  Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 64 Registered: 09-2007 |
I just looked at the Dobel street aerial views. Take yourself a satellite view at the neighborhood surrounding Oakman Elementary School; truth-told...for full effect, it is best seen at ground level. Oakman Elementary is located on Wadsworth (one block north of Plymouth, between Meyers & Schaefer; this is the neighborhood where I grew up. This is also the neighborhood where I have seen deer, turkey, and pheasant wandering about during recent visits. The area appears well on its way to going full-circle; back to an era when it was known as Greenfield Township - prior to annexation by Detroit...in the 1920s. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 1947 Registered: 01-2005 |
Just down the street from my grandparents home on Sorrento, Chuck. I have some photos from the 1930s with that school in the background. If I ever get my scanner hooked up to my new puter I'll post 'em. I walked past that school every day in 1941-42 going from grandma's house (where I lived for a year) to kindergarten at Parker School. I was told it was a school for crippled children, and it always seemed a little spooky to me. | ||
Cman710 Member Username: Cman710 Post Number: 364 Registered: 07-2006 |
I will try to find an old aerial photo when I have time later on. The area does look quite blighted from the air. Here is the current view:  | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 1948 Registered: 01-2005 |
Looks worse from the ground, Cman.  | ||
Cman710 Member Username: Cman710 Post Number: 365 Registered: 07-2006 |
Here's Microsoft's "Birds-Eye" view of the immediate area:  | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 65 Registered: 09-2007 |
Oh yes, Cman710....that's exactly what I'm talking about; the birdseye view really tells the tale. I actually inquired with the City of Detroit as to possible purchase of several vacant lots; despite numerous attempts - my calls were never answered....God's Honest Truth. Ray.....yes, Oakman is a school for the physically handicapped. Please do post photos when you have the opportunity. Looks like we have more than just Mackenzie in common; I attended Parker in 1969 - an absolutely beautiful facility...very nice teachers too. | ||
Cman710 Member Username: Cman710 Post Number: 366 Registered: 07-2006 |
Here is an aerial shot from 1967. The quality is poor since I had to enlarge it quite a bit. When I have time, I will check out other years' photos and see if I can enlarge any of them without losing as much quality.  | ||
Motorcitydave Member Username: Motorcitydave Post Number: 98 Registered: 11-2004 |
The difference between a summer and winter/early spring pic (no leaves on the trees). | ||
Cman710 Member Username: Cman710 Post Number: 367 Registered: 07-2006 |
Yes. Hopefully, I can find a year where the picture was taken during the late fall/winter/early spring. | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 66 Registered: 09-2007 |
Anyone out there remember this neighborhood, circa early to mid 1960s? My family moved into a home just a couple of blocks north of Oakman Elementary, in March of 1969. Back then, I had a sense that the neighborhood had been very nice....but by Spring of '69 - it was rapidly going to hell in a hand basket. I mean, we couldn't even go outside for fear of getting beaten up - or worse. Those were not the good old days. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 1949 Registered: 01-2005 |
Chuck, here's a photo of my grandparents with my aunt about 1935. That house behind them is on the SE corner of Sorrento and Foley, and is still there (and in pretty good shape, last time I was by). But the grandparents house 2 lots south is long gone; it's a vacant lot now.  | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 68 Registered: 09-2007 |
Ray....amazing how rural everything looks. I know that house (and the aforementioned vacant lots); the home always looked nice to me, I remember the folks living there as being elderly. Was anyone from your family still living there in 1969? | ||
Cman710 Member Username: Cman710 Post Number: 368 Registered: 07-2006 |
1961:  | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 1951 Registered: 01-2005 |
"Was anyone from your family still living there in 1969?" No, the grandparents had to sell their house and move in with my folks in 1950 due to the illness of my grandmother. Our house wasn't that far away; Steel and Schoolcraft. | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 70 Registered: 09-2007 |
Ray...Steel & Schoolcraft; I see what you mean about having a choice between Cooley & Mackenzie - Hubbell & Fenkell would be a short jog from your house. I always marvel at how far & wide Mackenzie's draw was (prior to the construction of Cody High). One former Mackite once told me that she lived right beside Rouge Park...and went to school at Mackenzie! Ray...any other pictures of the old neighborhood? | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 1952 Registered: 01-2005 |
