  Fareastsider Member Username: Fareastsider Post Number: 949 Registered: 08-2006 |
In the Detroit Olympics thread there is a Youtube link to the 1967 Olympic bid videos. The link to the Detroit olympic videos on Youtube I have seen. On the similar video list I watched the Safety Patrol video from 1937. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =k87ngcACTRs In the video at 7:00 they go through an underpass which was discussed at some point before on this site. Wondering if it was the same one I found it again at Cortland and 2nd in HP. Sure enough it was, as it is probably the only one ever built. It is interesting to see it then and know that it still exists today but im sure it is covered up. You can see the school in the background though there is an addition on it now so it looks differently but the school is vacant if I remember correctly. In the video they go into a building which is the same shape at the same corner in 1949. http://techtools.culma.wayne.e du/media/wayne/1949/ha-4-94.pd f Now that block has been replaced by Cortland Elementary. I also wonder how many violations that the Safety Patrol would find today in a lawless area like Highland Park! Was there a big push for this plan or does anyone know anything about these odd and im sure very expensive pedestrian safety feature? This guy on Youtube who posted the video has some interesting old time Detroit videos. | ||
Swede1934 Member Username: Swede1934 Post Number: 54 Registered: 04-2007 |
Fareastsider..I went back and forth through that underpass many times. I started school at that school, known then as Ferris Elementary. Second was a lot busier then, and that underpass made it a lot safer to cross. Also, there was a penny candy store on Cortland,just beyond second, and kid being kids, we had to get there for our candy treats during the lunch break. | ||
Fareastsider Member Username: Fareastsider Post Number: 951 Registered: 08-2006 |
In the video they stop at a sweet shop on the corner! Watch it and see if its the same one. | ||
Swede1934 Member Username: Swede1934 Post Number: 55 Registered: 04-2007 |
That picture of the school is definitely Ferris, I recognise the concrete stairs down to the playground. That candy store just might be the same one, it sure looks like it. | ||
Fareastsider Member Username: Fareastsider Post Number: 953 Registered: 08-2006 |
Took a look at the underpass today actually its all sealed up. Ferris school looks like a bomb hit it. I always get depressed at how well older buildings were built compared to today. So much attention to detail. It is depressing to see such a city go to waste. If it can happen to Highland Park or Detroit it can happen anywhere? Thanks for sharing Swede. | ||
Richard_bak Member Username: Richard_bak Post Number: 352 Registered: 04-2008 |
Oops. I thought the thread said something about see-through underpants. My bad. | ||
Detroithabitater Member Username: Detroithabitater Post Number: 166 Registered: 10-2006 |
I would imagine that it would be difficult to keep water/ice out of it. I remember seeing it 2 years ago and being very interested. Was 2nd ever really that busy of a street anyhow? | ||
Aoife Member Username: Aoife Post Number: 71 Registered: 04-2007 |
There was also once an underpass, or a "subway" as they called it then, at Cass and Peterboro. | ||
Bearinabox Member Username: Bearinabox Post Number: 776 Registered: 04-2006 |
quote:According to my dad, who grew up on the NW side in the 50s and 60s, 2nd was his family's pre-expressway route out of downtown, and it moved pretty fast then. I guess that was before Highland Park put in stop signs at every other intersection. I use it sometimes myself, but I cut over to Hamilton somewhere between W. Chicago and the Highland Park border. | ||
Jgavrile Member Username: Jgavrile Post Number: 180 Registered: 09-2005 |
There was another underpass at Second & Pilgrim Going to Ford School on the North side of Highland Park too. Swede1934, I can't remember the name of the candy store on Cortland? | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 3509 Registered: 01-2005 |
Before 1970, Second was a one way street going North through Highland Park, and Third was one-way going south. Lights were timed for about 45 mph, so traffic moved at a pretty good clip. Then, around forty years back, the city fathers of HP decided those two streets were like canyons barricading the neighborhoods, so they changed the plan to make both two-way streets with no coordination on the traffic lights. Since the Lodge was done by then, it was no big thing as the Lodge had siphoned off most of the traffic anyway. | ||
Gnome Member Username: Gnome Post Number: 1627 Registered: 08-2007 |
Peterboro and Cass subway from WSU virtual library. No date on the pic, but it looks like late winter sometime in the mid-1930's  | ||
Rhymeswithrawk Member Username: Rhymeswithrawk Post Number: 1424 Registered: 11-2005 |
Strange to see such huge, wide-open barren fields in Detroit even in 1937. | ||
Jgavrile Member Username: Jgavrile Post Number: 182 Registered: 09-2005 |
Before 1946, Brush and John R were two way streets. They were made one way to ease traffic. Now they are back to two way streets again | ||
Jgavrile Member Username: Jgavrile Post Number: 183 Registered: 09-2005 |
Before 1946, Brush and John R were two way streets. They were made one way to ease traffic. Now they are back to two way streets again. I know this as in 1946 my folks were hit head on by a drunk teenager going too fast on the wrong side of the street,at Buena Vista and John R. Put my Mother in the hospital for almost 1 1/2 years. | ||
Hamtragedy Member Username: Hamtragedy Post Number: 265 Registered: 10-2007 |
An old timer in Hamtramck told me there was one at Holbrook & Campau. | ||
56packman Member Username: 56packman Post Number: 2411 Registered: 12-2005 |
If the cities had gone crazy installing the pedestrian underpasses (maybe as a WPA blitz) they would be full of garbage today. | ||
Dinnc Member Username: Dinnc Post Number: 31 Registered: 08-2007 |
For someone who was born in 1981 all I can say is, WOW!! To see these videos of Detroit Proper with bustling streets and buildings that aren't destroyed makes me want to see this city become what it used to be. (I was referring to the city on the move videos.) I had no Idea that Detroit was trying to get the Olympic games in 1968. | ||
Oldestuff Member Username: Oldestuff Post Number: 88 Registered: 01-2007 |
dinnc: get a copy of "Stranded at the Corner" it's all about Tiger Stadium and there is reference to the 1968 Olympics and it will benefit the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy - I know there are copies for sale at Brooks Lumber | ||
Douglasm Member Username: Douglasm Post Number: 1124 Registered: 10-2003 |
Bearinabox's Dad was right about 2nd and 3rd. They were the easy way to get to the Fisher Building from Ferndale. Faster than Woodward with less lights.... | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 3403 Registered: 04-2006 |
Wow @ that pic of the old Burton International building. I taught at a volunteer program in that building. |
