  Nate Member Username: Nate Post Number: 1 Registered: 01-2009 |
Is anyone familiar with this? It looks like its supposed to exist at Clairmount Ave and 12th street, although there doesn't seem to be much there. An article on MOCAD's opening says The site is home to a park that probably has a name, but who knows what it is? — two broken posts are left where the sign used to be. A steel sculpture by native Detroiter Jack Ward commissioned by the city serves as a monument honoring the site where the Detroit riots were sparked in July 1967. But the park's condition is less than honorable; it's intolerable. Anyway, I'm just curious if anyone had ever visited this site or knew anything about the more recent history. | ||
Nate Member Username: Nate Post Number: 2 Registered: 01-2009 |
Well, it looks like I answered my own question: http://detroit1701.org/Start19 67Riot.html | ||
Chub Member Username: Chub Post Number: 262 Registered: 11-2003 |
I lived down the street from this park and never once stepped foot in it. To much garbage flying around and way too many shady people about. | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 9444 Registered: 10-2003 |
Nothing captures "riot" like a couple of stacked polyhedrons. | ||
Lowell Moderator Username: Lowell Post Number: 2205 Registered: 09-2003 |
We have been over this ground before but I'm to lazy to hunt for it in the archives. Jack Ward was a house mate in my Colorado St. [then a co-op] house in Highland Park when he did that commission. He is a close friend of mine to this day. http://www.detroityes.com/webi sodes/2000/19neighborhood/01-W ard_Scupt.htm The sculpture was NOT created as a memorial to the riot and Jack did not know it was for that location when he secured the commission and only learned years later of the significance of the location. It was simply a sculpture for a park and selected for, among other things, its durability against vandalism that the biases of those times assumed would ensue. Somehow it has become mythologized as memorial. However there is no historical marker there [although I think there should be], no indication whatsoever of the fatal history of that intersection. You have to understand the prevailing attitude of immediate post-riot Detroit. The riot was a huge embarrassment, something to be forgotten not memorialized, ashes to be risen from with new housing on burned out 12th street with a new vest pocket park at the north end of the the destruction. Wipe out 12th, make it a new divided roadway, forget the past was the message. It was all about 'look we have moved on'. | ||
Renf Member Username: Renf Post Number: 41 Registered: 11-2003 |
The last time I drove by 12st and Clairmont, the small sculpture was there but it had been painted a rust-red color. I will update the picture on the Detroit1701 site. | ||
Andylinn Member Username: Andylinn Post Number: 1088 Registered: 04-2006 |
Renf, you're the Detroit 1701 webmaster / author, eh? Wonderful work. Your site is extremely indepth. I especially enjoy your section on historic homes. | ||
Nate Member Username: Nate Post Number: 3 Registered: 01-2009 |
Lowell, thanks for the response. Really interesting stuff. | ||
Lmichigan Member Username: Lmichigan Post Number: 4134 Registered: 10-2003 |
I used to live across from it. The type of 'park', if you want to call it that, simply doesn't serve the needs of the surrounding neighborhood. It's a place of reflection, a memorial square (but as Lowell said, not actually memorialized to the riot), in the middle of a residential. The surrounding land use doesn't make sense. I guess it would have made sense if there was still a commercial presence, around. It's just kind of "there" if that makes any sense. | ||
Eastsidedame Member Username: Eastsidedame Post Number: 664 Registered: 12-2006 |
Who really likes that "memorial", anyway? It's a downer. We need to be reminded of this? A little plaque would suffice. | ||
Lowell Moderator Username: Lowell Post Number: 2206 Registered: 09-2003 |
It is NOT a memorial. Repeat, it not a memorial to to 1967 or a nything. It is just a park. Read above... |
