530237

**pgn421** · December-29-09, 09:45 AM

Thanks Kathleen.I didn't know how to post it.happy New Year to You and Dave. Feola is having a New Years Eve party. Look him up on facebook

Ron_saad · January-08-10, 03:02 PM

The threads are gone and nobody know where they are in the new discussions.

**MikeM** · January-08-10, 03:16 PM

Originally Posted by Ron_saad

The threads are gone and nobody know where they are in the new discussions.

They still reside at the old site, through the link provided by Kathleen. They were moved into the Eastside Memories megathread. The problem with the trailer park thread is that there are nine pages, all out of chronological order, and people were posting on more than one page at the same time.

**Hermod** · January-08-10, 03:42 PM

The "Foot of Alter Road" used to have a marina and boat yard [[as did the "Foot of St Jean"). When my father was shopping for a small sailboat in the late 40s, he used to take us down there every so often..

Buy American · January-08-10, 04:18 PM

^^We used to go there and the foot of Lakewood to watch the submarine races.

**pgn421** · January-08-10, 04:34 PM

Tomorrow nite 1/09/10 @ 8 pm @ Riverside Park at foot of Alter rd. Big bonfire. About 800 Christmas trees will be set on fire , DFD

**MikeM** · January-08-10, 04:40 PM

BYOB or BYOT?

**pgn421** · January-08-10, 04:47 PM

BYOB, what's BYOT?

**MikeM** · January-08-10, 04:52 PM

Bring Your Own Tree?

**pgn421** · January-08-10, 05:40 PM

Haha! That's a good one! There should be alot of trees there already

**Maof** · January-08-10, 07:30 PM

ohhhh that sounds fun...is my "fake" tree too flamable?

**Gsgeorge** · January-08-10, 07:34 PM

more info about this tree burning? Sounds like fun.

I remember driving through the ruined trailer park on the river with my dad as a boy in the '90s.

**pgn421** · January-08-10, 07:37 PM

George-I posted all the info, great photo op. 10 th year !

**sumas** · January-08-10, 08:15 PM

Sorry to hear the old and extensive thread is not easily excessible. That area is special to me to on lots of levels. Hope you can access it, loads of history and pictures.

**MikeM** · January-08-10, 08:31 PM

Originally Posted by sumas

Sorry to hear the old and extensive thread is not easily excessible.

Just click on the link.

**Hamtragedy** · January-08-10, 10:42 PM

This is how riverfront property get treated around here.

I showed a couple friends this park and area, who were here for my wedding a couple months ago. First we stopped by a buddy's house on Scripps, hung out on their "beach." learned that houses there were going in the 20s, and how they walked across a dead body on Marlboro and Scripps a month before.

Then we drove to the abandoned riverside park, beyond where the trailer park used to be. As we watched a freighter go by, [[Peche Island in the background) I could not logically explain to them why this riverfront park had no swings, uncut grass, a parking lot with gigantic chuck-holes, trash everywhere, and that one remaining boarded up building. We walked over to the canal dividing where we were standing from Lakewood [[Lenox?)Park, where the grass was cut and the leaves were raked. Still, I had no logical explanation.

In any other place in the country, this is so ridiculously prime real-estate, municipal or private. Include the houses on the canals, and my visitors could not comprehend why waterfront property has next to no value, and in this particular neighborhood, little or no interest.

To exponentially raise their confusion, we drove back up Alter, hung a series of right turns and found ourselves on Essex, in GP. In a span of 2 minutes and 4-5 blocks we had seen the functioning and the dysfunctional.

It's startling to me everytime I visit my friends on the canal. To an out-of-towner, it completely defies logic. For that matter, to me, it completely defies logic.

**Gsgeorge** · January-09-10, 01:59 AM

Originally Posted by Hamtragedy

This is how riverfront property get treated around here.

I showed a couple friends this park and area, who were here for my wedding a couple months ago. First we stopped by a buddy's house on Scripps, hung out on their "beach." learned that houses there were going in the 20s, and how they walked across a dead body on Marlboro and Scripps a month before.

Then we drove to the abandoned riverside park, beyond where the trailer park used to be. As we watched a freighter go by, [[Peche Island in the background) I could not logically explain to them why this riverfront park had no swings, uncut grass, a parking lot with gigantic chuck-holes, trash everywhere, and that one remaining boarded up building. We walked over to the canal dividing where we were standing from Lakewood [[Lenox?)Park, where the grass was cut and the leaves were raked. Still, I had no logical explanation.

In any other place in the country, this is so ridiculously prime real-estate, municipal or private. Include the houses on the canals, and my visitors could not comprehend why waterfront property has next to no value, and in this particular neighborhood, little or no interest.

To exponentially raise their confusion, we drove back up Alter, hung a series of right turns and found ourselves on Essex, in GP. In a span of 2 minutes and 4-5 blocks we had seen the functioning and the dysfunctional.

It's startling to me everytime I visit my friends on the canal. To an out-of-towner, it completely defies logic. For that matter, to me, it completely defies logic.

I agree that the whole length of Alter & its surrounding blocks have an eerie and unsettling vibe that is unexplainable. If you hold out hope for this area there are a few really cheap buys with water access. Check it:

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/14...88614233_zpid/

This one is still in Detroit but actually on the "other" side of the canal and along Alter Road, fronting houses in Grosse Pointe Park. This means a cheap buy but higher taxes and reliance on CoD services [[trash, etc).
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/16...35865152_zpid/

**pgn421** · January-10-10, 09:52 AM

The bonfire was great. About 200-300 people showed up, guess it's been going on for 30 years. Even had a live band. !

**EastsideAl** · January-10-10, 12:06 PM

I've always been amazed that that area hasn't done better. It really has one of the best physical locations in the city IMO. My grandfather, who lived in that neighborhood south of Jefferson for much of his adult life, would have loved to be able to afford to live in one of those places where he could keep his boat next to his house.

**jcole** · January-10-10, 12:12 PM

Originally Posted by Hamtragedy

This is how riverfront property get treated around here.

I showed a couple friends this park and area, who were here for my wedding a couple months ago. First we stopped by a buddy's house on Scripps, hung out on their "beach." learned that houses there were going in the 20s, and how they walked across a dead body on Marlboro and Scripps a month before.

Then we drove to the abandoned riverside park, beyond where the trailer park used to be. As we watched a freighter go by, [[Peche Island in the background) I could not logically explain to them why this riverfront park had no swings, uncut grass, a parking lot with gigantic chuck-holes, trash everywhere, and that one remaining boarded up building. We walked over to the canal dividing where we were standing from Lakewood [[Lenox?)Park, where the grass was cut and the leaves were raked. Still, I had no logical explanation.

In any other place in the country, this is so ridiculously prime real-estate, municipal or private. Include the houses on the canals, and my visitors could not comprehend why waterfront property has next to no value, and in this particular neighborhood, little or no interest.

To exponentially raise their confusion, we drove back up Alter, hung a series of right turns and found ourselves on Essex, in GP. In a span of 2 minutes and 4-5 blocks we had seen the functioning and the dysfunctional.

It's startling to me everytime I visit my friends on the canal. To an out-of-towner, it completely defies logic. For that matter, to me, it completely defies logic.

If I remember correctly those parks were pretty rough even back in the 60's and 70's. Lots of drug trade and free sex in Angel Park. A friend of the family committed suicide down there.