This structure, designed by Pius Daubner, was completed in 1868. It is one of the oldest Catholic school buildings in the state and the third in the history of St. Mary's. At the first school, built in 1844, laymen were the original instructors. In . . . — — Map (db m168953) HM
The Mission Work of the Protestant Episcopal Church among Blacks in
Detroit commenced with the Reverend William M. Monroe, First Pastor of
Second Baptist Church, who left, and along with William Lambert, an
abolitionist and a conductor on the . . . — — Map (db m190556) HM
Completed in 1900, this is Michigan's preeminent example of design by the internationally renowned architects, McKim, Mead and White of New York. The three-story Neoclassical structure features a white marble exterior with bronze window units. Among . . . — — Map (db m42265) HM
On September 22, 1877, a Bell telephone was installed on this site in the drugstore operated by Frederick Stearns. An iron wire strung along the rooftops connected the store with the Stearns laboratory a half mile away at the foot of Fifth Street. . . . — — Map (db m91388) HM
(English side)
The Cadillac Convoy In recognition of the courage, perseverance and expertise of the French-Canadians who brought Antoine de Lamothe Cadillac to establish the first permanent settlement at Le Détroit du Lac Érié. . . . — — Map (db m33687) HM
On August 23, 1873 James E. Scripps began publishing The Evening News, one of the first popular, low-priced evening newspapers in Michigan. The News specialized in short, local, human interest stories. Resolutely independent, it has . . . — — Map (db m91352) HM
This corner stone of Michigan's First capitol building was laid September 22, 1823 and the structure was completed five years later. It housed the county courts for a time and later was given over to legislative sessions. The building was burned on . . . — — Map (db m91624) HM
Until Emancipation, Detroit and the Detroit River community served as the gateway to freedom for thousands of African American people escaping enslavement. Detroit was one of the largest terminals of the Underground Railroad, a network of . . . — — Map (db m33459) HM
(side 1)
The Iron Brigade
The Iron Brigade became one of the most celebrated military units of the American Civil War (1861-1865). It was composed of five volunteer infantry regiments (2nd, 6th & 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, and . . . — — Map (db m42264) HM
"I'll meet you under the Kern Clock" was a common Detroit expression for almost a century. The Kern Clock was originally located on Kern's Department Store at the corner of Gratiot and Woodward.
In recognition of the importance of this . . . — — Map (db m211418) HM
The Landing of Cadillac
After departing Montreal June 5, 1701, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and his convoy of 25 canoes sailed down this river and on the evening of July 23 camped 16 miles below the present city of Detroit on what . . . — — Map (db m33522) HM
Founded by William Booth in London, England. The Salvation Army came to Michigan in 1883. When organizing the Detroit corps in 1887 Captain Fink wrote to her British superiors: "This is the Metropolis of Michigan … a beautiful city, but oh, the sin . . . — — Map (db m23805) HM
The War of 1812 in Detroit On June 18, 1812, the United States Congress declared war on Great Britain. William Hull, Michigan’s first territorial governor, was selected to lead the U.S. army at Detroit. He invaded Canada on July 12, but soon . . . — — Map (db m172526) HM
Built in the "Roaring Twenties", Detroit's Theater District, surrounding Grand Circus Park, is the second largest in the world in total number of seats. Only the Broadway area in New York City is larger.
The movie palaces built in this time were . . . — — Map (db m173564) HM
This historic Tyrus Raymond Cobb bronze plaque was originally mounted outside the Administrative Offices at Tiger Stadium on July 17, 1963. It was installed and rededicated here at Comerica Park on July 1, 2005 and is on loan from the City of . . . — — Map (db m173100) HM
When Michigan became a state in 1837, the Detroit office of the U.S. Topographical Engineers was headquartered on this site. The topographical engineers helped transform Michigan from a wilderness into a prosperous state. They also played a vital . . . — — Map (db m42294) HM
The Catholepistemiad, or university, of Michigania resided in a building near this site from 1818 to 1837. Conceived of by the Reverend John Montieth, Father Gabriel Richard and Judge Augustus Woodward, the university was established by territorial . . . — — Map (db m23662) HM
Without the Civil War, there would be no Vernor's.
