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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 3927
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 6:02 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

This house is located on the north side of Foley, between Steel and Sorrento. In the early 1930s, it was the grand prize at the builders show in one of those thirty-ish years. Here's the house in 1938.





And thanks to Google street view, here she is today.





Still looks to be in good shape, anyway.
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Kathinozarks
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Username: Kathinozarks

Post Number: 1722
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Sunday, November 30, 2008 - 6:43 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yay, I was soooooo relieved to see the second picture.
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Chuckjav
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Username: Chuckjav

Post Number: 1188
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 12:47 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thanks Ray!

Do you remember the (original) doorway to be green?

Ray, I just scored (for under $10) a copy of the 1959 Stag.

Do you have any additional neighborhood and/or Mackenzie scans to share?
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 3929
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 3:04 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

No, darn it. Most of our family photos from the thirties thru fifties were taken indoors, and of people rather than things. For the heck of it, here's the entire photo that captured the Foley house. (Yeah, that's me. Don't go there.....)


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Oldredfordette
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Username: Oldredfordette

Post Number: 5687
Registered: 02-2004
Posted on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 3:46 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

knees! cute!
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Chuckjav
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Username: Chuckjav

Post Number: 1190
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 5:02 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Ray...The neighborhood looks more like Calumet or Negaunee; hard to imagine Detroit, appearing so...rural
Odd, how so many parts of Detroit now look more & more like something from the pre-annexation era.

PS You are quite stylish in the the photograph; your hat sells the look...to perfection
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 3930
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 5:35 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I dunno how cute they are, Orf, but they still work and that's all I care about..... :-)

Chuck, the photo was taken in front of this house at 12316 Sorrento. Shot is from c. 1925 when it was still Greenfield Twp.





The grandparents had the house moved forward and put on a basement foundation in 1947. This is how it looked then. Sadly, sometime in the last 20 years, it was razed. It's a vacant lot today.



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Alfie1a
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Username: Alfie1a

Post Number: 96
Registered: 10-2007
Posted on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 6:37 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

That property looks great. Ray, someone actually won that house in a drawing back in the day?
I had a friend who lived a couple doors down from there. That house is gone now. As I recall, it was falling apart in 1967.

Ray, by the picture, looks like you could have been a cast member of The Little Rascals, had you been discovered. great photo
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 3931
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 7:10 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

LOL Alfie. Missed my big chance, I guess.

As for the drawing, my only source was what my parents told me....that it had been the grand prize at the annual Detroit Builder's Show in the early thirties. If their info was bad and I've perpetuated it, well, that's life in Detroit, I guess! But I do know the Builder's Show gave a house away every year back then.
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Ravine
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Username: Ravine

Post Number: 2945
Registered: 01-2006
Posted on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 7:24 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Ah, Ray. We start out with jowls, lose them, and end up with them again.
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Chuckjav
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Username: Chuckjav

Post Number: 1192
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 7:28 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yep, Ray....I miss the old neighborhood; nice that it seems to be starting over again. I mentioned on a previous post that there are a few brand new homes near Oakman Elementary School - the school still looks fantastic....and so does good old Parker Elementary.

Lord knows there are still hundreds of vacant lots and folks still use the area for illegal dumping - I saw a lot of that in the neighborhood bordered by Plymouth, west to Greenfield, south to West Chicago, and back east to Schaefer.

Maybe I'm overly sentimental & wishful in my thinking....but....I truly believe that the turn-around has begun.
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Ravine
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Username: Ravine

Post Number: 2946
Registered: 01-2006
Posted on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 7:43 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I live in that rectangle. Some blocks are looking pretty good; others, not so good. Over-all, I wouldn't call it a great area, but it is far from being a bad area.
I know that sounds rather non-committal and all, but that's the best way I could describe it without in-depth analyzing.
P.S.: Could we have a Meijer store open up over here? Now?
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Chuckjav
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Username: Chuckjav

Post Number: 1194
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 8:09 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Ravine....cool - it is a small world.
Mark Twain - between West Chicago and Orangelawn - looks nice as ever.
On the other hand....Freeland, from W. Chicago to Plymouth, is muchly a hell-hole
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Thames
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Username: Thames

Post Number: 327
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Monday, December 01, 2008 - 8:50 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"P.S.: Could we have a Meijer store open up over here? Now?"

You know, South Lyon is fighting tooth and nail to stop a Meijer from being built.

I bet the resources being used to fight that battle could be enough to build the store you want.
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Eriedearie
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Username: Eriedearie

Post Number: 4135
Registered: 08-2007
Posted on Tuesday, December 02, 2008 - 10:07 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Oh Ray - what a cute 'lil boy! I bet you got those cheeks kissed and pinched a lot!
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Django
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Username: Django

Post Number: 2203
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, December 02, 2008 - 10:53 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Look at Lil Ray Ray.

I wish my Mom had your Moms fashion sense when I was that age.

