Bricks on Michigan Ave

[jackie5275]

I don't know the reason for this, but have often tried to find out. I hope that someone here can tell me w/o lobbing any tomatoes please. Why is that stretch of Mich Ave through Corktown, except the asphalted middle covering the old streetcar tracks, made of bricks? Is there some historical reason?

[Detroitnerd]

All the streets used to be bricked. They never changed it there because it added charm to Tiger Stadium.

[RickBeall]

It's amazing how durable those old brick streets were. They seem to last 50 time longer than concrete. Every year a few more of the remaining brick streets get covered up, and occasionally the asphalt wears off, down to the original brick beneath, and they re-asphalt.

About 5 years ago parts of Russell street south of E Grand river was worn down to the brick, but it was covered over again. There is at least one side streets coming off St Aubin are still 100% brick. More useless info for you brick lovers out there....

[Detroitnerd]

Link to the thread identifying brick streets in Detroit?

[jackie5275]

Link to the thread identifying brick streets in Detroit?

I did a search looking for the bricks in Mich Ave, but nothing really came up. I'll try that one too.

[lizaanne]

I love the brick streets - full of character and they are so much better to drive on than whacked out asphalt.

[Hermod]

Brick is a great and durable surface for a street. The problem with brick is that it is porous and allows water to get down into the subgrade of the street. If you could find a durable [[to the friction of car tires) and transparent [[so you could see the bricks, it would be ideal for urban streets and their atmosphere. The problem is that the best and most durable sealer is a layer of asphalt.

.

[Retroit]

Link to the thread identifying brick streets in Detroit?

I composed this list from that thread. It's in random order and contributions were made by many, especially Rocko.

1. Marlborough St. between Jefferson and Essex
2. Woodbridge St. between Orleans and Dubois
3. Alleyway East of and parallel to Gratiot near Historic Trinity Church
4. Michigan Avenue between Rosa Parks Blvd and the Lodge freeway
5. 17th St. just NW of MCS
6. Standish St. between I-75 and 20th St. just SW of MCS
7. Waterloo, westward from Chene Street, along the northern side of old Miller High School; terminates at Miller's athletic field.
8. Marrow between Marston and Clay is still 1/2 brick.
9. Perry St. between I-75 and Wabash.
10. Warsaw Pl. alleyway -West of St. Aubin between Hancock St. and Forest Ave. or 1 1/2 blocks SE of Warren.
11. Eighth Street between Fort and Lafayette
12. Gould St. between Crossley and Anderson in Delray
13. Wight: Mt. Elliot to Iron
14. Beaufait?: Jefferson to Charlevois?: Center only
15. Hubbard: approaches off of Michigan
16. Vernor: small patch North of intersection with Michigan
17 & 18. Alley between Parker & Seminole and between Seminole and Iroquios: from Lafayette to St. Paul
19. Alleyway NW of & parallel to Jefferson between Parker and Seminole.
20. Alleyway approach off Concord just NW of Jefferson.
21. Northern half of alleyway East of and parallel to Cass between Stimson and Peterboro.
22. Alleyway off of Peterboro between Woodward and Park Ave.
23. Alleys between Atkinson and Edison and Woodward and 2nd.
24. Garfeild between Canfield and Forest & East of Russell, North of Sweeteast Heart of Mary
25. St. Joseph driveway/parking lot: between Orleans and Dequinder Cut and from Jay 1/2 way to Antietam.
26. Alleyway parallel to and East of Dubois between I-94 service drive and Medbury.
27. a couple different stretches from an Amtrak train going west from Detroit Station. Through the section between the Amtrak station and CP-Vinewood [[Near West Detroit Junction), there are a few service alleys which go up from Detroit streets to the track level raise above the landscape:
Alley extending west from Lincoln St. along the GTW [[near Trumbull)
Alley extending west from Commonwealth St. along the GTW
Alley extending south from Buchanan St. along the GTW [[hard to tell if this is brick or asphalt)
There many be additional access alleys that can't be easily seen from the aerials [[grown over/unused) that one may be able to pick out from the train.
28. Beaufait just south of Mack on the east side, between the rails of a long abandoned industry rail spur. On the east side of Beaufait at the corner of Mack [[southeast corner), there is a large warehouse or something with a black roof. Follow the street down to where this building ends. Just below that, along the east curb of the street, it looks like there are bricks between the rails.
29. Virginia Park [[about 6 blocks north of the Fisher building) between 2nd and 3rd
30. Perry St. between Wabash and 17th/W. Fisher Service Drive for something like 4 and a half blocks is brick. This is just north of I-75 more or less across from the Michigan Central station. Also looks like part or all of the alley going north from Perry between 14th and Wabash is brick, as is the alley entrance a block north on the north side of Temple between 15th and 16th.
31. Corner of Woodmere & Fort [[Entrance to Woodmere Cemetery)

[DetroitPlanner]

When I was a young driver in the early to mid 1980's the bricks went much further than they do now. They went at least to Livernois. The street was resurfaced, but I am sure the bricks remain as a base. The center lanes are resurfaced to cover ruts and rails from the trolley. In some places those reails are still there, but it would be very complicated to simply remove the asphalt and start running trains again. I am pretty sure that the gage has changed, and in many cases the rails are missing completely; such as the area around I-96/I-75.

Retroit, great list, how would you classify brick paver streets that are not historic such as Woodward from I-75 to Grand Circus?

[Detroitnerd]

Good job, Retroit!

