Discuss Detroit » Archives - March 2009 » Plum street? « Previous Next »
Top of pageBottom of page

N7hn
Member
Username: N7hn

Post Number: 149
Registered: 02-2008
Posted on Sunday, January 25, 2009 - 12:54 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Any old timers remember "Plum Street"? I barely do. I remember going w my mom and aunt. It was an area that was full of hippy shops selling jewelry, candles , incense, tye dye and Im sure bongs and pipes. I know it was torn down but being so young at the time I dont know what area it was in or why it was torn down. Anyone have any memories or info? I still have the ring my aunt bought me from there in the 60's
Top of pageBottom of page

N7hn
Member
Username: N7hn

Post Number: 150
Registered: 02-2008
Posted on Sunday, January 25, 2009 - 12:59 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

oh, I found this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P lum_Street

no pics anywhere tho, dang. Id love to see this kind of community venture return to detroit. Not only for the music, but the art of it.
Top of pageBottom of page

Blueidone
Member
Username: Blueidone

Post Number: 460
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Sunday, January 25, 2009 - 1:18 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I was a Plum Street a couple of times back in the late 60's. I don't remember a lot...but it was a cool place to go.

I have not been to the Russell Bazaar yet, but I'm thinking it sounds like a unpdated version of Plum Street..am I right?
Top of pageBottom of page

Detroitrise
Member
Username: Detroitrise

Post Number: 3751
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Sunday, January 25, 2009 - 1:31 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

^It's more like an upscale flea market (or mini-mall).
Top of pageBottom of page

Eastsideal
Member
Username: Eastsideal

Post Number: 214
Registered: 10-2007
Posted on Sunday, January 25, 2009 - 1:33 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The area is now under the MGM Grand's parking garage. My older cousins used to hang out there back in those days, before they, and a lot of Detroit hippie-era kids, up and left for California. My grandfather used to drive us through to "look at the hippies." In fact, a fair amount of the activity and traffic there seemed to be touristing.

Here is a News story from a couple of years ago about it, and that entire era in Detroit.

http://apps.detnews.com/apps/h istory/index.php?id=136
Top of pageBottom of page

Grumpyoldlady
Member
Username: Grumpyoldlady

Post Number: 326
Registered: 06-2005
Posted on Sunday, January 25, 2009 - 1:45 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Back in the days of the real hippie Plum Street days, I remember going to Prometheus' Candle Shop...I loved all the candles and stuff they sold in there. Don't remember the names of the other shops.
Top of pageBottom of page

Bobl
Member
Username: Bobl

Post Number: 421
Registered: 07-2008
Posted on Sunday, January 25, 2009 - 1:56 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Had some great conversations and met some interesting people there, especially at the Red Roach, which was a coffee shop. Bought my first Charles Bukowski book and was introduced to the ramblings of Ed Sanders at one of the shops!
It became more of a meeting place to cop and panhandle than an art and specialty business district, though.
Top of pageBottom of page

Douglasm
Member
Username: Douglasm

Post Number: 767
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Sunday, January 25, 2009 - 3:19 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Used to spend weekend evenings at The Wisdom Tooth, an entertainment "coffee house" on the second floor over the resturant pictured in the News article. Nice little place while it lasted. Folk music, then jazz after hours. Lasted about 8 months. Memory is an iffy thing, but imagine shops in The Trading Post (the Hedges "hippie" mall) stretched out over a block of old buidlings along Plum and you might have a better idea of what it was like.

The idea might have been valid, but I don't know if one can "create" an arts and entertainment district like was envisioned by Robert Cobb. City support would help, but I've always had the feeling that something like what he was after would have to grow organicaly, kind of in the same way the Cass Corridor did. I felt sorry when it died, but it seemed inevitable.

I remember driving down Plum some years later. The little grocery was still there, but the other buildings were abandoned, the railroad crossbuck standing alone in front of one of the shops......
Top of pageBottom of page

Ndavies
Member
Username: Ndavies

Post Number: 1641
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Sunday, January 25, 2009 - 7:37 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Do a Search of the HOF threads. THe first two that appear are:

https://www.atdetroit.net/forum/mes sages/6790/123704.html

https://www.atdetroit.net/forum/mes sages/6790/103029.html
Top of pageBottom of page

Dustin89
Member
Username: Dustin89

Post Number: 258
Registered: 07-2006
Posted on Sunday, January 25, 2009 - 7:53 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

That Detroit News article, which I remember reading a few years ago, says that there were 43 shops in the area at Plum Street's peak. Wow!

