On this Date in Detroit History - DetroitYES 25th Anniversary Flashbacks

UPDATE: It's April 16, 2006 as we visit the empty streets of Downtown Pontiac where the elegant Strand Theater sits vacant and boarded up. Downtown Pontiac, filled with beautiful architecture, faced, and still does, an uncertain future.

https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...rand-40149.jpg

On This Date In Detroit History - DetroitYES 25th Anniversary Flashbacks

As the Discuss Detroit forum enters its 25th year, I thought I would start this thread to occasionally flash back to pictures, memories, and events that occurred on the current date in the history of Detroit-Windsor family of communities across the past 25 years. Below is my first for today Jan. 7. Please add your pictures, memories and thoughts below. And beyond the 25 years if desired.

Jan. 7, 2012. As the moon rises in the east, the empty ruin of the AAA Building sits amid the bleak mud lot of the former Statler Hotel. Beyond it lies the fading Whitney Building and, topping it, new windows of the being-renovated Broderick Tower can be seen although the upper floors are still boarded up. To the left the restaurant floor topping the Detroit Athletic club is yet to be added. To the right, the tower of the Metropolitan Building continues to decay. Behind it the recently-constructed Greektown Casino Hotel can be seen.

https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...atler-site.jpg

Thank you very much, Lowell, for maintaining this interesting and
valuable site for a quarter century. Congratulations on your
achievement!

Thanks for keeping this site going. It’s a daily visit of mine! Been on here since the old site and the fabulous ruins days ��

Lowell is there anyone else here besides Detroit_Stylin and myself that goes back in the the late 1990s? There are so many old timers that have been lost due to passing. And some have moved away... still miss Jjaba...

Back in the early days we invoked "Skipper's Rule" a lot, because so many development dreams were never to be [although that hasn't changed]. And back then there were a LOT of true Ruins of Detroit.

Sad that in those days we lamented the loss of Hudson's and the Statler. And back then nobody ever dreamed that the MCS would ever rise again.

And back then Peter Karmanos was the über developer to be talked about on the forums although since the Kwame "stink" and the fortunes of Compuware are nowhere what they once were, he's nowhere on the map for city development.

Back then nobody dreamed that Dan Gilbert would one day be Detroit's knight of redevelpment. Downtown would still be a hit and miss of major developments.

And then there's the Ilitches... I think that after Comerica Park opened up, and the Ilitches started their "Macedonian Parking Cartel", with little other development [while they waxed poetically about saving the Fox]. During the entire history of DYes... the Ilitches have never found a large following on this forum. That is except for Ilitch apologist MSU_Steve on DYes [he left the forum once he found out he was wrong], who thought that they would finally mend their ways with Little Caesars Arena... yeah right. In fact if there's one constant theme on DYes... it is that "will the Ilitches every come thru with more than just pretty pictures on their commitment to downtown"?

So many other tales to tell... with less financially endowed developers to talk about... ;)

I'm still around, Gistok, and have to agree that the originals of 25 years back have disappeared. Even though I had left Detroit for Nevada before Lowell started this chat site, I quickly latched on to it and have enjoyed it nearly every day since the start. Was back in Detroit last August and wandered about quite a bit. Was fun, although a few 'old' areas were a bit depressing to view. Still pull for the Lions, Tigers, and Wings. Don't ask about basketball, dumb game to start with. :)

Detroit sunsets don't get enough credit. Gorgeous.

2012. What a great and odd year. I can't recall where the Detroit bankruptcy was, maybe almost finished but there was a simultaneous feeling of inspiration and growth in Detroit. That latter sentiment overpowered whatever we read about Kevin Orr and outstanding debt obligations, pensions, and Synagro.

1999. I can't really share what Detroit was like when Lowell started this website.

Been on DetroitYES for a long time, but probably dating back only to the early '00s.

Met many interesting people, some passed on, some moved on, some I still see occasionally.

Learned so much Detroit history and architecture through this site.

Love the threads where fellow Forumers reminisced about the childhood neighborhoods, block by block, and then others chimed in and added to the story.

Thanks, Lowell, for this platform that has enriched our lives in so many ways!

--Kathleen & The Grillmaster

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kathleen

Been on DetroitYES for a long time, but probably dating back only to the early '00s.

Met many interesting people, some passed on, some moved on, some I still see occasionally.

Thanks, Lowell, for this platform that has enriched our lives in so many ways!

--Kathleen & The Grillmaster

---

Yeah, this age-old transplant to Nevada checks in here every day. Memories abound! You can take the Detroiter out of Detroit, but you can't take the Detroit out of a Detroiter. Although I am grateful to be away from the horrible taxes in Detroit/Michigan compared to Nevada.