Before the conflict began, James Vernor, a pharmacist, had concocted a new drink. It was a mix of 19 ingredients including ginger and vanilla.
When Vernor was called off to war in 1862, he stored . . . — — Map (db m173563) HM
The Veterans Memorial Building, completed in 1950, stands as a monument to those Detroiters who gave their lives and services in war for our country. It was the first of the civic center’s buildings to be erected. The soaring carved marble eagle . . . — — Map (db m42266) HM
Hardship struck soon after American troops regained Detroit on Sept. 29, 1813, during the War of 1812. Soldiers' quarters were lacking, and food supplies became desperately short. Then a disease resembling cholera broke out among the soldiers. By . . . — — Map (db m172528) HM
Born in Detroit November
20 1848. Educated in her
public schools and
university of Michigan.
City attorney of Detroit
1876 1880. Representative
in Congress from the First
Michigan district 1883 1887.
Mayor of Detroit 1897 1905.
Died in . . . — — Map (db m209232) HM
William B. Stratton designed this building for the Women’s City Club of Detroit--founded in 1919 “to promote a broad acquaintance among women” and to further civic and cultural activities. The club, which grew to be one of the largest women’s clubs . . . — — Map (db m174293) HM
In the earliest days of Detroit, Campus Martius, which means "military ground," served as a drill ground for militia. When Judge Augustus Woodward created his street plan for Detroit in 1807, he began at Campus Martius.
Ossian Sweet HouseAfrican American physician Ossian Sweet and his wife, Gladys, purchased this house in May 1925. When the Sweets moved into their home on September 8, white residents who objected to blacks moving into the neighborhood formed a . . . — — Map (db m173099) HM
Pewabic Pottery In 1903 Mary Chase Perry (Stratton) and Horace Caulkins founded Pewabic Pottery in a stable near downtown Detroit. Four years later, the present building was constructed – a pottery works designed in the style of an . . . — — Map (db m172638) HM
Erected in 1875, this building was originally a German Catholic church. As the social and ethnic composition of the neighborhood changed, so did the membership of the church. Many of the founding German parishioners moved away. Finally in 1938 the . . . — — Map (db m172653) HM
Trinity Lutheran Church, one of the oldest of this denomination in Detroit, was founded in 1850. The Reverend Gottlieb Schaller conducted the early worship services, which were held in the former Mariners Church on Larned Street. In 1866 the . . . — — Map (db m182457) HM
Lisette gained freedom from slavery by escaping to Canada with family. Returning she became a longtime domestic caretaker, investor, stockholder, and the first Black female landowner in Michigan.
Founder of St. James Episcopal Church. . . . — — Map (db m245337) HM
In 1846 when this was a farm on the outskirts of Detroit, a group of gentlemen formed a corporation and purchased the land for use as a public cemetery. The trustees patterned the grounds after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, . . . — — Map (db m21845) HM
Beth El, the first Jewish congregation in Michigan, was organized in Detroit on September 22, 1850, by 12 families. This half-acre cemetery, dedicated on January 1, 1851, was known then as “The Champlain Street Cemetery of Temple Beth El” because . . . — — Map (db m180884) HM
Elijah McCoy, the noted black inventor, lived on this site for much of his adult life. Born in 1844 to fugitive slaves residing in Canada, McCoy was trained in Scotland as a mechanical engineer, and came to Michigan after the Civil War. . . . — — Map (db m172647) HM
The First Michigan Colored Regiment was organized at Camp Ward, which originally stood at this location. Formed from August through October 1863, a year of draft riots and protests against the war, this Negro regiment consisted entirely of . . . — — Map (db m14889) HM
On April 27, 1919, thirty-nine people met in the First Presbyterian Church on Woodward Avenue and organized St. John's Presbyterian Church. Reverend John W. Lee, a field missionary, led the formation of the church to serve Detroit's growing black . . . — — Map (db m106394) HM
