July 24, 2015
The Paris of the Midwest
Detroit has changed a lot in 314 years. It has also changed a lot in five years.
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December 26, 2012
2012 in review + State of the nerdy local history blog
Where we’ve been, where we’re headed, and why you haven’t seen as much of me this year.
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April 5, 2012
Spring break
A picture book of spring in Detroit. Historical glimpses of weather patterns. A poem about Lake Erie. Plus, it’s Opening Day.
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February 7, 2012
Meditations on a Boat Club
The Detroit Boat Club, founded in 1839, is the oldest in the country. Its home on Belle Isle is crumbling, compelling, and calls home centuries of water sport.
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December 21, 2011
Christmas and Loneliness
A letter from sad William Woodbridge to his daughter Juliana, 1842.
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November 4, 2011
An injection of the past into the present to inform the future
Lost Landscapes of Detroit is this weekend at MOCAD, and its curator, Rick Prelinger, has some smart words about the relevance of Detroit history.
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October 24, 2011
Walter Owen Briggs: The opera
Walter Owen Briggs: unshakable, lavishly wealthy, sentimental, racist, beloved, reviled. Someone should write an opera about him.
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July 22, 2011
Detroit turns 310
Dear Detroit: Happy birthday. And chin up.
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April 13, 2011
The Spirit of Detroit
Five years ago today, on the first take-off-your-sweater-nice day in spring, in a college town on the stateline between Wisconsin and Illinois, I walked to a tattoo parlor, had this done, and then went out for a beer.
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December 30, 2010
Solomon Sibley’s pear, & a brave New Year
OR: What I learned about Detroit history in 2010.
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August 19, 2010
Workmen’s Circle Cemetery
In the early 1920s, my grandfather Isadore came to Detroit from what is now Belarus. My great-grandfather Yehuda was already here, building houses on the east side for the rapidly expanding community of other European immigrants settling at the boundaries the city.
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July 14, 2010
Ghost hunters
Before Sunday, I’m pretty sure I’d never taken a picture of Michigan Central Station.
But let’s backtrack.
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June 16, 2010
Making do
Fort Wayne could be closing. I’m trying to harden my heart. Starting with bike rides.
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May 23, 2010
On writing, about history and otherwise
Unequaled Detroit historian Silas Farmer has some advice for you.
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May 10, 2010
More on cemeteries: Elmwood in the springtime
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April 8, 2010
Opening Day, 1963
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