Detroit Archives - Page 2 of 3

Where Faygo Comes From

Posted on August 30, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Detroit .

I was roaming around Detroit getting pics of old fire houses when I came upon the Faygo Bottling Plant on Gratiot Ave. I took a pic of it with no intention of ever posting it but I figure since Labor Day is coming up why not post a pic of a plant in Detroit that’s not abandoned. I love buying stuff made in Michigan and I like seeing where its made, my kids always get annoyed with my when we are driving somewhere and I point out different factories like Flint Truck and Bus ” that’s where the trucks are built” or the Jiffy Mix mill in Chelsea “that’s where the cornbread comes from” I wish I could point out more places where things are made instead of ” used to be built”

What are your favorite Michigan Products? I would love to know in the comments below

P.S. In case you don’t hear from me before then, have a safe and relaxing Labor Day Weekend, and thank you for following me and reading my posts.

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The Old Engine 4 Firehouse in Detroit

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Detroit, Fire Houses .

I had already taken pics of the oldest church in Michigan (Ste Anne De Detroit, you can see my pic HERE) on a previous trip to Detroit and did not plan on taking more but when I was in the neighborhood I saw the twin steeples of the church looking out over the trees and the houses and decided since I was near there why not get a few more pics. I headed over there from a different direction than last time, and that is when I saw the old firehouse sitting near the church, as if the the tall steeples were watching over it, and protecting it all these years. The numbers 1897 displayed between the doors gave away the year it was built but I found out the DFD stopped using the old firehouse in 1976. It’s still standing with it’s magnificent brickwork like you will never see on a new building. Looking at it, I can only imagine the firefighters going from a horse drawn apparatus, to an early primitive motorized firetruck, and then on to a post WWII truck with the fireman riding on the back, but the station was passed by in the 70’s before it could get a new modern fire truck.

P.S. thank you to all the firefighters who answer the call for help, It takes a special kind of person to run into a burning building.

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The Unbelievable Transformation of the Ransom Gillis House in Detroit

Posted on July 13, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Detroit, Houses .

I finally got a chance to get a pic of the famous Ransom Gillis house in the Brush Park neighborhood of Detroit. This is the house that Nicole Curtis renovated for her HGTV show. I was down in Detroit a few years ago but I never took a pic of this house before Nicole started working on it. I did find a photo of it on Wikipedia from 2005, and it’s unbelievable how bad of shape the house was in before the restoration. I see beautiful old historic houses thought the state, but they are in need of serious restoration. I get a lot of comments that they are “too far gone” but I know a lot can be done, if someone is willing to do it. Money wise, it’s up for debate if it’s worth the investment to restore an old home, but it’s hard to put a price on history. you can build a new house, but you can build a new historic house.

The Ransom Gillis House in 2005: wikipedia

The Ransom Gillis House was built in 1876 at a cost of $12,000 for Ransom Gillis, a wholesale dry goods merchant. The property was sold by Gillis in 1880. The house and property passed though the hands of four different upper-income families between 1876 and 1919. After this time, the main structure was converted into a rooming house, along with most of the other structures on the street. The carriage house behind the structure was rented by Mary Chase Perry Stratton in 1903, becoming the first home of Pewabic Pottery (which you can read about in my post HERE). The pottery moved in 1906, and the carriage house was then occupied by an auto repair shop, a battery service shop, and finally a filling station, before being torn down and replaced by a restaurant in 1935. The restaurant operated until the 1960s and was demolished in 2005/2006, as part of the city’s “mothballing” work on the property.

The Ransom Gillis House brought to Detroit the Venetian Gothic style, made popular by John Ruskin’s book The Stones of Venice. The centerpiece of the structure is the turret situated in the front left corner, the circumference of which is accented by five rows of tiles of simple geometric designs in hues of bright blue, red, yellow, and brown. Similar tile work was spread throughout the rest of the structure. The base of the turret is decorated with stone carvings of quadruplets of flower blossoms, similar but all slightly different. The turret was supported from below by an ornate stone post. Dark ornately carved wood columns enclosed the porch at the entrance to the house. Lastly, a steep, dark slate mansard roof with ornate iron cresting completed the peaks in a traditional detail of the day

I hope to someday see the Ammi Wright house in Alma restored HERE or the Sleeper Mansion in Bad Axe HERE or the Cat Lady House in Saginaw HERE

P.S. I watched the Batman Vs Superman movie to see the house in the movie before it was renovated. they showed if for a few seconds. (There’s 3 house of my life I will never get back.)

