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Images of Detroit

By Daniel Leventhal | Published February 10, 2018

Images of Detroit. As you will see in this set, it’s a city of contrasts. That’s for sure.

Decay and rebirth are paired words I see a lot when people write about Detroit. I experienced a lot of that during my visit in fall 2016. Shocking, breathtaking urban decline and the most exciting rebuilding, restoration and reinvention all mixed together.

You can see all this for yourself in this black and white set. Bear with me as I include a few more pics than I normally do in a post. There’s a lot to look at there.

There is much written about Detroit’s rise, fall and now slow but deliberate return. I am just going to throw out a few facts and leave it at that. It’s important to see these photos in context.

One fact jumps out when I read about Detroit, and that is its precipitous population decline: according to Wikipedia Detroit reached its population peak in the 1950 census at over 1.8 million people. As of the 2010 census, however, the city has just over 700,000 residents. That’s a total loss of 61% of the population. The 2016 estimated population was 672,795

Another fact that stands out is that it’s a huge city. 139 square miles. There’s a lot of infrastructure to maintain in a city with the economic setbacks and population losses Detroit has experienced. The reality is that it hasn’t been fully maintaining it.

Abandoned houses and empty lots are everywhere. Parts of the city look like a ghost town. I read that in 2010 the mayor put forth a plan to bulldoze an astounding one quarter of the city. The idea is to concentrate Detroit’s remaining population into certain areas to improve the delivery of essential city services. The first comprehensive analysis of the city’s abandoned and dilapidated buildings took place in the spring of 2014 and found that around 50,000 of the city’s 261,000 structures were abandoned, with over 9,000 structures bearing fire damage. Incredible.

Many write about the Detroit comeback. There are huge challenges as it climbs out of its deep hole. Not just urban clearing and renewal but also (among other things) improving the city’s finances, job creation, stopping population flight, improving the underperforming schools and very importantly reducing its very high crime rate.

Once again Forbes has named Detroit as the most dangerous city in the United States – a dubious distinction it has earned for a number of years.

Zillow states that the current median home value in Detroit is $44,400. Detroit home values have gone up 19.4% over the past year, and Zillow predicts they will rise 6.0% within the next year. The median rent price in Detroit is $775, which is lower than the Detroit Metro median of $1,025.

The Downtown and Midtown real estate is hot, and values are significantly higher there and also in several of the historic residential districts such as Sherwood Forest and Palmer Woods. The commercial districts are being rehabilitated in the center city. Millennials are moving in. Hipsters abound. New businesses are being formed (like Shinola). The Big Three automakers are doing better. It’s looking up in Motown, but based on what I saw, they seem to have a long way to go.

It’s certainly a fascinating place.  As I said in an earlier post, I’ll be back.

There’s almost unlimited stuff to do and see. And great photography.

Once again a big shout out to my Michigan friends Todd and Terri for showing me around during part of my stay there and for inviting me to a game at the Big House, i.e. Michigan Stadium, to see some University of Michigan (American) football in Ann Arbor. Go Big Blue! That’s one big stadium – in fact, it’s the largest stadium in the United States.

In this set we’ll start out in historic Corktown, which is said to be the oldest surviving neighborhood in Detroit. Well, barely surviving as far as I can tell. That’s abandoned Michigan Central Station in Corktown, once the main intercity passenger rail depot for Detroit. Tiger Stadium used to be there (friends and family outside the US, the Detroit Tigers baseball team played there).

Thence to the New Center area where the Fisher, New Center and General Motors buildings (all by famed Detroit architect Albert Kahn) are located. Read more about the Detroit Future City think tank here. 

The New Center grouping is followed by a quick stop at the Motown Museum (sadly, closed on the day I went by with my friends), located on West Grand Boulevard near New Center, and then some Midtown Detroit photos. Brush Park in Midtown was once a very upscale 19th century neighborhood and was known as “Little Paris.” It is extremely blighted but signs of a comeback exist. I saw a few restored buildings surrounded by ruins. When I was slowly cruising the area with my friends a police car pulled up to check in with us. I can’t remember the exact words used but basically it was a “heads up” stop. It was duly noted. I have been told that it is much safer around there than it used to be.

Brush Park is said to be one of Detroit’s most derelict areas. Based on my limited explorations in the Motor City, I won’t argue with that characterization. During the 19th century, around 300 homes were built in Brush Park, including 70 Victorian mansions; at present, about 80 original structures remain in the area. Much of the damage to (and loss of) the structures is from extensive arson and vandalism.

A note to readers: I don’t seek out “ruin destinations” – there’s much else I would rather photograph – and I don’t derive any great pleasure from ruin photography. When I am trying to tell a story, as with Detroit and my other Rust Belt photography, however, I do photograph it (but take great care if and when I photograph people, if at all). This link has some more Brush Park pix. and so does this one (with some a bit of commentary about “ruin porn” photography).

Read about the Heidelberg urban art project here.  In the Brush Park set there is a building with an installation.

In this set we’ll also see a few other historic residential neighborhoods, including the Boston-Edison District, the East Ferry Avenue Historic District and Palmer Woods. It’s not all blighted. The historic houses (and mansions) are flat out gorgeous.

There’s a grouping of photos taken in the Eastern Market area. I am planning to do one or two more Detroit posts so stay tuned. One will likely be about Eastern Market and the street art there.

The next grouping consists of a few shots taken in the downtown. The historic architecture there was simply stunning. There are so many surviving vintage buildings. Dan Gilbert and his real estate company Bedrock are making a huge impact downtown Detroit’s comeback.  He’s been purchasing and renovating a number of buildings in the downtown.  Gilbert, founder of mortgage giant Quicken Loans and a major developer, is also involved with other initiatives and projects there too (and not just in the downtown), including residential.  Another future post will be about Detroit architecture – why are you not surprised about that?

We’ll briefly return to the Milwaukee Junction area (the first Detroit post a few weeks ago included some of the historic factory buildings there). We will also make a stop in Lafayette Park for some mid-century architecture: two residential towers and some town homes by none other than Ludwig Mies van der Rohe himself. For a more complete set covering his Detroit (and New York) work go to my other site here. 

We’ll drive out East Jefferson past some extensive urban blight on our way to Grosse Point where I had a huge calorie filled breakfast with my friends at the Original Pancake House. On the way back in we stopped at the Pewabic Pottery National Historic Landmark site along the Jefferson Corridor. Arts & Crafts movement aficionados will be familiar with it and its founder Mary Chase Perry Stratton. Read more here if you find yourself in Detroit and would like to visit. Read also more here for a peek inside.

Finally we’ll end our photographic tour on Belle Isle at the park. This was one of my favorite places in Detroit. It’s a jewel. A bit of a faded jewel but wonderful nonetheless. This huge urban park gave me as good a sense as any of what the grandeur and wealth of Detroit at its height must have been like. It looks across to Canada. Click through to this website and you can see exactly how close it is to Windsor, Canada. 

Enough purple prose. Let’s look at some pix and start exploring together. Some people, some architecture, some cityscapes. Above all the contrasts I talked about above.