Where were these pictures taken in Grosse Pointe? 1960's & 70's

[Traveller1]

Wayne State has an unbelievable collection of old photos of Detroit from many different centuries, many probably all ready know about it, the "Virtual Motor City".

Anyway, I stumbled across some old pictures of Grosse Pointe streets from the 1960's and 70's, with which look like a canopy of Elm Trees[[?) covering the streets, the photographs are very beautiful.

By looking at the pictures can anyone tell which exact streets these photographs were taken? And if these beautiful pictures still resemble the same scene today with the beautiful, which I think, are Elm Tree canopies?

According to the photographs titles, the pictures where taken in "Grosse Pointe", which I would assume means the City of Grosse Pointe, not the Farms, Park, Woods, or Shores.

Grosse Pointe: taken in the 1960's:


Grosse Pointe: taken in the 1970's:


Here is a link to the website, the WSU virtual motor city has some awesome photographs:
http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/imag...;g=localhistic

[jcole]

Most of the far east side of Detroit had elm tree canopies just like that until Dutch elm disease moved in and most of them were cut down. I lived at 7 Mile and Kelly and the streets there were just like those in the pictures.

[ddf313]

I have a fiend who swears they chopped down all the trees so the police helicoptors could see better. He's about 50 and lives in the New Center Area.

[Bearinabox]

I have a fiend who swears they chopped down all the trees so the police helicoptors could see better. He's about 50 and lives in the New Center Area.

Damn fiends will say anything, huh.

[old guy]

Europe actually got hit with the Dutch Elm disease before the U.S. They had tons of dead elm trees and used a lot of them to make shipping crates during the 30's. When the crates began arriving here and in Canada, it infected the trees everywhere. Were there even many police helicopters in the 40's and 50's?

[jcole]

Europe actually got hit with the Dutch Elm disease before the U.S. They had tons of dead elm trees and used a lot of them to make shipping crates during the 30's. When the crates began arriving here and in Canada, it infected the trees everywhere. Were there even many police helicopters in the 40's and 50's?

From the Detroit News:

During the early 1950s Detroit lost only 2,000 trees per year, a small enough number to keep the crews at an even pace, and to help spread the cost out over a longer period.
In 1965 a drought hit, adding more stress to the trees. The removal pace hit about 10,000 trees per year, until 1972, when the city had taken down 100,000 trees over the previous 21 years.


From The Detroit News: http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history...#ixzz0k5TBXlvF

[kellyroad]

Europe actually got hit with the Dutch Elm disease before the U.S. They had tons of dead elm trees and used a lot of them to make shipping crates during the 30's. When the crates began arriving here and in Canada, it infected the trees everywhere. Were there even many police helicopters in the 40's and 50's?

From my understanding the Pointes were able to hold on to their elm trees longer because of an aggressive pesiticide program and due to the fact that the trees were further apart as compared to Detroit's thus reducing the spread of the elm beetle.

[jcole]

Depends on what type of fiend.

[jcole]

Here's a link to a larger version of the winter scene. It might make it easier to see the houses:Grosse Pointe Elms in Winter

[jcole]

Here's the other picture slightly larger. It's really hard to see but it looks like there are some cars in the distance that are substantially older than the ones in the winter scene.
Grosse Pte Elms II

[Mikeg]

From the photo descriptions, the winter scene was taken on 1/29/1974 and the summer scene was photographed on 8/6/1965.

[Buy American]

If you have Google Earth, type in 766 Harcourt and get the photo view...it's pretty close.

[Traveller1]

If you have Google Earth, type in 766 Harcourt and get the photo view...it's pretty close.

I looked it up...it does look very close, it looks like all of the street trees on this block of Grosse Pointe Park are Silver Maple Trees and not the rows of Elm Trees that are in the photograph. The Elms in the two pictures were probably cut down in the 1980's as many of you have suggested.

Don't get me wrong though....the Silver Maple Trees that line this street are very beautiful as well.

Thanks for the post!

[EastsideAl]

This is what a lot of the city looked like back then. Much of Detroit and surrounding communities were planted with beautiful rows of elms. Double rows in a lot of neighborhoods with larger lots.