Near this site, in late July 1763, the British and Indians fought the fiercest battle of Chief Pontiac's uprising. As Captain James Dalyell led about 260 soldiers across Parent's Creek, the Indians launched a surprise attack which devastated the . . . — — Map (db m21846) HM
The Players, a Detroit gentlemen’s amateur theatre club founded in 1911, opened this playhouse in 1926. The handsome building was created by club members William E. Kapp, architect, Corrado Parducci, stone sculptor, and Paul Honore, muralist. The . . . — — Map (db m172567) HM
Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church was founded in 1854 when the growing First Presbyterian Church divided into three congregations. Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian built its first church at Jefferson and Rivard. U.S. Senator James McMillan; . . . — — Map (db m176939) HM
Polish immigrants arrived in Detroit as early as the 1850s, but not until the Reverend Simon Wieczorek founded St. Albertus Roman Catholic Parish in 1872, did their community have a center. In 1885 the present Gothic Revival building replaced the . . . — — Map (db m67632) HM
During the late nineteenth century many Polish immigrants fleeing oppression came to Detroit. In 1886 a group of them organized the school that was the beginning of Sweetest Heart of Mary Parish. On December 8, 1888, the Reverend Dominic H. . . . — — Map (db m172658) HM
Duane Doty School first opened its doors in the fall of 1909. It was built as Detroit grew north along Woodward Avenue in the first quarter of the twentieth century. The school was named for Duane Doty (circa 1836-1902), an early Superintendent of . . . — — Map (db m180910) HM
This flagpole erected by
the ship's company
Naval Training School
Naval Armory
Detroit, Michigan
May 26, 1942
In honor of
the Commanding officer
Captain R. Thornton Brodhead
U.S.N.R. — — Map (db m239959) HM
During the early 1850s, the growing number of Catholic families of German and Alsatian descent on Detroit's east side necessitated the establishment of a new Catholic parish. The new congregation was originally founded as a mission church of St. . . . — — Map (db m170446) HM
The Annunciation (Evangelismos) Greek Orthodox Church was founded in 1910. It became the center of Detroit’s Hellenic community, which dates back to the early 1890s. The first liturgy was held in a rented hall on Miami Boulevard (now Broadway). By . . . — — Map (db m172522) HM
Founded in 1836 by thirteen former slaves, the is the oldest black congregation in Michigan. From its beginnings the church has occupied a prominent place in Detroit's black community. In 1839 it established the city's first school for black . . . — — Map (db m102493) HM
Second Baptist Church
Underground Railroad Site
Fort Street Stations
1836-1854 1854-1857
Croghan (Monroe) Street Station
1857-1865 — — Map (db m102494) HM
St. Mary's parish was founded by Father Martin Kundig in 1835 for the German-speaking Catholics in Detroit and is the third oldest Catholic parish in the city. The cornerstone for the original church was laid on the feast of Corpus Christi, June 19, . . . — — Map (db m92850) HM
Constructed in 1876, this North Italian Banded Romanesque structure was designed by Swiss architect Julius Hess. It is the second rectory building of the St. Mary's parish, which was organized in 1835 under the leadership of Father Martin Kundig . . . — — Map (db m168952) HM
In 1909 Wayne County built the first mile of concrete highway in the world here on Woodward between Six and Seven Mile Roads. From far and near road builders came to see how concrete stood up under the heavy traffic of that period. The success of . . . — — Map (db m173684) HM
Side 1
The "Motown Sound" was created on this site from 1959 to 1972. The company was started with an $800 loan from the savings club of the Bertha and Berry Gordy, Sr., family. Originally called Tamla Records, the company's first national . . . — — Map (db m84958) HM
Father Gabriel Jacques Richard, S. S., (1767-1832) -- pastor, educator and public servant -- arrived in Detroit in 1798. In 1802 he became the pastor of Ste. Anne Church. He brought a printing press to the area and in 1809 printed Michigan's first . . . — — Map (db m14879) HM