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Detroit Fire Department’s Engine House No. 23

Posted on June 22, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Detroit, Fire Houses .

Over on Detroit’s North East side sits the Engine House #23. I could not find much info about it, but I like the unique looking round windows at the top. they are like a couple of eyes watching over the neighborhood.

The last photo I posted of a firehouse in Detroit HERE, someone left me a nasty comment about how it’s horrible that I am posting nice photos of Detroit, giving people the wrong impression of the city, as if there is nothing nice in Detroit. Yes it has its problems just like a lot of large cities, but that does not mean there are good places in Detroit. I guess we choose what we want to see. I doubt that a couple photos of mine are gonna change the opinion of a lot of people who have seen a bazzillion ( yes that’s a technical term) photos of Detroit’s decay and “ruin porn” but I sure would not mind if it does.

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The James Scott Castle in Detroit

Posted on March 31, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Detroit, Forgotten Places .

This is the James Scott residence on the corner of Peterboro and Park in the Midtown District in Detroit. James Scott’s father also named James Scott was a prominent business man in Detroit and when he died in the 1870’s he gave a large fortune to his son. He built this house in 1887, but from what I read Mr Scott was not the most well respected person in Detroit. When he built his house he wanted to purchase the property south of his, when the owner would not sell it to him he built a giant wall to block the sun from reaching his neighbors house, that is supposedly why the south wall has no windows.

when he died in 1910 he left the city $200,000. to build a fountain and stipulated that there needs to be a statue of him. Many of the citizens did not want to build the fountain because of the stipulation and felt he was not worthy of a statue. Some pointed out that he apparently never worked a day in his life and was best known for the time he spent in downtown bars. eventually it was decided to spend his money and expand Belle Isle and build a fountain.

the home eventually was converted into apartments then suffered from a fire in the 70’s and was left abandoned, A developer is in the process of converting it into condominiums. you can read about it HERE. I am looking forward to getting an “after” photo of the restoration to go with this “before” pic from a few years ago.

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The Stadium at Michigan and Trumbull

Posted on April 5, 2015 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Detroit, Historic Places .

The corner of Michigan and Trumbull has had a few names over the years and you can tell how old someone is by what they called it. For my Dad, it’s Brigg’s Stadium, to me it was Tiger Stadium. I have never been to the new stadium, I am sure it’s a nice stadium and is similar to several other modern stadiums around the country, but you will never get that sense of history walking into a new stadium like you did walking into the old Stadium on Michigan and Trumbull.

To be honest with you, I could not tell you the last time I watched a Tiger’s game on TV, my dad probably could not tell you when he missed a Tiger’s game. As we get older, memories from our youth fade away, but there are some memories that will live with us forever.

I remember in the late 70’s my dad loading the family up in the Olds 88 and taking a trip down 75 from Saginaw to Detroit. Back then, there was not much parking around the stadium, either that, or my dad was too cheap to pay for parking, and I remember parking in a neighborhood across the highway. I remember taking the walkway over the highway and as you crest the center you see that enormous white stadium, with the lights protruding from the roof. I remember passing those gates surrounding the Stadium and looking up at the towering white walls, inside the stadium was the distinct aroma of popcorn and beer. Finding our way around the stadium to our seats and traversing huge steal beams and girders and finally heading towards the light coming from one of the openings, like the light from the heavens, of which we walked into revealing perfectly manicured field and rows of green wooden seats. I think that is the thing I like most about Tiger Stadium, was the fact it was an old man made structure built during the Industrial revolution and made with bricks and steel which personified Detroit’s magnificent manufacturing history. And yet in the middle of this industrial jungle was a beautiful oasis of green grass.

When I got to Michigan and Trumbull this summer, the gate was left open, I don’t know if was intentionally or incidentally, but either way I went onto the field and it was a strange feeling standing there at home plate knowing this was where Kirk Gibson hit the homerun in game 5 of the 84 world series. It was sad looking at the mound that Mark Fidrych groomed with his own hands. Now all that is left is a Flagpole and Diamond, surrounded by dandelions instead of rows of seats filled with cheering fans.

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Detroit’s Castle

Posted on October 26, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Detroit .