I certainly remember Indian Village streets looking just like this into the mid-'60s, and Jefferson-Chalmers into the '70s. But you could hear the sounds of the chain saws and woodchippers approaching closer every spring, and eventually they reached our blocks...

[GPguy]

The winter photo was taken on University between Maumee & St. Paul. The view is towards Jefferson. University between Maumee is known as University Place a curving one way road. [[The whole road is know known as University Place). If you notice there is a car parked on the left side of the street. On University Place the parking was on the left side until about 1977 when the city changed the parking to the right side.

[Traveller1]

The winter photo was taken on University between Maumee & St. Paul. The view is towards Jefferson. University between Maumee is known as University Place a curving one way road. [[The whole road is know known as University Place). If you notice there is a car parked on the left side of the street. On University Place the parking was on the left side until about 1977 when the city changed the parking to the right side.

Thanks!

I thought from the beginning that it could have been somewhere on University Place, but I couldn't pinpoint the exact location. I can see how that area once had those towering Elm Trees because the block south of the location you told me, St. Paul to Jefferson Ave still has quite a few of those old towering elms.

The St. Paul to Maumee block is completely different than that photograph though, there are only about two remaining Elms out of that entire picture. It looks like most of the houses just have smaller red maples, locusts, or pear trees now on that block.

[EMG]

The winter photo was taken on University between Maumee & St. Paul. The view is towards Jefferson. University between Maumee is known as University Place a curving one way road. [[The whole road is know known as University Place). If you notice there is a car parked on the left side of the street. On University Place the parking was on the left side until about 1977 when the city changed the parking to the right side.

Thanks! I had forgotten about University being a one way street - that would have been another important clue, had I thought about it - it explains the street being so narrow!

[SWMAP]

One of my earliest memories is of driving on Chalmers Ave from Jefferson to the river to visit my aunt who lived just a house or two notrth of Scripps. It was summer and the air cooled noticabley as we drove under that wonderful canopy. It was as beautiful as a cathedral.
Her home was one of a kind. Her living room faced Chalmers and it had two sets of french doors that opened onto a terraced garden in the front with an awning over it. I believe that the home still stands but certainly the french doors would be a liability and would have been covered. The garden is gone as well.

I often wonder if there is a connection between the loss of the trees and the loss of peaceful neighborhoods in Detroit. I have had three trees planted on my street in SW Detroit - but they will never bee as beautiful as those elms. The City plants lots of different trees on a street now [[to combat the devastation of a blight) and the effect is scraggly and uneven - at least to my eyes trained by the cathedrals of trees on the east side.

[GPguy]

Your welcome.
I lived on that block of University for many years and know it well.

[Gistok]

Your welcome.
I lived on that block of University for many years and know it well.

Good call GPguy... I was going to guess at either Washington or Lincoln Streets [[2-3 blocks over from University). Both Washington and Lincoln kept the "cathedral effect" streetscape longer than nearly all the streets in any of the Pointes.

[GPguy]

Back in the day those street would look almost the same.

[terridarlin]

GPGuy, you're right, University between Maumee and St. Paul. I lived between Maumee and Jefferson on University Place. I walked that road many times, and they were beautiful all 4 seasons!

[TKshreve]

As one more suggestion / point of interest:

Take Lakeland towards the water from Mack. It still has an intense canopy effect. I just drove down it yesterday. And this is before the trees have even barely budded. I was gonna say that this is where the pictures were from, but I will trust GPGuy since he has time on his side.

[Traveller1]

As one more suggestion / point of interest:

Take Lakeland towards the water from Mack. It still has an intense canopy effect. I just drove down it yesterday. And this is before the trees have even barely budded. I was gonna say that this is where the pictures were from, but I will trust GPGuy since he has time on his side.

Wow, I took a look at Lakeland Street looking at the Corner of Lakeland Street and Lakeland Court and it does have that canopy effect like the photograph has. I looked at the best I could though and found that the canopying trees on Lakeland are actually Locust Trees and not the Elms. It's still a very beautiful street though! Locust Trees, when they get to a certain age, make that canopy effect as well.

[MikeM]

Winter scene reminds me of Lincoln, which is narrow like University.