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

[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.

[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.

[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!

[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!

[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.

[MikeM]

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

[MikeM]

The set back of the houses in the summer photo reminds me of Grosse Pointe Park, especially the western end. Both streets look like they were city planted elms from the early part of the century, so the City and Park would be most likely locations.

[GPguy]

I should go take a photo, I bet I could line up the remaining tree in the new photo.

[Traveller1]

I should go take a photo, I bet I could line up the remaining tree in the new photo.

That would be really interesting to see if it lined up.

[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.

[Goose]

thats sad the amount of tree loss... how beautiful it once one.... damn this global warming.....

[GPguy]

I took these pictures today on University. The house on the left lines up pretty well with the original picture.

[GMan]

thats sad the amount of tree loss... how beautiful it once one.... damn this global warming.....

Is that a little sarcasm Goose? The disease that claimed the Elms is caused by a fungus that is spread by the elm bark beetle. The trees plug off their infected areas in an attempt to stop the disease from spreading. Unfortunately that mean that the tree is cutting off it's own water supply also and is inevitabely going to die.

I used to assist a private contractor with innoculating trees with a fungicide in the GP area in the early 80's. It gave the stately old trees a few more years of life.
There are some disease resistant strains of elms available but I don't think they produce the same dramatic canopy as the old American Elm.

[Zacha341]

Wonderful shots... thanks for the link as well!

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

[Traveller1]

I took these pictures today on University. The house on the left lines up pretty well with the original picture.

Thanks for the picture comparisons GPguy! I really like looking at how so many things have changed over so many years. University Place looks so much different than it did in the 1970's, but you can definitely tell that it is University Place in those two photographs, the house on the left [[as you mentined) basically seals the deal that it can be no other street.