Belle Isle's lost structures/formations

**One Shot** · March-22-10, 06:02 PM

With the talk of the tunnel It reminded me of the area on the other side of the road that goes alongside the aquarium. It looks like it was a greenhouse or some type of cage area? Its all overgrown with vines. Not talking about the zoo. I know what that looks like. This is on the Canadian side.
Also my Dad has mentioned a sledding hill that was on Belle Isle that you could slide down and wind up on one of the ponds.
Can someone tell me what the "cage" area was though??

Add your own lost structure/formation.

**Stinger4me** · March-22-10, 09:04 PM

I spent a lot of time on the island. There was never a sledding spot to my knowledge. My time on the island started in the '50's and last until about '80. I have been over most of the island. Keep this in mind about the island, not much of it is too much above water level.

Buy American · March-22-10, 09:43 PM

Originally Posted by One Shot

With the talk of the tunnel It reminded me of the area on the other side of the road that goes alongside the aquarium. It looks like it was a greenhouse or some type of cage area? Its all overgrown with vines. Not talking about the zoo. I know what that looks like. This is on the Canadian side.
Also my Dad has mentioned a sledding hill that was on Belle Isle that you could slide down and wind up on one of the ponds.
Can someone tell me what the "cage" area was though??

Add your own lost structure/formation.

There was an area on the island that Parks and Recreation ran, it may have been some sort of greenhouse where they cultivated plants and trees before planting. I don't remember a sledding hill either. My time on the island, from the late 40's through the very early 60's was the greatest. Knapps Riding Stable was my favorite place to be and the ride on horseback through the woods was an adventure.

**REL** · March-22-10, 09:48 PM

Are you talking about the greenhouses [[across from the Consevatory) where they grew orchids?

**Hamtragedy** · March-22-10, 11:01 PM

I rememeber canoeing on the canals in the early 70's. My parents went with a group from Reformation Lutheran Church [[Lakeview @ E. Vernor) where my father was an asst. pastor. I seem to recall renting the canoes from an area not far from the Harbor Master, although I was probably 3 yrs old at the time.

Not long after, I remember my parents pulling me in the sled on the canals near the Ice Skating Pavillion, which served Hot Chocolate and had a skate rental. Plus you could warm up in there. I learned to skate there, and have been skating ever since.

**buildingsofdetroit** · March-23-10, 01:21 AM

A couple of lost structures on Belle Isle.

The Muir Fountain:
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/c...irFountain.jpg

And the mound, a common postcard.
http://www.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=3367854#

The band shell/gazebo/stage:
http://lostpaper.com/toshop/images/s...0002bdfc03.jpg

The original bridge, which burned:
http://www.migenweb.net/wayne/belleislebridge.jpg

**Gistok** · March-23-10, 02:33 AM

[quote=buildingsofdetroit;131651]A couple of lost structures on Belle Isle.

The Muir Fountain:
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/c...irFountain.jpg

Has anyone checked Palmer Park for this forgotten gem?

Thanks for the link... I'd never seen that monument.... very reminiscent of the Bagley Fountain downtown.

**DetroitPlanner** · March-23-10, 08:10 AM

I remember the old Zoo from my childhood. It was called the Children's zoo and was much smaller than the Zoo that replaced it. There was only a few exhibits that carried forward and those included the seals. This was where I rode an elephant, as I'm sure tens of thousands of other children did as well.

I can recall my grandparents talking about the old Elephant house which probably predated the Zoo's move to Huntington Woods.

The current Belle Isle Casino is a replacement for the original one, and there may have been one that pre-dated that one as well. The old casino was made of wood.

**One Shot** · March-23-10, 08:13 AM

Yes the mound is probably what he was referring to.
The area that I'm talking about would be NE of the Aquarium along Inselruhe. On Google it is between the remaining buildings and the canoe canal. I don't know how to capture a screen shot and post it.

**mauser** · March-23-10, 08:34 AM

HERES A MAP

**qdaddy77** · March-23-10, 08:41 AM

does anyone have any pictures of the old bathouse?

**Hermod** · March-23-10, 10:31 AM

There was also a ferry so that people who arrived by bus didn't have to walk all the way across the bridge. The mainland ferry dock was just at the end of the bridge to the eastside..

**gnome** · March-23-10, 10:35 AM

Bathhouse?

