Discuss Detroit » Archives - Beginning January 2006 » History of names of Detroit roads? « Previous Next »
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Chitaku
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Username: Chitaku

Post Number: 193
Registered: 03-2006
Posted From: 68.43.107.72
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 2:24 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Any one know where I can find the history of local road names?
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Viziondetroit
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Username: Viziondetroit

Post Number: 358
Registered: 11-2003
Posted From: 68.42.176.190
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 2:49 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

depends... any ones in particular?

There are a lot and there are a lot orgins
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Chitaku
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Username: Chitaku

Post Number: 195
Registered: 03-2006
Posted From: 68.43.107.72
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 2:50 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

im looking for a website maybe with a list
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Jams
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Username: Jams

Post Number: 3172
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 68.79.112.205
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 7:54 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

http://www.geocities.com/histm ich/streetname.html
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Udmphikapbob
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Username: Udmphikapbob

Post Number: 137
Registered: 07-2004
Posted From: 206.81.45.34
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 9:40 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The 'Detroit Almanac' from the Free Press is a large book with a lot of general history and trivia on the area - including street and place names.
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Mikeydbn
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Username: Mikeydbn

Post Number: 313
Registered: 04-2004
Posted From: 35.11.191.18
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 10:09 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Wikipedia Entry - Mile Roads
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Spacemonkey
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Username: Spacemonkey

Post Number: 18
Registered: 03-2006
Posted From: 63.102.87.27
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 1:50 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Where do i find the history of Ryan Road?
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Livernoisyard
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Username: Livernoisyard

Post Number: 541
Registered: 10-2004
Posted From: 69.242.223.42
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 3:35 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Some trivia about Base Line. This road was used to determine the Wisconsin-Illinois state line. So, if someone asks you for the shortest way to get to WI, tell him to hit 8 Mile and head straight west...
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Hamtramck_steve
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Username: Hamtramck_steve

Post Number: 2920
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 136.181.195.65
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 3:42 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

As for Ryan Road, it was named for the only son of John R Williams, one of Detroit's early mayors.

Mayor Williams used to have two streets named after him, Williams and John R. Only John R remains. Williams was changed.
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 504
Registered: 01-2005
Posted From: 207.200.116.139
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 3:44 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I think there's still a Williams street, down around Michigan east of W. Gr. Blvd. Used to was, anyway.
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Livernoisyard
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Username: Livernoisyard

Post Number: 542
Registered: 10-2004
Posted From: 69.242.223.42
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 3:50 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

John R was named for J R Williams, the first mayor, I believe. Brush was the second mayor, unless I mixed them up.

Because the Williams name was already used for a street name, John R was chosen instead for a street name in his honor. I read somewhere that there were two different Williamses. It's not far from Tiger Stadium and heads north from Michigan Avenue to Myrtle or thereabouts.
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Rustic
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Username: Rustic

Post Number: 2369
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 130.132.177.245
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 3:54 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Jeffries freeway ate up most of Williams St. between GR and Michigan. There are a few disconnectd blocks of Williams Street still around both at Michigan Ave as ray1936 said and a little stump just north of where jeffries turns south offa GR. The signs might not be there but a few blocks remain.
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Rustic
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Username: Rustic

Post Number: 2370
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 130.132.177.245
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 3:58 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

yeah I just checked ... if you google map it you can see what I'm talking about. the little stump to the north is not much of anything, it looks like more on the map than it is for real.
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Deputy_mayor_2026
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Username: Deputy_mayor_2026

Post Number: 21
Registered: 04-2006
Posted From: 152.163.100.8
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 4:17 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I was at the Detroit Historical Museum recently and a lot of the names of local neighborhood streets were named after influential businessmen and political figures such as Hull or Hanna.
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Jjaba
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Username: Jjaba

Post Number: 3714
Registered: 11-2003
Posted From: 67.160.138.107
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 4:54 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Fenkell and Mc Nichols are two of the most interesting names since a lot of Detroiters call those 5 Mile and Six Mile Roads, yet don't say that Davison-Schoolcraft are Four Mile Rd.

Another great example is The Boulevard, AKA Grand Blvd. on the street signs.

"Take Eddie Ford to the Lodge..."

Does anybody in Detroit call it Boul. Mich. like they do in Chicago for Michigan Ave.?

jjaba, still can't forget 12th St. (Rosa Parks)
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Missnmich
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Username: Missnmich

Post Number: 508
Registered: 11-2004
Posted From: 70.186.39.150
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 6:40 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Check out www.historydetroit.com for a good listing of street name origins.

Jjaba, didn't we have a thread a while back where mikem or some other knowledgeable person proved that the Ill/Wisc - 8mile Rd story was an urban myth?
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Jams
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Username: Jams

Post Number: 3177
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 68.79.99.149
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 6:49 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thanks Missnmich,
I had bookmarked that site on one of my computers, but never transferred it to this one.
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Livernoisyard
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Username: Livernoisyard

Post Number: 544
Registered: 10-2004
Posted From: 69.242.223.42
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 6:52 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

For what it's worth:
Where, exactly, is 8 Mile from Eminem's movie "8 Mile" in Detroit?

