March 10, 2010
Thomas W. Palmer, and his Park
A rustic log cabin, a massive Italianate marble fountain and an 18th-century bell from Spain at Senator Thomas W. Palmer’s park.
March 10, 2010
A rustic log cabin, a massive Italianate marble fountain and an 18th-century bell from Spain at Senator Thomas W. Palmer’s park.
March 1, 2010
We’re taking a brief leave of absence, but not before paying brief tribute to a Polish-American hero.
February 23, 2010
In the fall I wrote about the Peace Carillon on Belle Isle, an 85-foot limestone tower dedicated to Detroit News advice columnist Nancy Brown. It’s gorgeous, even though it’s starting to fall apart a little.
February 21, 2010
It was warmer and sunnier at last week’s end, so we went back to Maybury for another shot at finding the History Trail (and better photographic opportunities).
February 18, 2010
February 17, 2010
Charming summer postcards from a lake retreat.
February 16, 2010
We got off M-14 at Beck Road on our way home from a lunch date in Ann Arbor. My mom wanted me to pick up some cookies. I obliged.
February 12, 2010
I tried to think about some of my favorite historical couples, but I ended up dwelling on love affairs closer to home.
February 9, 2010
Despite a tremendous weekend that included Lightning Love and The Daredevil Christopher Wright in Ypsilanti, the Hounds Below at the Lager House, a live conjunto band and dancing at the Blue Diamond, a lot of Blatz, Modelo and PBR and a lot of reading, all of which should have been plenty of fodder, I’ve been coming down with a little sniffle of writer’s block this week, professionally, bloggingly, and otherwise.
February 5, 2010
February 4, 2010
If you like flowery Victorian prose, phantasms, grieving widows, pining French girls, French in general, haunted inanimate objects, werewolves, lyrical two-page long set-ups about a grandfather telling his kid a scary story, or — especially — Indian curses, you are going to love the shit out of this book.
February 2, 2010
A reader wrote to me a few days ago (a decision I highly encourage!) and asked if I’d ever seen the historical marker at 12 Mile and Halsted. I had to admit that although I knew where it was, I’d never stopped to read it, nor did I have any idea what it was all about, despite having driven by it approximately 100,000 times in my life.
January 28, 2010
I have always approached weekly themed blog posts, especially those involving alliteration, with trepidation. But then I found Early Days in Detroit, the memoirs of historical Detroit old guy General Friend Palmer (1820 – 1906), and I can’t think of any better way to dig through its 1000+ pages, each of them host to at least one illuminating, endearing, hilarious or otherwise just great anecdote, than to share some of the General’s memories of 19th-century Detroit every week.
January 26, 2010
January 18, 2010
January 14, 2010
Yet another tip off from History of Detroit for Young People, which included a stop in their self-guided tours at Mt. Elliott Cemetery to visit with the venerable Colonel Jean Francois Hamtramck. Colonel Hamtramck, who served as Lieutenant Colonel under Mad Anthony Wayne in the fight for the Northwest Territory, established and became the first commandant of Fort Wayne Detroit and officially settled the city of Detroit for America at Fort Lernoult on July 11, 1796 (instead of Mad Anthony, who was struck, fatally, with gout).