  Chicagobureau Member Username: Chicagobureau Post Number: 26 Registered: 07-2005 Posted From: 207.148.213.218 |
I'm looking for Detroit neighborhood names and boundaries. Anyone interested in posting would be greatly appreciated. Or if someone could refer me to a place to look (besides http://www.cityscapedetroit.or g/Detroit_neighborhoods.html) that would also be great. | ||
Fury13 Member Username: Fury13 Post Number: 983 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 69.222.11.226 |
Chibureau, Neighborhoods in Detroit aren't as strictly delineated as they are in Chicago, with its 77 defined community areas. Some boundaries are vague and nebulous; neighborhood names have changed over the years, too. There are even somewhat desolate areas that do not seem to have names -- if they ever had them. (Message edited by Fury13 on March 09, 2006) | ||
Goat Member Username: Goat Post Number: 8219 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 70.53.99.72 |
Not sure if this will help much but it does give some locations. http://freepages.genealogy.roo tsweb.com/~detroitchurches/ | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 352 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 207.200.116.139 |
Good link, Goat. Thanks for posting that. | ||
Chicagobureau Member Username: Chicagobureau Post Number: 27 Registered: 07-2005 Posted From: 207.148.213.218 |
Well I found on the city's planning department web site a master plan broken down by clusters that actually does have neighborhoods and census info for each but the names are all wrong. Most areas it seems they've just taken the name of the high school in the neighborhood and called it that. Link: http://www.ci.detroit.mi.us/pl andevl/advplanning/pdfs/MPlan/ MPlan_2004/default.htm | ||
Broken_main Member Username: Broken_main Post Number: 905 Registered: 06-2005 Posted From: 69.222.11.226 |
this may help as well http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/c i/bo/?id=101037 | ||
Chicagobureau Member Username: Chicagobureau Post Number: 28 Registered: 07-2005 Posted From: 207.148.213.218 |
Thanks Broken Main but that's essentially the same map that the city has in its cluster master plan (see my last posting). I feel like I've hit a dead end but I'm going to keep looking. | ||
Bvos Member Username: Bvos Post Number: 1247 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 66.238.170.32 |
The city's master plan maps don't neccessarily mean that the name given to an area is the actually the name for that neighborhood. It's just a name they use for discussion purposes. Many of the planning subsectors contain several defined and named neighborhoods in one single named subsector. The best website out there is the CityScape website. It's not always completely accurate, but it's pretty accurate. Fury is correct when he says that Detroit isn't as well defined as Chicago or Minneapolis ( an example I'm familiar with). If you're looking for more info on a specific area and their block clubs, neighborhoods, etc. you could contact the neighborhood city hall for that area. They usually have lists of the above mentioned groups and their boundaries. | ||
Ddaydave Member Username: Ddaydave Post Number: 334 Registered: 04-2005 Posted From: 67.149.185.244 |
one thing I always wonder about when I see these Detroit neighborhood names and boundaries maps Is an area around 7 and van dyke with numurous buildings with nortown on them ...I`ve heard nortown was short for north detroit ..I thought maybe the area once may of had norwegian immigrants..anyone no the meaning of nortown ??? Dave | ||
Rustic Member Username: Rustic Post Number: 2179 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 130.132.177.245 |
Detroit's "neighborhood" names are often overlapping and complicated and change over time. Old names stick around and pop up in weird places. There are no rules ... roughly there are the residential neighborhood names which generally do not overlap each other (although both the names and the borders do change over time), commercial/shopping strip names (which typically overlay/abut residential neighborhood designations and complicate things) and regional names. Further complicating matters, not every part of Detroit has all of these three different kinds of names either, lol! IMO Detroiters automatically can shift seamlessly between these three things when discussing stuff. A good litmus test of a Detroiter's saaviness is if he can understand the following sorta statement "Up in Redford, not at the border with Redford, but in Redford, waay up there is a neighborhood, not Redford but Sand Hill." LOL! Names may be a result of geography (Southwest), history (Redford), a landmark (University District) or simply subdivision marketting (Sherwood Forest) or even combinations thereof (Aviation, Northwest-Goldberg). Neighborhood names can rapidly pop up, grow, get trimmed, and even erased as a result of the politics of development (consider Poletown for for an example of pretty much all in one place, or Cass Corridor morphing into part pf a greater Midtown). The commercial/shopping strip names may be street-based but not always. Sometimes it is the same as a nearby residential neighborhood but it might extend a bit further. Sometimes the name given for a region may be the same as for a smaller neighborhood within the region (e.g. "Southwest Detroit" contains among several residential neighborhoods one called "Southwest Detroit" -- an appendix sticking into dearborn/melvindale. I recall a very entertaining thread a couple of years ago where various forumers were arguing about "Southwest Detroit" and where/what it is). There can also be regions within regions SW Detroit also contains Delray and Springwells both of those names describe a neighborhood AND a commercial area AND in the case of Springwells what was once a larger region. It can be confusing. Good luck on finding a map. Yay Detroit! | ||
Fishtoes2000 Member Username: Fishtoes2000 Post Number: 81 Registered: 06-2005 Posted From: 69.14.26.135 |
My 1911 USGS map shows a North Detroit mostly along Mt. Elliot between Nevada and Davison. | ||
Bvos Member Username: Bvos Post Number: 1249 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 66.238.170.50 |
Nortown is short for Norris Town. Mr. Norris was the founder of the town "that was" before it was annexed by the city of Detroit. (Message edited by BVos on March 14, 2006) | ||
Hamtramck_steve Member Username: Hamtramck_steve Post Number: 2798 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 136.181.195.65 |
Mr. Norris's house can be seen on Mt. Elliott near Nevada. It's a farmhouse on the west side of the street, clad in asphalt shingles. | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 6979 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 198.208.251.24 |
So where is this South Detroit that Journey spoke of? | ||
Rustic Member Username: Rustic Post Number: 2184 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 130.132.177.245 |
jt1 it existed briefly mostly downriver in the early 80's. It was briefly renamed Electrric Avenue.  | ||
Andrew_avery Member Username: Andrew_avery Post Number: 1 Registered: 10-2004 Posted From: 64.31.6.116 |
Chicagobureau, I had the same question several years ago, and got so frustrated that I made my own neighborhood map and list. I visited the Burton Historical Collection, talked to residents, sifted through newspaper articles, pestered the City Planning Department staff, etc. for any neighborhood information I could get my greedy hands on. As I learned about neighborhoods, I recorded them on a Microsoft MapPoint file, and also listed the boundaries on a word processing file. At present, the list and map have well over one hundred neighborhoods, and I'm still plugging away at it (I'm a little compulsive). Some of the older designations have been replaced (the McDougall-Hunt neighborhood was formerly Germantown, Island View Village was formerly Belgian Village, etc). The list and map generally favor the current names while recalling the old. I have taken great pains to make them as accurate as possible, and I revise and correct them as new information becomes available. If you're interested, I could email you the map or the list (or both). They're both still works in progress, but they should get you started Andrew aavery@mich.com |