This castle that sits near downtown Detroit was the former Eighth Precinct Police Station building located on Grand River Avenue in the Woodbridge Historic District of Detroit, Michigan. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1973 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

The Eighth Precinct Police Station is the second-oldest police building in Detroit. It was designed by Louis Kamper and built between 1900 and 1901, for a cost of $46,000. The station was originally built as part of the Second Precinct, but in 1910 was renumbered to become part of the Eighth Precinct. Starting in 1954, the Detroit Police Youth Bureau used the station as office space; the buildings were later used by the Detroit Police Personnel Division. In 2013, the building was converted to lofts, as part of the ongoing revitalization of Woodbridge.

Kamper designed the French Renaissance Châteauesque station in two structures connected by an arcade; the main building was used as office space, while the smaller one functioned initially as a carriage house and later as a garage. The station is constructed of limestone on the first floor and brick on the second, and is topped with a side-gable roof. The façade boasts parapet walls and four corner towers with conical roofs.

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the James Scott Castle Residence

Posted on August 10, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Detroit, Houses .

I kinda have this rule that I wont post any “Ruin Porn” in Detroit but I also have been taking photos of Castles in Michigan, so this one is kind of a dilemma, but since you are looking at this photo, you can figure out that I have decided to post it. I think it’s too important of a house, not to post.

This is the James Scott residence on the comer of Peterboro and Park in the Midtown District. James Scott’s father also named James Scott was a prominent business man in Detroit and when he died in the 1870’s he gave a large fortune to his son. He built this house in 1887 but from what I read Mr Scott was not the most well respected person in Detroit. When he built his house he wanted to purchase the property south of his, when the owner would not sell it to him he built a giant wall to block the sun from reaching his neighbors house, that is supposedly why the south wall has no windows.

the home eventually was converted into apartments then suffered from a fire in the 70’s and was left abandoned, recently a developer has plans to spend 7 million dollars and converting it into condominiums. you can read about it HERE

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The Magnificent Hurlbut Memorial Gate in Detroit

Posted on July 11, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Detroit, Historic Places .

When Detroit Grocer Chauncey Hurlbut died in 1885, he willed the bulk of his fortune, some $250,000, to beautify Waterworks Park on Jefferson Ave. The architectural philosophies of the era called for construction of monumental gates at the entrances to public places and part of Hurlbut’s fortune was used to construct just such a gate.

Herman A. Brede and Gustave Mueller were chosen to design this gate at a cost of $30,000. The structure is a three tiered triumphal arch, 132 feet (40 m) in length, 40 feet (12 m) in depth, and over 50 feet (15 m) high, built from limestone.It is decorated with carved garlands, water fonts and roundels, and an American eagle with outstretched wings tops the entire structure. Two stairways lead to a terrace twelve feet above the ground.

The gate originally featured a statue of Chauncey Hurlbut inside the center dome, and an ornamental iron gate for vehicle entry, but both are now gone. The gate was substantially restored in 2007, with damaged limestone repaired or replaced, a stairway reconfiguration, repair of the eagle sculpture, and repair and replacement of light fixtures.

The Oldest Church in Michigan

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches, Detroit, Historic Places .

I like posting photos of churches around Michigan since in many places churches are central to the community, it’s where people are married, baptized, and remembered at the end of their life. When I posted a photo of St. Stephens church in Hamburg the historical Marker said it was the oldest church building still operating in Michigan. But it got me to do some research to find out what the oldest church in Michigan is. When I found Ste Anne de D’etroit and read it’s history it struck me how important this church is, not only to the local community, but to the state of Michigan.

founded July 26, 1701 Ste. Anne’s original church was the first building constructed in Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, which later grew into the city of Detroit. Ste Anne’s is the second oldest continuously operating Roman Catholic parish in the United States with parish records dating back to 1704. From 1833 to 1844, Ste. Anne’s was the Cathedral Church for the diocese of Michigan and the Northwest. The church also has the oldest stained glass in Detroit.

In the Early 1800s Father Gabriel Richards, started a school that evolved into the University of Michigan. Started the First newspaper The Michigan Essay or Impartial Observer. From 1823 to 1825 Richard was Michigan Territory’s delegate to the United States Congress. As a delegate, he was instrumental in gaining support for the Territorial Road, which linked Detroit and Chicago

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