Yeah, I have a few, but they're not scanned. I'll try to get the driver for my scanner loaded into my new computer tomorrow and see what I can do. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 1953 Registered: 01-2005 |
Chuck, here's some photos of the fourplex on the NW corner of Ward and Capitol. Top one is from 1937, bottom one I took two years ago. We also lived in the upper left apt. at that earlier time.   | ||
Cman710 Member Username: Cman710 Post Number: 369 Registered: 07-2006 |
Hi Ray, I am actually surprised at how similar it looks today, after all these years. If not for the bars and the extra foliage out front, it would look very similar. When was this house built? The lack of vegetation outside the house in the first picture might be indicative of it being recently built. On the other hand, that might just be how the house was kept. During the Depression, I doubt many people had money for landscaping! | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 76 Registered: 09-2007 |
Cman....I agree, that is one well built home...has really stood the test of time. Ray...Thank you for the pictures. Do you have any early remembrances of the neighborhood, in terms of open space and number of homes in the immediate area. Was there still any farm houses and/or barns...open lots/field, similar to what we see there today? What about animals such as deer, pheasant, birds of prey? | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 1954 Registered: 01-2005 |
I checked on the City of Detroit Assessor's web site (fee required) and learned it was built in 1927, so it was about ten years old on the first shot. The area as I remember it in the forties was well built up with homes. There were a large number of homes that were built on the back portion of lots, rather than the front. You can still see a few in those aerial shots posted by Cman. Of course, alleys ran down behind all the houses; they have since been abandoned. Any farm house in the area had been demolished by the time of my memories. There were some vacant lots scattered here and there, and of course there was the DTRR right of way between Foley and Fullerton that was kind of like a rustic area. Also, Sorrento had a little dead end stump between Foley and the Railroad, and it was a great place for kids to play ball. That stump is still there, the road never did cross the tracks. http://maps.google.com/maps?ie =UTF8&ll=42.379712,-83.17189&s pn=0.001641,0.003616&t=k&z=18& om=1 | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 78 Registered: 09-2007 |
Ray....at the left border of the satellite photo, you can see the vacant lot where our house once stood (NE c/o Ward & Foley); that house was also built in 1927. A family by the name of McLennan (sp) lived there from '27 until March of '69, when my family bought the home. At least a couple of McLennan children attended Mackenzie, from roughly 1943 through '47; the parents left a big stack of DIAL magazines in the basement...along with a treasure trove of Detroit Times, Detroit News, Stars & Stripes, LIFE, LOOK, Coronet, Reader's Digest - it was amazing. During the first year we lived on Foley - when we never left the house, I would sit in the "bunker" and read all those magazines. I was only eleven at the time, but I caught the Mackenzie Stag Fever - that's for sure....reading those DIAL magazines made me think "I am definitely going to Mackenzie when I grow up". Then, a year later, while attending Drew....watching mayhem ensue, up and down Wyoming - it was open season on white folks. I thought "how the hell am I ever going to Mackenzie"? Well, three years...and five schools later - there I was - at Mackenzie! I believe that I have just threadjacked my own thread. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 1958 Registered: 01-2005 |
Yeah, sure were different times from when I was in that neck of the woods. When did your house on Ward and Foley get torn down? Was it abandoned, or fire, or what? | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 80 Registered: 09-2007 |
Ray...near as I can tell, the house partially burned and was subsequently bulldozed, in either 1997 or '98. I am tempted to bring a mattock pick & shovel up there for some treasure hunting...might just find a DIAL or two. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 1960 Registered: 01-2005 |
Would be interesting, Chuck. My grandparents hous disappeared sometimbe between 1984 and 2000, but I'm not sure what happened. I suppose it became vacant and burned, but that's conjecture. It was the fourth lot south of Foley on Sorrento, east side of street. Didn't get a chance to fool around with hooking up my scanner today....little anniversary celebration around here. Maybe tomorrow. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 1964 Registered: 01-2005 |
Well, shit. Chuck, I tried to hook up my HP scanner to my new computer today. No go; turns out it is not compatable with Windows Vista, which is the OS for the new 'puter. Went to the HP web site, but there is no fix for it. I think it's a friggin' racket among these computer manufacturers. Anyway, I ordered a new (Canon) scanner that works with Vista, so it'll be another week before I can scan some of those old neighborhood photos. |
