A Proposed Walking Tour Part 1 -How Blacks took over already old areas before making $ in Automotive-

OLD DETROIT IMMIGRANT NEIGHBORHOODS show how Blacks took over already old areas before making $ in Automotive. Part one covers where Black Detroiters lived

The following maps embedded here Are Historical  neighborhoods based on descriptions in old books. Black people in Detroit were Redlined and were able to buy only from Jews who tended to buy in areas  bordering the Irish.

"The subdivisions, one to twenty, are the plates of the Robinson and Pidgeon Atlas of the City of Detroit (New York, 1885). The clusters on the map, that is, the blocks and their opposing fronts (see graph two, infra) are the areas of the city sampled for intensive study”  

(  Quote /map below retrieved from the link below retrieved 3/12/19 on the web)

Source: https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/50936/161.pdf?sequence=1

Blah Blah Blah --- keeping it simple...Black people in Detroit were Redlined and were able to buy only from Jews who tended to buy in areas  bordering the Irish.This tendency to shadow the Irish occurred from the river all the way to the 8 mile border as ALL ethnic groups moved from the river mostly moving North all the way to 8 Mile. The trailer park in the movie 8 mile is a Irish /Scottish Enclave in an early Detroit suburb next to the also suburban  neighborhood of Eastpointe (Eastpointe is predominately blacks fleeing Detroit's East side)  
Following the pattern of Jews selling to Blacks: even Aretha Franklin's home was in the NON WASP part of Bloomfield Hills.Very old money families or Automotive Company founders) either live in Bloomfield Hills or the Grosse Pointes

Colors on the map are explained in the box below:

You can see Grand River, Michigan, Gratiot, Woodward & Jefferson.  Not all the streets touched  Woodward which is known as the main street that divides Detroiters into East-siders and Westsiders EAST and WEST GRAND BLVD did not exist yet and when they did finally happen they were  important in forming the city boundary   “White and Black American families were solidly  clustered in their neighborhood of the "walking city".  Yet other whites  often shared their neighborhoods with other- English speaking groups,  English Canadians and immigrants from England who were also Protestants and frequently white -collar workers as well.”In Detroit, these groups were highly mobile due to the economy.  Obviously, blacks shared neighborhoods with no one because of redlining.  In any case, Black neighborhoods were especially walkable.   The walking city is considered the River to 2 and ½ miles in any one direction A fun walk  would be to superimpose this 1880 map with a current one reflecting the walking city . As for the neighborhoods in this map “Some have been replaced by highways, as in the early  German quarter, or almost completely vacated as in the early Polish area.  INDUSTRIAL ZONE   outlined in yellow on the map below is the first zone freed blacks                       worked within a warehouse economy in Detroit Neghboorhoods are not clearly defined in Detroit. Most people identify as East siders or West Siders. Others who have maintained ties to areas such  as the old Irish Corktown area usually have  parents who refused to move from the original enclave.. The Irish area( Fastest gentrifiying  area in the city) OUTLINED in GREEN went as far as the Woodbridge border at Grand river /3rd street and went down to Jefferson. Only its border became a black neighboorhood. Rosa Parks Blvd. is still the western border aka 12th street (The 1967 Riot started there) Blacks moved to the  West Side after the old French Farms west of the Grosse Pointes got  re-developed into industry. When rail/shore connections stopped providing jobs (see outlined yellow zone) the last wave of the Great Migration occurred. This post WW2 wave was all about Automotive jobs, whereas theWW2 wave was all about Detroit being  the Arsenal of Democracy. So Black Bottom  (The place name initially carried no racial connotation)/Paradise Valley got very packed. Population swelled from   41,000 to 120,000. Black Bottom /Paradise Valley was destroyed by the post-war recession of the mid-1950s.   Urban renewal based on  Freeways starting @1959 delivered the final blow, following  the physical razing of houses in 1954. The Savoyard River ran through the area known as Black Bottom (Fond Noir).  The fertile land was named by the original eighteenth-century French land grant  owners. The area was notable for its dark, rich topsoil. In 1827, the river became  part of the Detroit sewer system and was bricked over, covered with fill dirt, and built over. The place name initially carried no racial connotation.  https://fornology.blogspot.com/2016/01/detroits-lost-neighborhoods-black.html The early German Neighborhood that became the first black neighborhood  was cut in ½ by Chrysler Freeway, finished in 1964. The west service drive of Chrysler FWY used to be Hastings  Street aka the main drag of Black Bottom/Paradise Valley in the post  WW1 period. Post WW2 it was mostly black people who  lived here Germans could be found as far as Canton street which is 2  or 3 streets behind  East Grand Blvd near the Packard Plant 1903-1958.   Every ethnic group moved north. I,  Margaret spent my 2nd and 3rd year on Canton Street  Typical houses below  Note the empty spaces houses used to be a lot closer together. and I remember Mom walking by the closed Packard Plant with me on my orange tricycle and my  sister Alice in the baby buggy. The block I lived on was @ 5400-5500 Canton; no houses are there  now. Wood does not last too long. Even the church I was baptized in- a huge cathedral called St Catherine, is now a consolidated  St. Augustine and St. Monica Roman Catholic Church. SO as blacks  moved north in Detroit, the neighborhoods literally ceased to exist. When the Germans, Polish, and Russians moved the famous Detroit black neighborhoods  of Black Bottom/Paradise Valley formed  .https://detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/paradise-valley Residential Black Bottom formed between Hastings street and Orleans street starting  from Gratiot in the shadow of Downtown and going as far as Vernor street  The FORD FIELD  area was akin to the Harlem's 125th street/Lenox ave nexus, but went all the way  downtown bordering present day GreekTown and the Greektown Casino. One happenng  place was called Club Congo. Check out the menu. No kidding the original name was the Plantation Club. After 1943 riots whites avoided thearea.Not sure if the name changed as a result. Thank you Detroit Historical Society for the images. There is more here: see link belowhttps://detroithistorical.pastperfectonline.com/archive/4B061B50-C66F-4FED-959B-868338482440 Before WW1, Downtown Detroit was the terminal of the Underground  Railroad .       Freed blacks hung around these streets       (Black Bottom)  see area bounded by  black and red arrows       Paradise Valley see blue arrows but when both neighborhoods were razed         the blacks moved to 12th street (old Jewish neighboorhood)       above  the original Irish Neighborhood (Corktown)  The map shows  no traces of old black settlements. A block downtown in the Harmonie Park Area  just above Greektown is being restored as a part of Paradise Valley  however  read more about it in the link below https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/2016/06/28/detroit-paradise-valley/86492244/ More exciting is having the native Detroiter know the secrets like this example: #1 Eckardt and Becker Brewery at Winder and Orleans (the Northern edge of the Eastern Market)  is now lofts. These are  warehouses where free blacks labored for pay  --1551 Winder street #2  Strohs Brewery at Elizabeth and Gratiot streets is now home to a Scotch making enterprise.  Tasting tours for Detroit City Distillery are available as are tours of the old Strohs Ice Cream factory  (Prohibition meant Strohs made ice cream instead) The entire Gothic factory from 351 Rivard to 2001 Rivard street feels like it belongs in Europe.  Beer is being made again Old style Strohs in small batches thanks to its owner Pabst  It is more flavorable than any beer made here in recent memory and supermarkets run out all the time The Dequindre Cut .is a rail trail that can be strolled, walked, jogged skated biked and appreciated  for its oversized art gallery feel and overall hipness. Container pop up stores and cool people meet urban repurposed space. This cut was the original border of the Black Bottom neighborhood see red arrow on the map. Runs for @ 2.3 miles to the river where the train used to go. #3  Old Russian neighborhood is covered by the Chrysler/ Fischer Freeway interchange                                                                                    #3                               #2                  #1 How cool is the Dequindre Cut walk along the old eastern edge of Black Bottom ?  Well it's cool enough to eat all along the way or chow down at Eastern Market or the food trucks on the riverfront.  Click here https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g42139-d4961061-Reviews-Dequindre_Cut-Detroit_Michigan.html Art at the Market is extra sized Commissioned Murals by artists like Patch Whisky New Murals go up every spring