Opening of the "new" bridge: Nov. 1, 1923 .originally called the George Washington Bridge.. note the Detroit Jewel Stove Factory on the land that would soon become the Uniroyle Plant

**gnome** · March-23-10, 11:28 AM

old Detroit News newsreel footage of harvesting ice on Belle Isle and loading it into an Ice House
http://www.lib.wayne.edu/resources/d....php?vid=13_08

**qdaddy77** · March-23-10, 12:47 PM

Gnome,

I think your first picture is of the Yacht Club, without the staircase.....

**detroitbred** · March-23-10, 03:32 PM

Gnome...what great old footage! I wonder if any of those men lost track of what they were doing and stood on the wrong side of thier sawcuts! Fascinating how things used to be done.

**buildingsofdetroit** · March-23-10, 04:51 PM

[quote=Gistok;131653]

Originally Posted by buildingsofdetroit

A couple of lost structures on Belle Isle.

The Muir Fountain:
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/c...irFountain.jpg

Has anyone checked Palmer Park for this forgotten gem?

Thanks for the link... I'd never seen that monument.... very reminiscent of the Bagley Fountain downtown.

Yeah, peculiar ain't it? I have very little info on it. A book on B.I. monuments from the 1950s that I have says simply that it was "removed" sometime before.

**buildingsofdetroit** · March-23-10, 05:20 PM

[quote=buildingsofdetroit;131915]

Originally Posted by Gistok

Yeah, peculiar ain't it? I have very little info on it. A book on B.I. monuments from the 1950s that I have says simply that it was "removed" sometime before.

Only thing I really have is that it was named for William K. Muir, a railroad tycoon, and was a drinking fountain - much like the Bagley Memorial Fountain.

**buildingsofdetroit** · March-23-10, 05:49 PM

Originally Posted by qdaddy77

does anyone have any pictures of the old bathouse?

Bath house:
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/c...rds/bath-1.jpg
http://s215.photobucket.com/albums/c...cards/bath.jpg
http://s215.photobucket.com/albums/c...rds/bibath.jpg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/c...ards/bath2.jpg

A co-worker once told me that they used the then-closed bath house to detain people during the 1967 riot.

**REL** · March-24-10, 10:21 AM

Originally Posted by One Shot

...I'm talking about would be NE of the Aquarium along Inselruhe. On Google it is between the remaining buildings and the canoe canal. I don't know how to capture a screen shot and post it.

I think you're referring to the old greenhouses where they grew orchids. The glass/,etal buildings, 1-story high, getting covered in vines. Or are you referring to the place where all those cars are parked [[old stables?)?

**One Shot** · March-24-10, 11:10 AM

Originally Posted by REL

I think you're referring to the old greenhouses where they grew orchids. The glass/,etal buildings, 1-story high, getting covered in vines. Or are you referring to the place where all those cars are parked [[old stables?)?

Maybe?
There looks to be framework of a greenhouse left but no glass. It is the right along the canoe canal.

**EastsideAl** · March-24-10, 01:17 PM

Originally Posted by buildingsofdetroit

Bath house:
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/c...rds/bath-1.jpg
http://s215.photobucket.com/albums/c...cards/bath.jpg
http://s215.photobucket.com/albums/c...rds/bibath.jpg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/c...ards/bath2.jpg

A co-worker once told me that they used the then-closed bath house to detain people during the 1967 riot.

The second photo you have posted there is of the old bathhouse that burned down and was replaced by the one built in the 1920s.

Here is a photo of the "new" bathhouse:

It was indeed used in 1967 as basically a giant holding cell for people detained during the riot, once the jail was full. Most of these people were being detained without charge, and were being held in a place with little or no food, water, or even shelter from the sun, in the clothes they had been arrested in several days earlier, so there was a lot of unrest and basically a "jail" riot which resulted in fires and significant destruction of the bath house. Despite many promises from the city that the facility - which had been in use up to that time - would be repaired and reopened, it never was and was torn down a couple of years later.

Here is a picture of people being held there that Mikem posted on an earlier DY thread on the riot:

**MikeM** · March-24-10, 11:09 PM

Originally Posted by buildingsofdetroit

Only thing I really have is that it was named for William K. Muir, a railroad tycoon, and was a drinking fountain - much like the Bagley Memorial Fountain.

William Ker Muir bio:

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text...ew=pdf&seq=266