Ste. Anne Church
On July 26, 1701, two days after his arrival, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, founder of Detroit, built a chapel dedicated to Ste. Anne, patron saint of New France. Father Francois Vaillant, a Jesuit, and Father Nicholas . . . — — Map (db m14878) HM
Eastern Liggett School
Albert Kahn designed this school in the Arts and Crafts style in 1913. It opened in 1914 as Eastern Liggett, a college preparatory school for girls, Kahn oversaw the addition of an auditorium, gymnasium and new classrooms . . . — — Map (db m173028) HM
Abraham Cook purchased the area, now known as Indian Village, from two French farmers, Gabriel St. Aubin and Francois Rivard, during the first decades of the nineteenth century. The vicinity, known as the Cook Farms, was a race track from 1836 to . . . — — Map (db m173023) HM
This tablet marks the birthplace of
Captain Charles A. Lindbergh
The first aviator to fly from New York to Paris was born here, February 4, 1902, the son of Charles A. and Evangeline Lodge Lindbergh. After flying alone 3640 miles in . . . — — Map (db m176581) HM
Named for its dark marsh soils, Black Bottom was a neighborhood roughly bound by Gratiot Avenue, St. Aubin Street, Larned Street and Brush Street. European immigrants settle here in the mid-nineteenth century. Between World Wars I and II it became . . . — — Map (db m178275) HM
Fannie Richards, Detroit’s first black public school teacher, lived on this site. Born in Virginia about 1840, she moved to Detroit as a young woman. In 1863, she opened a private school for black children, and two years later was appointed to teach . . . — — Map (db m172548) HM
Organized in 1855, St. Joseph’s served a German Catholic neighborhood for generations. With schools and activities conducted in German, the parish sponsored a mutual benefit society to assist its immigrant flock. In 1873, led by Fr. Johann . . . — — Map (db m180958) HM
Andrew R. Strable Catholic War Veterans
Stand for a moment in silence, and let there rise from your heart
a prayer beseeching Almighty God,
the father of us all, to grant to
the souls of our departed comrades,
a peace and a glory that is . . . — — Map (db m197671) WM
Assumption Roman Catholic Church The origins of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Roman Catholic Church can be traced to 1830, when German immigrants first arrived in Detroit. Warned away from cholera-stricken Detroit, they built a log . . . — — Map (db m172802) HM
To the University of Detroit men who died in the World War 1914 - 1918
✝ Our Honored Dead ✝
John DesChamps • Charles Harrison • Louis Mans • Edward J Burns • Thomas G Kennedy • Alfred Fuller • Roger McNamara • James Williams • . . . — — Map (db m233541) WM
Henry Ford was only 41 years old when the new Ford Motor Company moved to Piquette Avenue in lat 1904. Despite two earlier corporate failures, he was a gifted and self-taught engineer, a decisive risk-taker. And he was able to envision the new . . . — — Map (db m172661) HM
The Ford Motor Company Piquette Avenue Plant became the "laboratory"
in which Henry Ford explored design and created the car that changed the world, the Model T. Built for Ford Motor Company in 1904, its three brick stories rose next to the . . . — — Map (db m172660) HM
"Get a good lock for the door," Henry Ford told Charles Sorenson in January 1907. "We're going to start a completely new job." A special locked room was created at the back of the Piquette plant's third floor for Henry's special and secret . . . — — Map (db m172663) HM
Railroads were the powerlines of industry, for movement of parts and products. Around 1900, new plants were built along railroad tracks with sidings and loading platforms. Here, in what was open land on the northern outskirts of Detroit, the . . . — — Map (db m172664) HM
Nothing is as powerful as persistence, and at the Piquette plant Henry Ford pursued his dream of an affordable and reliable automobile "for the great multitude." Ford designed and produced Models B, C, and F, but dropped them by 1906. He never . . . — — Map (db m172662) HM
They moved into the Detroit automobile "neighborhood" in a big way.
