Discuss Detroit » Archives - July 2007 » Have to Ask about Herman Gardens « Previous Next »
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Chuckjav
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Username: Chuckjav

Post Number: 71
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - 8:19 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Can anyone please step up and tell us about the west side housing development known as Herman Gardens?

(Message edited by chuckjav on September 19, 2007)
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Ravine
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Username: Ravine

Post Number: 1338
Registered: 01-2006
Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - 9:13 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Chuck: I can't help you with that request, but trust me, just let that question hang for the next 24 hours, and you will find out a bunch of stuff. There are some folks, around here on DY, who know TONS of stuff about subjects like this one.
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Wash_man
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Username: Wash_man

Post Number: 472
Registered: 05-2006
Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - 9:19 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Or just try Google...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H erman_Gardens



(Message edited by wash_man on September 19, 2007)

(Message edited by wash_man on September 19, 2007)
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Oakmangirl
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Username: Oakmangirl

Post Number: 404
Registered: 08-2007
Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - 9:20 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

^^...dripping with sarcasm, love it!

(Message edited by Oakmangirl on September 19, 2007)
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Chuckjav
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Username: Chuckjav

Post Number: 72
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - 9:44 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I saw the Herman Gardens page on Wikipedia; leaves much to be desired, not particularly well done...speaks mostly to very recent times.
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Gazhekwe
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Username: Gazhekwe

Post Number: 617
Registered: 08-2007
Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - 9:49 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

My uncle and aunt and lots of cousins lived there in the late 50s - early 60s. It was decent looking, some greenspace to play in. The apartment was small, especially for all those people. We kids ran all over the place outside. I never could figure out where we had got to and how to get back to my aunt and uncle's. Luckily, the cousins had it down.
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Chuckjav
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Username: Chuckjav

Post Number: 73
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - 9:59 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

An old friend, Don Lukens - one tough hombre - grew up in the Gardens; graduated from Mackenzie and moved on to Western Michigan University. At WMU, Lukens - who was maybe 5' 9" & 170 pounds - put the 16-pound shot 50-feet...which is pretty dang impressive.

Anyhoo.......

Lukens ended up teaching and coaching track at Kalamazoo-Loy Norrix High School for thirty years or so; he often spoke of how rough & tough the Gardens were during the late '40s/early '50s.

(Message edited by chuckjav on September 20, 2007)
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Broken_main
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Username: Broken_main

Post Number: 1325
Registered: 06-2005
Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - 10:13 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

They have recently broke ground for the entire site. The new name is now Gardenview Estates. In the last few weeks the trees have been cut and stumps removed. The plans for the site look very appealing and energetic. I hope there is enough interest in it to survive.
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Ericdetfan
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Username: Ericdetfan

Post Number: 189
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - 10:55 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

My grandma on my moms side lived in the gardens when she was very young in the mid to late 40's.. My mom tells me that grandma told her it was an ok place to live back then...reasonably safe for a housing project...although not very attractive...The walls were made of concrete which made them cool in summer...and in the winter lol...luckily the steam heat kept them nice and toasty...so toasty sometimes that they needed the windows open in the winter.

It is my understanding that the gardens were originally built for military personel and contractors for WW2. After the war was over the gov. sold them to the city and the rest is history.
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Viziondetroit
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Username: Viziondetroit

Post Number: 1109
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2007 - 7:56 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

What happened to the NFL and Detroit Lions opening up their youth training facility on the grounds? I haven't heard anything in about a year or so. Is that deal scrapped?
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Viziondetroit
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Username: Viziondetroit

Post Number: 1110
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2007 - 7:58 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

http://www.hud.gov/news/releas e.cfm?content=pr06-012.cfm

"HUD JOINS NFL TO KICK OFF NEW YOUTH CENTER DURING SUPERBOWL WEEK
At 30,000 square-feet, Detroit’s center at old Herman Gardens largest of all NFL-sponsored YET facilities"
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Viziondetroit
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Username: Viziondetroit

Post Number: 1111
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2007 - 8:00 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

This is from the Detroit Lions site... I don't know if I am just blind or what but I drive past here all the time and do not see a completed facility

"ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- Construction has begun on the new NFL YET Center, a new Boys & Girls Club on the Dick and Sandy Dauch Campus in western Detroit. The groundbreaking ceremonies were on February 2 during Super Bowl XL week in Detroit but construction actually began on May 8th with a projected completion date of May 2007.

The new $6 million dollar, 30,000 square-foot facility will be located in the Gardenview Estates (formerly Herman Gardens) near Tireman and the Southfield Freeway on the west side of Detroit.

