February 5, 2010
February 4, 2010
Legends of Le Detroit
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
Fire and brimstone and Communism at Farmington’s Worker’s Camp
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
Fridays with General Friend Palmer: A most exciting fire
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
173 years of Michigan statehood
January 25, 2010
Lazy Monday flu-ridden round-up
Besides feeling swamped with projects, I’m terrified that I’m coming down with some kind of flu, so here are a few items to keep you busy in the event that I become bedridden or shackled to my (other, metaphorical, paid-gig) desk this week.
January 20, 2010
WHO WAS SILAS FARMER?
UPDATE: Silas Farmer’s death certificate is in the Michigan state archives. He died suddenly on December 28, 1902, apparently of a heart attack. He was living in present-day midtown, at 52 Selden, and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery. Next stop, as my mom sassily pointed out to me on Twitter (MOMS ON TWITTER!!), is a real-life library.
January 19, 2010
January 19, 1915: The neon sign is born
Once you’ve made yourself dizzy with grand leaps about the inextinguishable energy of commerce or the beacon of the American dream or even the fiery sleep-robbing power of business or the loneliness of an OPEN sign on a dark, snowy night:
January 18, 2010
Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 14, 2010
Historic Elmwood Cemetery & Environs
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).
January 13, 2010
Giants
January 6, 2010
Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company
Have you ever seen those old postcards — I tend to find them crammed in shoeboxes at antique stores — with luridly hued landscapes or blush-tinted street scenes and historical landmarks — photographs that almost look like rigid little paintings?
January 6, 2010
Stolen cannon and battle gear in Dearborn Heights
January 1, 2010
Happy birthday, General “Mad” Anthony Wayne
December 28, 2009
How a music blog brought me back to Michigan
December 22, 2009