For someone my age (19), I guess the only place that really has that boutique/arts community vibe is downtown Royal Oak. I spend a lot of time there now, but, being the "vinyl junkie" that I am, it doesn't feel the same now that Neptune Records and Wendell's are gone.
Top of pageBottom of page

Cch
Member
Username: Cch

Post Number: 4
Registered: 05-2008
Posted on Thursday, January 29, 2009 - 7:53 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

the closest thing to plum street in detroit now is commonwealth in woodbridge. walk down the street at 11pm or midnight and you'll hear bands practicing in at least 4 of the houses. there's a lot of (modern day) hippies in that neighborhood.
Top of pageBottom of page

Margie
Member
Username: Margie

Post Number: 336
Registered: 10-2008
Posted on Friday, January 30, 2009 - 10:40 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)











The last house was office of The Fifth Estate.

Top of pageBottom of page

Pam
Member
Username: Pam

Post Number: 4925
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Friday, January 30, 2009 - 11:08 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Some nice Victorian buildings in those pics. It's a shame to lose all the history that predates hippies.
Top of pageBottom of page

Douglasm
Member
Username: Douglasm

Post Number: 774
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Friday, January 30, 2009 - 1:42 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

In the first picture, look at the door to the second floor. There's a "Wisdom Tooth" over it. That's where the coffee house was.

Did Trans-Love Energies ever work out of Plum Street, or were they always by Wayne State before relocating to Ann Arbor?
Top of pageBottom of page

Margie
Member
Username: Margie

Post Number: 338
Registered: 10-2008
Posted on Friday, January 30, 2009 - 3:05 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Robert Cobb had an apt. upstais in the first pic...Cobbs Corner
Yes to Trans-Love Energies
Top of pageBottom of page

N7hn
Member
Username: N7hn

Post Number: 157
Registered: 02-2008
Posted on Friday, January 30, 2009 - 8:05 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

great add of pics margie...... thanks
Top of pageBottom of page

Rsmack
Member
Username: Rsmack

Post Number: 4
Registered: 02-2009
Posted on Monday, February 16, 2009 - 7:41 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Crashed there a few time when I couldn't find my way home. WOW that was another life.
Top of pageBottom of page

Detroitplanner
Member
Username: Detroitplanner

Post Number: 2245
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Monday, February 16, 2009 - 7:53 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Nyhn your memories are the same as mine.

At the time the ethnic festivals were also in that area.
Top of pageBottom of page

Terryh
Member
Username: Terryh

Post Number: 1133
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Monday, February 16, 2009 - 9:32 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Wish it was still there-had lots of character..
Top of pageBottom of page

Blueidone
Member
Username: Blueidone

Post Number: 484
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Monday, February 16, 2009 - 10:10 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

It's funny to see those pictures. I was only there twice and it was late at night. I only remember going in and out of little shops and it being very dark outside and I didn't know where I was, being a complete suburbanite at the time. Nice to know what they looked like in the light!
Top of pageBottom of page

Grumpyoldlady
Member
Username: Grumpyoldlady

Post Number: 355
Registered: 06-2005
Posted on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 - 12:43 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Whatever happened to the Fifth Estate newspaper? I used to pick it up at the news stand at Michigan and Woodward. Was it taken over and renamed, or did it just die?
Top of pageBottom of page

Billk
Member
Username: Billk

Post Number: 208
Registered: 09-2005
Posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - 12:03 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

http://www.peterwerbe.com/esta te.htm
Top of pageBottom of page

Grumpyoldlady
Member
Username: Grumpyoldlady

Post Number: 357
Registered: 06-2005
Posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - 2:12 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Billk....thanks very much for the link. I had no idea the Fifth Estate was still publishing.

Add Your Message Here
Posting is currently disabled in this topic. Contact your discussion moderator for more information.