Based in South Bend, Indiana, Studebaker had been the world's largest builder of horse-drawn wagons in the late 1800's. Starting in 1902, the first powered vehicles the . . . — — Map (db m172665) HM
The American Academy of Pediatrics was founded on June 24, 1930, by thirty-four physicians at Harper Hospital. Isaac A. Abt, M.D., was elected as its first president; John L. Morse, M.D., was chosen as the first vice-president; and Clifford G. . . . — — Map (db m172655) HM
In 1916 the Rev. Samuel S. Cumby founded Friendship Baptist Church, an African-American congregation, on Russell Street. The Rev. John Henry Johnson (1878-1957) began to lead the church the next year. Its membership grew rapidly over the next two . . . — — Map (db m172654) HM
In 1879 Recreation Park was established on the land surrounding this site. The park extended from Brady Street to Willis Avenue. It included the baseball field that was the home park of the Detroit Wolverines of the National League from 1881 to . . . — — Map (db m172657) HM
St. Josaphat’s, founded on June 1, 1889, was the third Polish-speaking Roman Catholic parish established in Detroit. On February 2, 1890, it dedicated a combination church and school building. Within a decade plans were begun for a new church . . . — — Map (db m175041) HM
Cathedral Church of St. Paul
In 1824 the Reverend Richard Cadle led
the founding of St. Paul's Church, the
first Episcopal church in Michigan. St.
Paul's purchased property here in 1892,
and construction of this Gothic Revival style . . . — — Map (db m228742) HM
In 1801, David Bacon and his wife Alice made the first attempt to establish Congregationalism in Detroit. Sent by a Connecticut Congregational society, the Bacons failed in their efforts to build a mission. It was not until 1844 that the First . . . — — Map (db m84643) HM
Perry W. McAdow and his wife Clara built this elaborate mansion in 1891. The McAdows, who had earned their fortune in the gold mines of Montana, lived here from 1891 to 1897. The house continued as a private residence until 1913, when it was sold . . . — — Map (db m84642) HM
This structure was completed in 1917 for the First Church of Christ, Scientist. Field, Hinchman and Smith - predecessor to the architectural firm of Smith, Hinchman and Grylls - designed it in a Classical Roman Ionic style. In 1961 Wayne State . . . — — Map (db m84482) HM
This 1895 Queen Anne style house, designed by Malcolmson & Higginbotham, was the home of David Mackenzie. Educator, scholar, and humanitarian, Mackenzie fostered higher education for Detroit students. While principal of Central High School, then . . . — — Map (db m84284) HM
Here, in 1868 five young physicians, whose work with wounded during the Civil War had left them eager to improve the quality of medical education, founded the Detroit Medical College, the city’s first such school. Like nearby Harper Hospital, it . . . — — Map (db m172643) HM
Here in the Central High building completed in 1896 was founded in 1917 Detroit Junior College, from which grew a College of Liberal Arts. It united with other colleges, some begun here and some bearing notable histories in other parts of the city, . . . — — Map (db m84262) HM
Side 1
In 1813, Territorial Governor Lewis Cass purchased the Macomb farm. By 1818 he had acquired "80 arpents in depth" of land extending almost three miles inland from the Detroit River in the form of a narrow French ribbon farm. Cass . . . — — Map (db m133652) HM
In 1944 the Orsel McGhees, a black family, moved here into what was then an all-white neighborhood. A neighboring family won a court order revoking the McGhees’ purchase of the house on the basis of a restrictive covenant forbidding non-white . . . — — Map (db m172644) HM
Completed in 1904, the Piquette Avenue Plant was the first factory built by the Ford Motor Company. The building was designed by the Detroit firm of Field, Hinchman and Smith. Models B, C, F, K, N, R, S, and T were produced here between 1904 and . . . — — Map (db m172659) HM
The Golden Tower of the Fisher Building has brightened the skyline of metropolitan Detroit since 1928. Called Detroit’s largest art object, the edifice is a city landmark. The Fisher Brothers, developers of the closed automobile, erected the . . . — — Map (db m212510) HM
This site bears the name of Father Martin Kundig, Wayne County’s first superintendent of the poor. Born in 1805 in Switzerland, Kundig was educated in Rome, and served in the Swiss Papal Guard, before coming to work in the Diocese of Detroit in . . . — — Map (db m172685) HM
