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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 956
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Sunday, December 03, 2006 - 4:42 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Following the story of the Ransom Gillis home got me curious as to what I would find about it and him in the 1900 census. So I booted it up on Ancestry.com (subscription service, sorry), and found the following.

In 1900, Ransom Gillis was living at 69 Alfred Street (before the re-numbering of addresses about 1918) with his wife, Ella, and 26-yr old son, Gaylord. Two servants are also in the home. Ransom states he was born in December, 1838, in New York state. Ella is ten years younger and was born in Michigan. Ransom shows himself as a Merchant in Wholesale Dry Goods; his son works for him as a clerk. Ella states she has had four children, two of whom are still living.

His neighbor at 77 Alfred is a widow, Hannah McLaughlin, who lives with a married son and his family along with one servant. His neighbor on the other side at 63 Alfred is Alanson Fox and his family, a Lumberman.

I see no familiar names on that block on Alfred Street, but all are well-to-do businessmen with servants in the homes. But how I would have loved to have visited in those magnificent homes in their prime!
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Leland_palmer
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Post Number: 195
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Posted on Sunday, December 03, 2006 - 4:56 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thanks for sharing that Ray.
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Kathleen
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Username: Kathleen

Post Number: 1759
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Posted on Sunday, December 03, 2006 - 7:43 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hannah McLaughlin's grandson Russell McLauchlin was the Talk of the Town columnist for the Detroit News and, in 1946, published a book of his columns reminiscing about growing up on Alfred Street.

One chapter is devoted to his grandmother. Here's an excerpt:

"When my grandmother died, her funeral was conducted by Dr. Jennings, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, and Dr. Jennings pronounced a phrase which all of the neighbors agreed was completely fitting. He called her "the guardian angel of Alfred Street."

She looked nothing like a stained-glass angel, being short and comfortable and bearing a resemblance, which everybody noted, to Queen Victoria. Her conversation was humorous and salty and rich in anecdote; sometimes racy anecdote. She sprinkled it with the Gaelic, for she was a Canadian-born Scotswoman, a McDonald, and she used to call me "bhodaich oich," which means, I think, something like "little old man."

Her first name was Hannah and she was called Aunt Hannah by almost everybody in the Woodward Avenue section of old Detroit. She was skilled at making cookies, with 13 scallops on their circumference, and these were known as Aunt Hattie's Cookies.

...whenever any sort of crisis or disaster visited any household on Alfred Street, the first foot to step over the threshold was Aunt Hannah's. When someone returned from a journey, the first neighbor's face to appear in welcome was hers.

..it has always seemed to me that the decline of Alfred Street, as such, began when she died. It was still elm-shaded and tranquil and neighborly, no doubt. But the principal cohesive agency was gone.
..."

McLauchlin, Russell. Alfred Street. Detroit: Conjure House, 1946. 102pp. Issued in a slipcased first edition of 999 copies, each one signed and numbered by the author. Mine is #17 and it is further inscribed to someone who is obviously close to the family. This book also features illustrations by Detroit artist William Bostick who has been painting and drawing Detroit scenes for over 50 years.

Ray1936: Hope you enjoyed this add-on to your research!
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Kathinozarks
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Post Number: 53
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Sunday, December 03, 2006 - 8:41 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Kathleen,
Thank you so much for sharing this! I now know almost exactly what that street used to be. Nice.:-)
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 960
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Posted on Sunday, December 03, 2006 - 11:14 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Fascinating, Kathleen! Russell is in that 1900 census: Here's the details on that page:

Hannah McLaughlin, Head, b. 1830
Isabell McLaughlin, Daughter, Single, b. 1854
James A. McLaughlin, Son, Married, b. 1855
Emma McLaughlin, Daughter in Law, Married, b. 1870
Russell McLaughlin, Grandson, b. 1894
Mary Doyle, Servant, b. 1860

Hannah and her children were all born in Canada, but Russell was born in Michigan.

