Shorpy again: Detroit City Hall, 1900

[Ray1936]

Spend some time looking at all the people in the photo. I like the guy sitting on the steps reading a newspaper.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/8550?size=_original

[Matt The Deuce]

Down at the bottom on the carts - corn and bananas!

As stated in the side bar - palms around the soldiers & sailors monument! a very nice touch!

[Hermod]

The open sided trolley car at the extreme right.

[george_babbage]

Men wearing suits to ride their bikes is a classy touch.

[jcole]

It might look idyllic, but I for one sure wouldn't want to have to wear the dress, petticoat and hat that the women are sporting on a 'fine summer Sunday afternoon', especially one like yesterday.
As a matter of fact, I wouldn't want to be in smelling range of most of those people.

[jtf1972]

As a matter of fact, I wouldn't want to be in smelling range of most of those people.

You probably would not offend any of the persons in this photograph's sense of smell. Don't be so hard on yourself!

[jcole]

If I was dressed like that on a 90 degree day, I might offend them.

[Patrick]

Looks like a functioning city to me.

[DetroitScooter]

Relieved that they tore that schitt down! I just wish that it was a pocket-park now... 8-)

[Goose]

FAKE

see the cell phone tower in the center?

[Huggybear]

The seven year old selling bananas at the bottom is a nice touch.

[Jimaz]

I like the guy using his bike as a semi-standing chair in the lower left. It raises the question as to whether bikes of that era had locking brakes.

[Hamtragedy]

What are those wrought-iron adornments above the mansard roof called? There is a house on W Canfield that has the same thing.

[EastsideAl]

And now the old Opera House too.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/8554?size=_original

Gone, like City Hall, in Detroit's idiotic "urban renewal" fest of the 1960s that left us with a giant blank spot in the middle of downtown for 3 decades.

[DetroitScooter]

The old Detroit Opera House shot [[where Compuware is now located) and the "continuous vaudeville theatre" shows some incredible detail, and reveals a entertainment district long gone. To think that there were several of these districts throughout downtown is amazing.

[Hermod]

The old Detroit Opera House shot [[where Compuware is now located) and the "continuous vaudeville theatre" shows some incredible detail, and reveals a entertainment district long gone. To think that there were several of these districts throughout downtown is amazing.

First movies, then radio, and finally, television, pretty much killed live entertainment venues with the exception of opera and rock concerts.

[jtf1972]

I love the Palmer Fountain. It would be nice to see it used somewhere other than tucked away, not working in Palmer Park... [[In Roosevelt Park, fronting a restored MCS would be nice!)

[royce]

Have you noticed that everyone is wearing a hat or head gear, including the children. I know that that was the fashion of the time, but was there a taboo, fine, or both if anyone was caught without wearing a hat in public?

[Hermod]

Have you noticed that everyone is wearing a hat or head gear, including the children. I know that that was the fashion of the time, but was there a taboo, fine, or both if anyone was caught without wearing a hat in public?

Taboo. It just was not done to appear outdoors without a hat. I have some pix in a book about the navy which shows guys wearing overalls working in the Naval Gun Factory. All of them are wearing derbies with their chambray shirts and bib overalls.

My grandfather always wore a hat [[tipped to the ladies and held in the hand while talking to a lady). My father always wore a hat when he wore a suit.

President Kennedy at his inauguration did not wear a hat which scandalized many people, but which started a trend. It destroyed the hat industry [[and the hatters union) in the US..

[Rockin' Best]

Not only do I love this photo, but also, I love what it was undoubtedly shot with - an 8x10 view camera, probably on a glass negative. People who have only used 35mm or even 6x6 have never enjoyed the incredible detail, grey scale, and grainlessness that big format shooting affords. But now, with the twilight of chemical film, this kind of shooting is all but gone. Digital conversion backs for large format plate cams are needed to keep them going...but just imagine the size of the RAW or TIFF files! [[100 megs a shot?)

[kathy2trips]

What are those wrought-iron adornments above the mansard roof called? There is a house on W Canfield that has the same thing.

\

If you're talking about the railing that sits along the edge, my dad always called it "cresting".

[boogiechillen]

The most striking thing about this photo is the lack of automobiles. There is a much greater mix of modes of transportation than there is today. Notice that the street is actually a place of public discourse, where people sell goods and exchange pleasantries. I'd take a street covered in horse shit any day over the nightmare of a parking lot that downtown is today.

[Whitehouse]

What's the Welcome sign for on the facade of City Hall? Is that another GAR function?

[Whitehouse]

Has this one been discussed here before? The Olds motor works in Lansing. The plot remained a plant for Oldsmobile right up until the end.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/8514?size=_original


The company I work for was founded in 1961. At the start the primary trucks they used were Reo trucks.

A picture of Reo 28.

These days those old trucks are a long forgotten memory, but to this day the same numbers are used.


This Mercedes for instance is called Reo 61.

[Whitehouse]

The Detroit river.
http://www.shorpy.com/node/8513?size=_original