Answer
(0 ratings) submitted by ggonnigan (A+, 98%, 173 ratings), Aug 17, 05

(Answer last edited on Aug 19, 05)
Eight Mile Road forms the boundary between the city of Detroit, Michigan and its northern suburbs in Oakland and Macomb Counties. The road has long served as a cultural dividing line between the predominantly African-American city and its mostly white suburbs.

8 Mile Road extends west of Detroit and is also the boundary between Wayne and Washtenaw counties on the south and Macomb, Oakland, and Livingston counties on the north. For much of its length, in Wayne County, 8 Mile Road is designated as Michigan State Highway 102.
8 Mile Road is also known as Base Line Road, and marks the baseline used in the survey of Michigan land. It forms the boundary for many southern Michigan counties. An extension of the baseline also forms the boundary line between Illinois and Wisconsin.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8 _Mile_Road"
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Tayshaun22
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Username: Tayshaun22

Post Number: 107
Registered: 02-2005
Posted From: 69.14.101.116
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 7:09 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

https://www.atdetroit.net/forum/mes sages/23585/47695.html

(Message edited by Tayshaun22 on April 26, 2006)
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Jjaba
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Username: Jjaba

Post Number: 3717
Registered: 11-2003
Posted From: 67.160.138.107
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 9:25 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Missnmich, 8 Mile Rd. is Not the same line as the Wisc.-Ill. border. 11 mile Rd. seems to be closest according to MikeM, an airplane pilot.
He knows how to read maps.

jjaba.
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 509
Registered: 01-2005
Posted From: 207.200.116.139
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 9:41 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Okay, someone stand in the middle of Eight Mile road with a GPS unit and give us a read. Then one of our Chicago contacts can straddle the WI/IL boundary and do the same. We'll compare results and settle this for once and for all.

And if they are the same, I ain't never goin' flying with MikeM.
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Rustic
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Username: Rustic

Post Number: 2371
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 130.132.177.245
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 9:47 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

... that's only if you subscribe to the so-called "round earth theory", personally I'm partial to intelligent design: if the good lord sez the WI/IL border is 8mile rd that's the way it is ...
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Livernoisyard
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Username: Livernoisyard

Post Number: 546
Registered: 10-2004
Posted From: 69.242.223.42
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 10:06 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Here's a refrence to the greedy land grab where about one-quarter of a mile of the state of Illinois in South Beloit was commandered by those those rascals in Beloit, Wisconsin:


From Centennial History of the Town of Turtle, 1836-1936
by Annie McLenegan



The full story of the boundary between Wisconsin and Illinois is a humorous one; but it is also sorrowful evidence of the great labor of many, one step at a time, and often over again, in bringing order out of the wilderness. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 provided that a line drawn east and west through the south end of Lake Michigan should be used in creating not more than five states and not less than three out of Northwest Territory. In making Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, what was thought to be this line was used. But it did not “come out right,” and made all kinds of trouble, which resulted in slicings off of and additions to the newly made states to satisfy all concerned. Finally, a mere beaver trapper, who measured by the north star, told both surveyors and political leaders that the end of Lake Michigan was farther south than they thought it was. Congress ordered more surveys; but, when they did find out the correct latitude of the point, in making Wisconsin, they proceeded to disregard it. In order to give Illinois a lake frontage, the boundary line between Illinois and Wisconsin was pushed up to 42 degrees, 30 minutes, which was selected, it would seem, merely “as a good place to stop.”

This line was then ordered surveyed at an early date. At the close of the Black Hawk War, 1832, a survey was made by Lucius Lyon and John Messenger, the former doing the work with little else than a pocket compass and by observation of nature. This line, meant to be a straight east and west line, appears so on all ordinary maps. In reality, it runs from northwest to southeast. The line is much farther north in west Wisconsin and much farther south in the eastern part of the state, beginning at about Beloit, than it should be. Modern surveyors declare the line even zig-zags between the section lines which touch this boundary at every six miles, in both states.

The State Line road runs near what has been accepted as the State Line only a short way out of Beloit to the east. It then leaves the boundary to run north. All early settlers heard the heated discussions about the line. Yet the boundary, however imperfect, was accepted. The pioneers had so much to contend with that, possibly bacause of the great hardship in changing land titles from one state to another, should the boundary be moved, they “let well enough alone.” It is said the Sate Line should pass through Beloit at about the Goodwin Block [State and Grand], instead of through the Wilford Lumber Yards [near State and Shirland], as it does. The village of Bergen in the Town of Clinton is on the line, as it has been left; but the line should go farther north at Bergen. Between the Meech and Egery farms is a bridge over Egery Creek, which marks the supposed State Line.
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 511
Registered: 01-2005
Posted From: 207.200.116.139
Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 11:04 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Good read, Livernoisyard. Thanks.