I also love the hat.
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 3933
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Tuesday, December 02, 2008 - 11:36 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yeah, and notice I don't have the hat on backwards...... :-)
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Ravine
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Username: Ravine

Post Number: 2951
Registered: 01-2006
Posted on Tuesday, December 02, 2008 - 12:36 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Dang, Ray, things truly do go full circle, back where they started, round & round, etc.
First the physical stuff (starting out & ending up with jowls, thin hair, poor motor control, et al) and, it seems, if one waits long enough-- and I think seven decades is long enough, at least for a fashion cycle-- even the clothes come back 'round.
See that? You probably hated the outfit, and Django wishes it had been his.
Life is bewildering, in a somewhat charming way.
Me? My mom had a winter cap (please note how I put the possessive on her, even though it was my head) which she insisted on combining with my little winter coat. The goddam thing had straps which came down around my face and snaps with which to fasten the straps under my chin. As if I didn't hate the whole outfit enough, to begin with (hell, I was 16 at the time... just kidding,) there was also the fact that me dear sainted mum's hands always shook like crazy, so the cap-fastening seemed to go on forever.
Yes, I AM one of those people who actually remembers stuff from his very, very early days.
Yesterday, no. When I was 3? Got it!
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 3937
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Tuesday, December 02, 2008 - 4:08 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Oh, yeah. Know all that only too well. Mom always thought that I should wear suspenders. I hated suspenders then, I hate them now, and grown men (well, under 95 anyway) who wear them as a fashion statement just look stupid. Other than that, I didn't think much about clothes until I hit my teens.
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Ravine
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Username: Ravine

Post Number: 2954
Registered: 01-2006
Posted on Tuesday, December 02, 2008 - 5:01 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Right. Larry King and his stupid "braces." If you're going to have a personal fashion signature, you might as well face the fact that, eventually, it will begin to look tiresome and foolish.
My older brother, who sort of idolized James Arness' Matt Dillon character, bought himself a big-ass cowboy hat when he was in his early twenties. It was a great hat, and my brother is a great guy, but my brother does NOT look AT ALL like a goddam cowboy. I loved him too much to ever tell him that the whole look just Did Not Work.
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Townonenorth
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Username: Townonenorth

Post Number: 428
Registered: 10-2007
Posted on Tuesday, December 02, 2008 - 5:59 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Suspenders, Ray, and bow ties. Ick.
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Fareastsider
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Username: Fareastsider

Post Number: 1036
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Tuesday, December 09, 2008 - 3:51 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I always wondered why some houses were built so far back in their lot throughout the city?
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Chuckjav
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Username: Chuckjav

Post Number: 1244
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Tuesday, December 09, 2008 - 6:59 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Fareastsider....I wondered the same thing.
There were many homes in my old neighborhood - usually the smaller ones - that were set far back from the road.

My best guess would be that, at time of construction, many of the paved roads were not in existence; likely some meandering dirt (farming) roads?
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Lodgedodger
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Username: Lodgedodger

Post Number: 1073
Registered: 05-2008
Posted on Tuesday, December 09, 2008 - 7:18 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

There were a couple like that in our neighborhood. The homes were much older than other homes on the block. Sometimes I wonder if the alleys might have been a road. As the homes sat right off the alley.
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 3962
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Tuesday, December 09, 2008 - 7:19 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"many of the paved roads were not in existence;"

Dang, that's a good thought. I'd of loved to have asked Mom if Sorrento was dirt or paved in 1923, but she died last year. Another opportunity lost. (Actually, it was named Avon street until Greenfield Twp was incorporated by Detroit in 1927).

(Message edited by Ray1936 on December 09, 2008)
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Eriedearie
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Username: Eriedearie

Post Number: 4208
Registered: 08-2007
Posted on Wednesday, December 10, 2008 - 12:45 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The home I grew up in on Ruth Street in Detroit was set way in the back. We had 3 houses on our block that were like that. Gave us a huge yard with part of one side for my dad to plant a big garden, and he fixed mom a nice long clothes line on the rest. The other side was for our swing set, sand box, little swimming pool and a picnic table. Plus, we still had room to run around in the yard. It was great!

Then when I started dating, that long sidewalk gave my mom and dad plenty of time to observe the guy as he walked up that sidewalk. :-)
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Reddog289
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Username: Reddog289

Post Number: 769
Registered: 08-2007
Posted on Wednesday, December 10, 2008 - 1:56 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Nothing to do with the Mackenzie neighborhood,BUT here in Wayne in some of the older {pre 1950,s} areas some houses are set back kinda far.My Uncles Aunts house had 6ft of backyard with 20ft of front yard. Thay just kept adding on to the front. Pain in the but when you had to go in the attic.
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Chuckjav
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Username: Chuckjav

Post Number: 1250
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Wednesday, December 10, 2008 - 1:46 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

It is quite enjoyable to reminisce on old Detroit; back when you could relax (really relax) in your yard and not sweat whether someone was breaking into your house - or something altogether worse.

Anyhoo.....

I have heard something in the past about Avon Street; thought I would check Dearborn & Oak Park maps...see if Sorrento is called Avon in those towns - nope. The streets in our old 'hood go on for miles and miles; north, east, south and west.
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 3966
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Wednesday, December 10, 2008 - 3:42 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Um....it might have been "Avondale" now that I think of it a bit, Chuck. Trying hard do dig out the words spoken by Mom years ago......
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Fareastsider
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Username: Fareastsider

Post Number: 1038
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Thursday, December 11, 2008 - 3:32 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

1930s Alley.


The theory about alley access may make sense. As you can see in this photo of an alley freshly graveled while the roads were still dirt. In an old thread someone mentioned a newspaper article mentioning that people were upset alleys were paved but not the streets. Given that a few houses were scattered on acres of undeveloped lots especially on the cities west side that may make sense. Many of the homes on the west side were built after the depression on subdivisions platted in the teens and twenties. That would answer why they were in the back and often older.
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Chuckjav
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Username: Chuckjav

Post Number: 1251
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Thursday, December 11, 2008 - 8:29 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Wow....can you imagine how much it would cost to build the larger house in the photograph, same quality of construction - at today's prices.

Too weird looking at old photos of Detroit (1920s); feels like I am there - kind of creepy, actually.

Speaking of the west side....I really need to visit Rouge Park; have not been there since the very early 1980s - hopefully it hasn't been plundered by the lumber barons

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