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Dday
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Username: Dday

Post Number: 866
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Thursday, December 28, 2006 - 4:11 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

My wife lived some of her childhood in Delray and went to Morley Elementary. We tried to find the school a couple weeks ago, but couldn't. Is it still there? Also, we were talking on our drive home from NY yesterday and she was mentioning a soap factory that blew up near Morley around 1965-1966 and caused quite a bit of damage in the area. Many windows blown out, kids hurt in school. She was in attendance that day at Morley. She didn't remember much about the blast other than it happened and it was at the soap factory. Anyone have any details on this or remember it?

(Message edited by D-Day on December 28, 2006)
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Danny
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Username: Danny

Post Number: 5343
Registered: 02-2004
Posted on Thursday, December 28, 2006 - 5:46 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Dday,

Morley Elementary is long gone and McMillan Elementary is vacant 5 years ago.
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Danny
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Username: Danny

Post Number: 5344
Registered: 02-2004
Posted on Thursday, December 28, 2006 - 5:48 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Most of the homes, businesses and manufacturing jobs in Delray is all gone. Delray today is being called the forgotten sub-division in Southwest Detroit.
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Dday
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Username: Dday

Post Number: 867
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Thursday, December 28, 2006 - 8:10 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

bump
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Dday
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Username: Dday

Post Number: 869
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Thursday, December 28, 2006 - 8:36 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

So if Morley is gone....where was it? I'd like to look it up on Google Earth.
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Jman
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Username: Jman

Post Number: 4
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Friday, December 29, 2006 - 7:49 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

My wife lived a block away from Wayne Soap Factory but doesn't remember it blowing up. She said that Morley was a block or two away but doesn't remember the street name. That was in the Keller/Dearborn area.
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Dday
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Username: Dday

Post Number: 870
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Saturday, December 30, 2006 - 3:05 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

bump again
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Barnesfoto
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Username: Barnesfoto

Post Number: 2895
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Saturday, December 30, 2006 - 10:51 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The abandoned McMillian elementary, and open to trespass last time I passed by, was built in the late 1800s. It is, perhaps, the most beautiful building in Delray...would make great lofts, if each unit came with an air filtration device to filter out the stink of Zug Island and the sewage treatment facility.
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Mikem
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Username: Mikem

Post Number: 2932
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, January 02, 2007 - 11:47 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Morley Elementary, 1120 Beaumont

I don't have access to my older maps; not sure where Beaumont was. Maybe it was lost in the Fisher construction.
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Mikem
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Username: Mikem

Post Number: 2936
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, January 02, 2007 - 8:58 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I found Beaumont on an old map. Looking at an aerial from 1961, I believe this school building is Morley Elementary:

Morley Elementary 1961


Between W Jefferson and Copland Street, west of Dearborn Street:



Morley 1981

^ 1981 view - lost to the expansion of the sewage plant.
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Cman710
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Username: Cman710

Post Number: 148
Registered: 07-2006
Posted on Tuesday, January 02, 2007 - 10:57 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

When the sewage plant was built, did the city just use eminent domain to take the houses of whoever remained? Had the area been mostly vacant anyway?
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Mikem
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Username: Mikem

Post Number: 2944
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Saturday, January 06, 2007 - 8:18 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I missed Jman's mention of the Wayne Soap Co. Wayne Soap was located at 700 Leigh. Leigh is the street running along the east side of Delray Park. Most mapping software places 700 S Leigh about where the Fisher Expressway crosses it, near the corner of Melville (circled), but the Atlas software shows a building near Thaddeus, at the south end of the park, with an address in the 700 range, and that makes more sense after looking at old aerial photos of the neighborhood:

Wayne Soap

-bump for DDay-
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Chitaku
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Username: Chitaku

Post Number: 1031
Registered: 03-2006
Posted on Saturday, January 06, 2007 - 8:52 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I saw a fox running around Delray this afternoon
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Jman
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Username: Jman

Post Number: 7
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Saturday, January 06, 2007 - 8:53 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

If you take your circle south a few blocks you will find Wayne Soap which is the commercial bldg. just north of Morley elementary.
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Dday
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Username: Dday

Post Number: 871
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Saturday, January 06, 2007 - 11:09 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The wife says that may have been the factory. It's around the right place. She says that when it blew up, she missed a couple weeks of school because there was so much damage to the school and that she had to make it up at the end of the school year. She doesn't remember the exact date. Only that it was cold out.

Wonder if there would have been anything in the papers from that time? Maybe next time I'm up I can check at the library

Thanks for all the research!

(Message edited by D-Day on January 06, 2007)
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Danny
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Username: Danny

Post Number: 5386
Registered: 02-2004
Posted on Sunday, January 07, 2007 - 9:05 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I see how the Coleman Young's plan to demolish 10 Delray ghettohood blocks to build a large city toilet. SAD!

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