Chitaku Member Username: Chitaku
Post Number: 193 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 68.43.107.72
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 2:24 am: | |
Any one know where I can find the history of local road names? |
Viziondetroit Member Username: Viziondetroit
Post Number: 358 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 68.42.176.190
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 2:49 am: | |
depends... any ones in particular? There are a lot and there are a lot orgins |
Chitaku Member Username: Chitaku
Post Number: 195 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 68.43.107.72
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 2:50 am: | |
im looking for a website maybe with a list |
Jams Member Username: Jams
Post Number: 3172 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 68.79.112.205
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 7:54 am: | |
http://www.geocities.com/histm ich/streetname.html |
Udmphikapbob Member Username: Udmphikapbob
Post Number: 137 Registered: 07-2004 Posted From: 206.81.45.34
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 9:40 am: | |
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. |
Mikeydbn Member Username: Mikeydbn
Post Number: 313 Registered: 04-2004 Posted From: 35.11.191.18
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 10:09 am: | |
Wikipedia Entry - Mile Roads |
Spacemonkey Member Username: Spacemonkey
Post Number: 18 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 63.102.87.27
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 1:50 pm: | |
Where do i find the history of Ryan Road? |
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard
Post Number: 541 Registered: 10-2004 Posted From: 69.242.223.42
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 3:35 pm: | |
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... |
Hamtramck_steve Member Username: Hamtramck_steve
Post Number: 2920 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 136.181.195.65
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 3:42 pm: | |
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. |
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 504 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 207.200.116.139
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 3:44 pm: | |
I think there's still a Williams street, down around Michigan east of W. Gr. Blvd. Used to was, anyway. |
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard
Post Number: 542 Registered: 10-2004 Posted From: 69.242.223.42
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 3:50 pm: | |
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. |
Rustic Member Username: Rustic
Post Number: 2369 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 130.132.177.245
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 3:54 pm: | |
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. |
Rustic Member Username: Rustic
Post Number: 2370 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 130.132.177.245
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 3:58 pm: | |
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. |
Deputy_mayor_2026 Member 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: | |
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. |
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba
Post Number: 3714 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 67.160.138.107
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 4:54 pm: | |
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) |
Missnmich Member Username: Missnmich
Post Number: 508 Registered: 11-2004 Posted From: 70.186.39.150
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 6:40 pm: | |
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? |
Jams Member Username: Jams
Post Number: 3177 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 68.79.99.149
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 6:49 pm: | |
Thanks Missnmich, I had bookmarked that site on one of my computers, but never transferred it to this one. |
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard
Post Number: 544 Registered: 10-2004 Posted From: 69.242.223.42
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 6:52 pm: | |
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" |
Tayshaun22 Member Username: Tayshaun22
Post Number: 107 Registered: 02-2005 Posted From: 69.14.101.116
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 7:09 pm: | |
https://www.atdetroit.net/forum/mes sages/23585/47695.html (Message edited by Tayshaun22 on April 26, 2006) |
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba
Post Number: 3717 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 67.160.138.107
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 9:25 pm: | |
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. |
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 509 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 207.200.116.139
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 9:41 pm: | |
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. |
Rustic Member Username: Rustic
Post Number: 2371 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 130.132.177.245
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 9:47 pm: | |
... 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 ... |
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard
Post Number: 546 Registered: 10-2004 Posted From: 69.242.223.42
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 10:06 pm: | |
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. |
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 511 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 207.200.116.139
| Posted on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 11:04 pm: | |
Good read, Livernoisyard. Thanks. Sounds a little like the MI/OH boundary history. |
Gistok Member Username: Gistok
Post Number: 2023 Registered: 08-2004 Posted From: 4.229.81.118
| Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 12:09 am: | |
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!! |
220hendrie1910 Member Username: 220hendrie1910
Post Number: 18 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 20.137.2.50
| Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 12:23 pm: | |
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. |
Hamtramck_steve Member Username: Hamtramck_steve
Post Number: 2922 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 136.181.195.65
| Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 12:29 pm: | |
"Google Earth puts the IL-WI border near Lake Michigan" No kidding! |
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba
Post Number: 3719 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 67.160.138.107
| Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 2:21 pm: | |
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. |
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba
Post Number: 3720 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 67.160.138.107
| Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 2:24 pm: | |
Attantion Eastsiders, Livernois sounds like Charlevoix. Merci! Pierre FX Charlevoix was an 18th century French priest. jjaba on the Westside. |
Viziondetroit Member Username: Viziondetroit
Post Number: 359 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 65.42.23.2
| Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 3:32 pm: | |
who was Hull Street named after? That's the street I live on |
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard
Post Number: 551 Registered: 10-2004 Posted From: 69.242.223.42
| Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 3:56 pm: | |
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. |
Jams Member Username: Jams
Post Number: 3179 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 70.229.125.181
| Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 7:08 pm: | |
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. |
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba
Post Number: 3723 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 67.160.138.107
| Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 8:50 pm: | |
Who the Hull cares? jjaba, LOL. |
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 512 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 207.200.116.139
| Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 9:01 pm: | |
Mrs. Hull. Ray1936 at 36N 115W. |
Rustic Member Username: Rustic
Post Number: 2374 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 130.132.123.28
| Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 9:37 pm: | |
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. |
Rustic Member Username: Rustic
Post Number: 2375 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 130.132.123.28
| Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 9:57 pm: | |
well ... a bit of surfing and I couldn't quickly find any clear Detroit tie to Addam s/Hull house... |
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba
Post Number: 3726 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 67.160.138.107
| Posted on Friday, April 28, 2006 - 2:23 pm: | |
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. |
Evelyn Member Username: Evelyn
Post Number: 16 Registered: 02-2005 Posted From: 141.217.63.181
| Posted on Friday, April 28, 2006 - 2:55 pm: | |
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. |
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba
Post Number: 3733 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 67.160.138.107
| Posted on Friday, April 28, 2006 - 3:16 pm: | |
Evelyn, welcome to the Forum. Thanks for the great lead. jjaba on the Westside. |