For more information and photographs on this exciting new facility to serve the children of Detroit, please click on the link below."
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Viziondetroit
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Username: Viziondetroit

Post Number: 1112
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2007 - 8:04 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Ok... last post. I guess it was built....

I need to look further into the neighborhood for this building obviously. It was my understanding that it was to be built on the grounds of the former HG.

http://www.bgcsm.org/news.aspx #14
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Ericdetfan
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Username: Ericdetfan

Post Number: 192
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Friday, September 21, 2007 - 12:17 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

http://warrendale.blogspot.com /search?q=nfl
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Professorscott
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Username: Professorscott

Post Number: 774
Registered: 12-2006
Posted on Friday, September 21, 2007 - 12:36 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

All I know for sure is that HG was very convenient to the Tipperary Pub, and if you had tipped one to many at Mr. O'Halloran's fine public house and had friends in HG, you had a place to spend the night.

By the late 1980s it had become very rough over there, sad to say. I had a fellow there working on my car, and I took a taxi to pick up the car, and the cab driver refused to enter the neighborhood. Then of course it was torn down entirely.

Must be plenty of old HGers out there with good stories. The Tipperary is still open and serving Irish whiskey.
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Hpgrmln
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Username: Hpgrmln

Post Number: 182
Registered: 06-2007
Posted on Friday, September 21, 2007 - 3:19 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I was talking with some fellows at work and asked what area they were MOST afraid of. One guy said he wasn't afraid of Any area of Detroit except HG made him a little uneasy when it was around. Another guy than said "I lived in HG and every night I could sit by my window and without fail see a gang fight. Every night."
Perhaps HG is what inspired the ghetto scenes in "Death Wish 3"
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1st_sgt
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Username: 1st_sgt

Post Number: 109
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Friday, September 21, 2007 - 10:54 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

My Aunt and Uncle lived in the “Gardens” in the 60's in an apartment facing Joy Rd.
I got my first ball glove and bat at the Hardware store across the street.

I spent a lot of time in the Gardens.
I was bussed to Herman Elementary school (2nd to 6th grade) from our neighborhood on Burnett and Dover. I went to school with my cousins and had the same teachers and classmates.

It was a nice school and neighborhood; they had real good neighbors who are family friends to this day.

There was mall (large grassy open area) in the middle of the project, plus ball fields, tennis courts, and play areas. We had lots of trees to climb and bushes to hide in playing army or Cowboys and Indians. Crab apple trees were the best, maple trees with their special smell was right out their front door.

We had lots of kids to play with. We ran all over the area and stayed out till the Street lights came on. I never seen any gangs, never heard of any real crime. We left our toys lay on the lawn and bikes parked near the back door and never had any theft problem.

They had a nice apartment, three bed rooms; eat in kitchen, living room and laundry room. It was cool in the summer (with out air conditioning) and warm in winter. There was a lot of parking on one side.

I loved to visit my Aunt and Uncle (a Mister Softie man) and stay in the Gardens. It was a good place to grow up in.
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Lombaowski
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Username: Lombaowski

Post Number: 54
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Friday, September 21, 2007 - 12:13 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

When I was growing up in the 70s and 80s in Franklin Park we (me or any of my friends) were told explicitly not to cross Southfield FWY unless we were going to Stoepel Park for some sort of game or event and to never, ever cross Joy unless we were on the right side of the Southfield fwy. There was a huge shooting there in the late 70s and a guy that lived three houses down from us was one of the people who got shot. He worked for Consumers I think and was out doing a meter check at 4 pm and got caught in the crossfire. I haven’t been there outside of junior high basketball games so I can’t speak to the condition of the area now but it was real bad in the late 70s when Grandale was plummeting and Franklin Park was just starting to go down.

It would be great if this new project revitalized some of that area. I always really felt the far west side close to the Rogue was one of the best places in Detroit to live because it offered a little more space, access to parks, to Dearborn, to the highway, and was still close enough to downtown to feel you were in the city.
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Fredgarvin
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Username: Fredgarvin

Post Number: 63
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Friday, September 21, 2007 - 12:22 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

My Mom, her 2 sisters and my Grandparents lived in the Gardens in the '40's as well before they moved to Plymouth and Minock. I've seen pictures, and it looks like it was an ok place back then.

I too have spent many a lost night at the Tipperary Pub, visiting my friends Tommy and Kathleen O'Halloran back in the late '70's.
I'm glad to hear it's still going strong.

I'm coming back for a weekend in October. Maybe I should stop in for a beer and King James for old time's sake.
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Quozl
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Username: Quozl

Post Number: 1506
Registered: 07-2005
Posted on Friday, September 21, 2007 - 12:27 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Lombaowski, what streets were the boundaries of Franklin Park? Is it this location?

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