Sounds a little like the MI/OH boundary history.
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Gistok
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Username: Gistok

Post Number: 2023
Registered: 08-2004
Posted From: 4.229.81.118
Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 12:09 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thanks for the history lesson folks!!

My favorite Detroit street history is in regards to Woodward Ave. When Judge/Territorial Governor Augustus Woodward came up with the new street plan for Detroit after the 1805 fire, he stated that the main thoroughfare going north would be called "Woodward" because it was going to the woods..... Yeah right!! :-)
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220hendrie1910
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Username: 220hendrie1910

Post Number: 18
Registered: 02-2006
Posted From: 20.137.2.50
Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 12:23 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Google Earth puts the IL-WI border near Lake Michigan (as mismeasured by Lyon) a few seconds south of 42°30'N. That puts it somewhere between 11 Mile and 12 Mile, and about 2°47' north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

FWIW in Ottawa.
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Hamtramck_steve
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Username: Hamtramck_steve

Post Number: 2922
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 136.181.195.65
Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 12:29 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"Google Earth puts the IL-WI border near Lake Michigan"

No kidding!
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Jjaba
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Username: Jjaba

Post Number: 3719
Registered: 11-2003
Posted From: 67.160.138.107
Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 2:21 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Livernoisyard, you be the man. On jjaba's map, the Wisc. line does bow a bit at the Beloit Airport which appears to be damn close to Illinois. jjaba asks if he lives in Beloit, does he have to go to Illinois to get margarine?

Also, why do they put the holes in the Swiss cheese when the goddamn Limburger needs the ventilation?

Francis Livernois was a French farmer in the 18th Century.

jjaba, on the Livernois bus at Grand River.
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Jjaba
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Username: Jjaba

Post Number: 3720
Registered: 11-2003
Posted From: 67.160.138.107
Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 2:24 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Attantion Eastsiders, Livernois sounds like Charlevoix. Merci!

Pierre FX Charlevoix was an 18th century French priest.

jjaba on the Westside.
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Viziondetroit
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Username: Viziondetroit

Post Number: 359
Registered: 11-2003
Posted From: 65.42.23.2
Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 3:32 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

who was Hull Street named after? That's the street I live on
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Livernoisyard
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Username: Livernoisyard

Post Number: 551
Registered: 10-2004
Posted From: 69.242.223.42
Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 3:56 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

You always could get margarine in WI, but until the law was changed, you couldn't buy "colored" margarine. However, the margarine maker sent along with the white margarine some beta carotene dye so that you would dye your own. Margarine is naturally white and is dyed yellow.
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Jams
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Username: Jams

Post Number: 3179
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 70.229.125.181
Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 7:08 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)


quote:

who was Hull Street named after?




My first guess would be General William Hull, but that would be very surprising to commerate him.

He was the Commander of Detroit who surrendered to the British during the War of 1812 without firing a shot. He only survived his court martial for that action, due to his service in the Revolutionary War which was exemplary.

Looking at a map of the area with the other street names, I'd have to guess either a landowner or farmer when that area was developed.
Google turned up very little.
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Jjaba
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Username: Jjaba

Post Number: 3723
Registered: 11-2003
Posted From: 67.160.138.107
Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 8:50 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Who the Hull cares?

jjaba, LOL.
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 512
Registered: 01-2005
Posted From: 207.200.116.139
Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 9:01 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Mrs. Hull.

Ray1936 at 36N 115W.
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Rustic
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Username: Rustic

Post Number: 2374
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 130.132.123.28
Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 9:37 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Re Hull St., assuming that the infamous General Hull and Brett Hull are not likely honorees ... I wonder if there is some Detroit tie to the great American Jane Addams and her Hull house in Chicago. The era would be about right to honor an american progressive movement of a generation before with a street name in the early 1900's in a Detroit bursting at the seams with immigrants.
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Rustic
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Username: Rustic

Post Number: 2375
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 130.132.123.28
Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 9:57 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

well ... a bit of surfing and I couldn't quickly find any clear Detroit tie to Addam s/Hull house...
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Jjaba
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Username: Jjaba

Post Number: 3726
Registered: 11-2003
Posted From: 67.160.138.107
Posted on Friday, April 28, 2006 - 2:23 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

jjaba's parents went to Hull House for industrial eduation and Americanization classes. They lived in the Maxwell St. area. Jane Addams was quite a reformer.

jjaba.
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Evelyn
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Username: Evelyn

Post Number: 16
Registered: 02-2005
Posted From: 141.217.63.181
Posted on Friday, April 28, 2006 - 2:55 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

There's a book about road names in Michigan called "A Drive Down Memory Lane" by Le Roy Barnett. I think it covers the whole state, though, not just Detroit.
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Jjaba
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Username: Jjaba

Post Number: 3733
Registered: 11-2003
Posted From: 67.160.138.107
Posted on Friday, April 28, 2006 - 3:16 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Evelyn, welcome to the Forum. Thanks for the great lead.
jjaba on the Westside.

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