[Pam]

What about:

http://detroit1701.org/West%20Canfield_Hist.htm

[Detroitnerd]

Pam, that's cobblestone, not brick. [[A fine point, I grant you.)

[kryptonite]

I lived in a neighborhood in Akron, Ohio for a while during college and there were many brick streets still. However the residents said that the higher-traffic streets were all paved in the 50's and 60's because of accidents during rain and snow. Someone said Fall was particularly dangerous because the falling leaves were very treachorous on brick streets when it rained and wet leaves on brick meant many accidents.

[Retroit]

Retroit, great list, how would you classify brick paver streets that are not historic such as Woodward from I-75 to Grand Circus?

I don't see why they shouldn't be included. They were mentioned in the old thread. I think I threw them out because that thread was for "still existing" brick roads from the "olden days".

Also, I forgot to include the curb lanes on Woodward.

[RickBeall]

I didn't realize the curb lanes on Woodward were original.

I do not think the cobblestone on Canfield is original. I believe that was put in when the area was designated historic.

The last I looked there was cobblestone exposed at the foot of old Hastings Street [[Now called Schwiezers Pl. due to an restaurant that used to be there.) Here is a picture from
2000: http://paradisevalleyblues.com/tour/hastings0030.html . They were shaped liked bricks but were stone if I remember right.

Great post on the possible negatives of a brick street. Once you think about it, it does seem they would potentially be pretty slick when wet.

[Mackenzie68]

Couldn't help the pun.

Dad, who is a native Detroiter, age 87, says the bricks were put there to protect the road during the "Arsenal of Democracy" era. Tanks made in the old Cadillac Plant [[Scotten ) were to be driven on it [[1942) . Dad was in electrical school then on 14th Street and regularly walked down to Michigan for lunch. He said the bricks were being laid by hand, one by one. He enlisted before the paving [[bricking) was done so he never saw a tank being run down it.

[DetroitZack]

I was told a while back this brick portion of Michigan Avenue was going to get covered up. It made me pretty sad because I like how it looks.

[terryh]

I recall some street car tracks left in the vicinity of Third Ave.?

[5speedz34]

Last year when I lived in Woodbridge I know areas where there where potholes you could see the original bricks. The layer of asphalt was thick too about 3-4".

The brick is nice looking but personally I'll take form>function because it sucks to drive on.

[Detroitnerd]

The brick is nice looking but personally I'll take form>function because it sucks to drive on.

I don't think brick really sucks to drive on. In a way, I think that stretch of Michigan Avenue unfairly biases people against brick paving, but it's really the cracked asphalt and poorly covered rail tracks that make it such a bumpy ride. Nobody complains about driving on the parking lane on Woodward, right?

[Trumpeteer]

Intersection of W. Vernor & Springwells had exposed brick/rail when I lived in SW in the 60's. Don't know if it's been covered but it was there then.

[Hermod]

Couldn't help the pun.

Dad, who is a native Detroiter, age 87, says the bricks were put there to protect the road during the "Arsenal of Democracy" era. Tanks made in the old Cadillac Plant [[Scotten ) were to be driven on it [[1942) . Dad was in electrical school then on 14th Street and regularly walked down to Michigan for lunch. He said the bricks were being laid by hand, one by one. He enlisted before the paving [[bricking) was done so he never saw a tank being run down it.

The Scotten tank plant cranked out roughly 5,000 M5 and M5A1 light tanks between mid-1942 and early 1944. The Chrysler Tank Plant out on Van Dyke in Warren built the medium tanks.

[Rocko]

I've run into a few other stretches of brick streets around the city in the past year....unfortunately I wasn't keeping any notes about where those places were! If I recall any of them, I'll add it to the list.

If I remember correctly, the brick portion of Michigan Ave. is not original in the sense that many of the side streets are. I think that was a WPA project or something of the sort from the depression. Of course, the streetcar rails still run down the middle, as the Michigan Ave. DSR line ran until 1955. You can still see the sweeping curve in the brick from Michgian northbound onto Trumbull going westbound from where two lines intersected.

I don't understand why they have to cover the middle up with asphalt, unless the pavers around the rails are really unever and in bad shape.....I mean, the rails are still there. No one will be confused about whether a train still runs there...and if they are....this is Detroit! No one will drive any different!

It would be unfortunate for them to go the cheap route and tear out the bricks rather than relevel then where they need it and call it good for another 75 years. MDOT has discussed removing the bricks and putting down concrete with brick imprints in it down instead as one option. To me, that just bastardizes the whole thing....if you're going to remove the bricks and not reuse them, then pave it over with regular concrete and be done with it. The value of the bricks is that they have been there so long. With no more Tiger Stadium, any other fake brick would just be a waste of money.

[Rocko]

Add Wight and Guoin Streets between Joseph Campau and Chene both to the list! Wight actually has an old streetcar line running down it too, I think....or maybe that's Woodbridge...I don't remember.

[Retroit]

I didn't realize the curb lanes on Woodward were original.

I was hoping someone more knowledgeable would comment on this, but I'll take a stab at it. Woodward was widened around 1932 [[possibly in conjunction with a WPA project like Rocko mentioned for Michigan Ave?). I presume these bricks were put in then. So, technically not "original" to the original Woodward, but original to the widening. However, I also read where the complete length of Woodward was paved between 1916 and 1919, presumably with concrete. [[http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=205) So, I'm not sure why bricks were chosen in 1932 or why they weren't subsequently covered. Perhaps they were kept for nostalgia, or because they were still in good condition being only 13-16 years old at the time.