And Russell, who would become a journalist and family historian, was but six years old on that census.
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Ray1936
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Post Number: 961
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Posted on Sunday, December 03, 2006 - 11:25 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Went back in time from 1900 to find her again in the 1880 census (1890 census was destroyed by fire). She was a widow back then also. Here's how that entry looks:
1880
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Lowell
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Post Number: 3369
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Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 12:29 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Nice finds Ray and Kathleen! Thanks.

Ransom Gillis House March 2006
Ransom Gillis
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Lowell
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Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 12:38 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Detroit Rises!
Ransom Gillis House in August 2001.
Ransom Gillis House
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Lowell
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Post Number: 3371
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Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 12:56 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

First Presbyterian Church in Detroit, Michigan May 2005
First Presbyterian Church in Detroit, Michigan
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Mplsryan
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Username: Mplsryan

Post Number: 142
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Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 1:42 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Do we have a more current photo of the house? how is work progressing?
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Kathleen
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Username: Kathleen

Post Number: 1761
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Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 6:48 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

This photo was also taken in March 2006:
RGillisMarch2006

To my knowledge, there's no current rehabilitation work going on. The city simply wanted to stabilize the house while waiting for its turn and/or opportunity to be rehabbed and renovated.
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Allman7
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Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 9:24 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I took these in October. First and third Ransom Gillis and the middle pic is of the Presbyterian Church. I have a few more of brush park and the church if anyone would like to see them.





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Wpitonya
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Username: Wpitonya

Post Number: 32
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Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 11:17 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I would love to see the pictures of current brush park!
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Cman710
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Username: Cman710

Post Number: 45
Registered: 07-2006
Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 1:55 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Me, too.

I was there in August, and the Ransom Gillis house looked the same as above. Currently, the city owns it, right?
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Hornwrecker
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Username: Hornwrecker

Post Number: 1706
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Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 6:30 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The 1921 Sanborn shows the old address as 65 Alfred and the new one as 205. Most of the neighborhood is identified as being rooming houses.

Ransom Gillis house 1921
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Ptero
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Username: Ptero

Post Number: 63
Registered: 12-2005
Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 6:50 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I took a look last week. It looks like nothing has happened since the pictures above were taken...
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Cman710
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Username: Cman710

Post Number: 50
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Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 9:10 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hornwrecker,
Where do those sketches come from? I've seen other people post similar ones, but I am not familiar with what they are.
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Hornwrecker
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Username: Hornwrecker

Post Number: 1707
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Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 9:31 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

They are from the Sanborn Fire Insurance maps at UMich; they are available online, but you need a password from your local library, if they subscribe to the service.
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Cman710
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Username: Cman710

Post Number: 51
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Posted on Monday, December 04, 2006 - 10:40 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

OK, thanks. I am not from Michigan, so I don't know that I could get the maps. If I ever need to get one, I'll be in touch with a friendly forum-er like you or call UMich.
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Jdkeepsmiling
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Username: Jdkeepsmiling

Post Number: 134
Registered: 01-2006
Posted on Tuesday, December 05, 2006 - 2:41 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

What is going on with First Pres.???
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Michmeister
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Username: Michmeister

Post Number: 27
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Posted on Tuesday, December 05, 2006 - 5:21 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Just wondering what it would cost to build a house / mansion identical to that baby.Anybody out there with a ballpark figure?
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 965
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Posted on Tuesday, December 05, 2006 - 6:21 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Cost would be the least of the problems; finding stonemasons that could do this kind of work would be extremely difficult.
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Supersport
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Post Number: 10979
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Posted on Tuesday, December 05, 2006 - 6:36 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)


quote:

Cost would be the least of the problems; finding stonemasons that could do this kind of work would be extremely difficult.




You'd be amazed by the work I have seen these local Mexican crews do. One of the most recent projects was a neighborhood garage. Quite possibly one of the most amazing urban garages I've ever seen. They even implemented a Pewabic tile border into it's exterior facade.