The Detroit firm George D. Mason and Company designed this building for the Disciples of Christ in 1927. Although the structure remains relatively unchanged since its completion in 1928, the windows reflect the significant changes that occurred as . . . — — Map (db m174291) HM
In July 1967 the civil unrest that had been spreading across the United States reached Detroit. In the early morning hours of July 23, Detroit police officers raided a blind pig, an illegal after-hours bar, where patrons were celebrating the return . . . — — Map (db m170436) HM
March On It was March of 1932, the depths of depression, and thousands of souls, women and men, young and old, crossed the bridge and braved the cold, to deliver a list of fourteen demands, to the Rouge plant, just up the road. It was a bitter . . . — — Map (db m189487) HM
The Rouge River has impacted the lives of this region's people for centuries. First know inhabitants were the Mound Builders, who built large mounded landforms to bury their dead. The Potawatomi followed, making use of rich soils and abundant . . . — — Map (db m189490) HM
Approximately 3,000 unemployed workers and labor activists marched from Oakwood to the Ford Employment Office, intent on delivering demands for better working conditions. When the group met resistance from Dearborn Police, five men were killed. . . . — — Map (db m189493) HM
Side 1
This Tudor Revival residence was constructed in the mid-1920s. The Boston architectural firm of Maginnis and Walsh designed the house for the Catholic bishop of Detroit during the tenure of Michael J. Gallagher. Its ecclesiastical . . . — — Map (db m120913) HM
Birwood Wall. Constructed in 1941, the Birwood Wall divided the existing Black community in the Eight Mile-Wyoming area from Blackstone Park. a newly built White subdivision. The wall is a reminder of institutionalized racial segregation in . . . — — Map (db m207681) HM
North Woodward Avenue Congregational Church was built in stages between 1907 and 1929 in the Neo-Gothic style. When the city’s population shifted as a result of the Great Depression of the 1930s and the influx of factory workers during World War II, . . . — — Map (db m173118) HM
The first Polish immigrants came to Detroit during the 1840s. In 1872, 70 Polish families lived in the city. By 1907 when St. Hyacinth Church was founded, Detroit Poles numbered over 60,000 and the majority lived in this vicinity, known as Poletown. . . . — — Map (db m175043) HM
Chapman Abraham
During the French and Indian War (1754-1763), the British took Canada from France and with it possession of French forts in the western Great Lakes region, including Detroit. The post remained an important center of trade . . . — — Map (db m33485) HM
Stone 1:
St. Aubin Park Riverwalk
Glimpses of Detroit's Riverfront History
This walk made possible by:
Friends of Partners
Detroit Recreation Department
Dedicated July 1969
Stone 2:
The Many Names of . . . — — Map (db m33975) HM
Peter Wetherill Stroh (1927-2002) was a Detroit business leader, civic activist and philanthropist. A great grandson of the founder of The Stroh Brewery Company, he became Chairman and CEO of the family business while at the same time maintaining a . . . — — Map (db m33469) HM
This hallowed land was early Detroit. First came the Indians, then Cadillac and French settlers with their Black and Indian slaves. These early Blacks were French speaking Catholics with French names. History recorded that our first Black inhabitant . . . — — Map (db m33483) HM
In 1973, the Federal Communications Commission granted the International Free and Accepted Modern Masons, led by Dr. William V. Banks (1903-1985), a permit to operate UHF television Channel 62 in Detroit. WGPR-TV debuted a few seconds before noon on . . . — — Map (db m172545) HM
In 1831 Israel Bell, a Pekin Village commissioner, gave one acre of land to the village for a cemetery. Originally called Bell Branch Cemetery after the river and the settlement founded by Bell in 1818, its name was changed to Redford Cemetery after . . . — — Map (db m170549) HM
Many fascinating stories are buried here,
of people who built Detroit on their fortunes in lumber, real
estate, cigar-making, seed, and department stores. Established
in 1867 on 250 acres of rural land, Woodmere Cemetery also
became the . . . — — Map (db m159974) HM
