Two Approaches to City Building
This week we take two examples locally, to demonstrate how city building should and should not be done. The Bank One building on the north-west corner of the important intersection of Biddle and Eureka Ave. is a product of urban renewal and the idea that we need to save a...
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Combining Arts & Culture and Heritage to Spur Renaissance
We would be misled to look to our past with nostalgia. Ask those who can remember what life was like 80 or 90 years ago and they will likely tell you about unsanitary conditions, difficulty traveling between different places and transporting goods, insular attitudes and small-mindedness of villagers, but above...
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The Spirit of Wyandotte
Wyandotte has embraced a spirit of ceaseless change and unbounded growth from its very start, or what Joseph Schumpter and Max Page term “creative destruction.” Being an industrial boom-town as it was in the 1850s and afterwards, time was not taken to create a city much worth saving, and when...
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Creating Cool Downriver
“Cool” no longer means those people you did or did not sit with at lunch. Now, cool and creating cool means economic development and generating cold, hard cash for communities throughout Michigan. Richard Florida in his widely read book The Rise of the Creative Class identified a group of 38...
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What Will Happen With the Marx Brewing Company Site?
What is today a parking lot between Oak and Elm streets, and between the backs of buildings that line Biddle Ave and the Detroit River, was once the heart of our busy waterfront in Wyandotte. What is today a parking lot between Oak and Elm streets, and between the backs...
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Nine New Michigan Historical Markers for Wyandotte
Laura Ashlee may have the best job in Michigan state government. For that matter, she, and all of her colleagues at the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) do deeply meaningful and rewarding work. The SHPO helps to connect Michigan communities to their heritage, and to use that heritage to strengthen...
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Why Not Wyandotte?
Main Street has had many commentators, bards, and prophets through the years. When Sinclair Lewis published his classic book, “Main Street” in 1920, it was a scathing critique of the small-mindedness and parochial views of the inhabitants of Gopher Prairie. Residents there opposed efforts of the books’ protagonist Carol Kennicot...
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Delirious Wyandotte
In writing Delirious New York, Rem Koolhaas intended to provide a “retroactive manifesto” for how New York City and its unique urban form came to be. In it he cites things such as the grid, the tower, and the architecture of fantasy. What might a retroactive manifesto for Wyandotte include?...
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Making Better Public Spaces in Downtown Wyandotte
Over the past several decades Wyandotte has transformed from an industrial economy dominated by large factories lining the river, to a more exclusively residential one with many of these factories being replaced by houses and parks. The entire east side of Biddle Ave. between Elm and Eureka was occupied by...
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The Saga of the Eberts House Continues
Last week we introduced the 133-year old Eberts House and made a case for its preservation. Let me thank my many readers who expressed interest and encouragement on this important subject. This valuable historic resource received what amounts to a temporary “stay of execution” when the City Engineer in a...
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Save the 1870’s Eberts House!
Up to this point, this series has dealt with existing historic buildings that have been damaged and lost their integrity through insensitive changes. This week our series will highlight a historic building that is currently neglected, but with quick and decisive action from local leaders, could be brought to life...
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Clever Costume of the 1893 First Commercial Bank
For those of you who follow this column closely, you may recall that the Wyandotte Savings Bank was Wyandotte’s first bank, founded in 1871 at the corner of Biddle Ave. and Elm in the building that we now call the Municipal Services Building. Photo of First Commercial Bank Building from...
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Wyandotte’s Historic Arlington Hotel
Occasionally the march of history across decades and centuries is interrupted by moments whose impact is felt in all the years to the follow. Such a moment was shared by 50 representatives of Detroit-area preservation organizations at the Masonic Temple in Detroit last Tuesday evening. The National Trust for Historic...
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The Eureka Iron & Steel Works Headquarters
Driving along Biddle Avenue in Wyandotte, you may fail to notice one of the most historic buildings – the Eureka Iron & Steel Works headquarters. The Eureka Iron Works was “America’s First Bessemer Steel Mill,” established by Detroit businessmen led by Eber Ward in 1854. Major John Biddle’s estate, “The...
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Integrating Historic Preservation and Community Development in Areas of Concentrated Poverty
While the number of people living in concentrated poverty in the United States has decreased between 1990 and 2000, the land area considered severely distressed (where 40% or more of residents live below the poverty level) has increased. This situation poses unique challenges for what to do with the people...
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