For anyone interested, there's a book on this subject:
On This Day in Detroit History, by Bill Loomis.

I've been around since 2005; lots of history on this site and a lot of friends, some have left but still live, some no longer live. Ravine escaped the surly bonds of earth, but his humor still lives on in the archives.

I too go back to the early 2000s.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kathleen

Been on DetroitYES for a long time, but probably dating back only to the early '00s.

Met many interesting people, some passed on, some moved on, some I still see occasionally.

Learned so much Detroit history and architecture through this site.

Love the threads where fellow Forumers reminisced about the childhood neighborhoods, block by block, and then others chimed in and added to the story.

Thanks, Lowell, for this platform that has enriched our lives in so many ways!

--Kathleen & The Grillmaster

---

Thank you for the kind remarks. And now for today's flashback.

January 9, 2001 The boarded-up Redford High School sprawls along Grand River awaiting eventual demolition. In June 2015 a Meijer store opened on the Redford site. As of 2015 it was Meijer's second Detroit location. This store uses stonework from the former building. Forum Discussion in 2010https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...d-HS-56442.jpg

https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...d-HS-56458.jpg

As you get older, having been around a couple of decades just seems like it's recent.:) What was the guy's name who used to post who rode the Dexter bus? I'm picturing a "J".

I've been here since the early 2000s, but don't post much as I'm generally ignored these days. I miss Gannon a lot. I'm sorry Detroit Uke left, but Detroit Uke has had some tough times the past few years. I love everyone here.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gistok

...the Ilitches started their "Macedonian Parking Cartel"...

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;);) Ha ha ha, I love it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 401don

As you get older, having been around a couple of decades just seems like it's recent.:) What was the guy's name who used to post who rode the Dexter bus? I'm picturing a "J".

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That was Jjaba.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ray1936

That was Jjaba.

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thanks Ray. Two J's, even better!

I won a pair of socks from Jjaba in one of his contests....

Jjaba and The Rock used to be good friends... I wonder if either or both are still alive? I believe Jjaba moved to Portland, and The Rock lived in Grosse Pointe Shores. They were already retired long ago. Of course if Ray 1936 is still with us [and he's older than dirt :o], then maybe?

Jjaba was great on this forum... he always referred to himself in the "3rd person". :)

One thing different about now in 2024, as compared to the turn of the new millennium is how much we take for granted new developments now.

Back then something such as the completion of the Book Tower, or Hudson's block, MCS, or even the development where JLA used to be, each of these alone would generate a lot more hype back then... whereas now we have grown accustomed to developments in the hundreds of millions or billions of dollars.

Back then we were starved for developments... now we are gluttons!! :p

I’m really curious now when I joined. Some of the names jog distant memories! I remember when the Book Cadillac project happened and THAT was something!

I think I've been on here since the beginning. I think the screen was black with green letters, I believe. Congratulations Lowell!

Stromberg2

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gistok

Jjaba and The Rock used to be good friends... I wonder if either or both are still alive? I believe Jjaba moved to Portland, and The Rock lived in Grosse Pointe Shores. They were already retired long ago. Of course if Ray 1936 is still with us [and he's older than dirt :o], then maybe?

Jjaba was great on this forum... he always referred to himself in the "3rd person". :)

---

Sad to report that Arnold "Arnie" Panitch [[aka Jjaba) died just a couple months ago.
https://obits.oregonlive.com/us/obit...ry?id=53620805

His DYes handle Jjaba was derived from the first initials of the names of his three children, his wife, and himself: Joel, Jason, Adam, Barbara, Arnold.

Back in 2007, he honored me with a selection of postcards in honor of my 2000th DYes post. Just weeks later I sent him a prize honoring his 5000th DYes post.

Sad to hear, thank you Kathleen!

I can picture our Jjaba in heaven... going to a Tigers game with his old girlfriend... where as he used to say... "he kissed her on the strikes, and she kissed him on the balls"!! :o

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kathleen

Sad to report that Arnold "Arnie" Panitch [[aka Jjaba) died just a couple months ago....

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<gasp> No one could possibly meet the standards required to replace him. He was a truly unique individual.

Thank you, Kathleen.

Sad to hear that, Kathleen. Jjaba was a hall of famer for sure.

Stromberg2

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kathleen

Sad to report that Arnold "Arnie" Panitch [aka Jjaba] died just a couple months ago.
https://obits.oregonlive.com/us/obit...ry?id=53620805

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Damn. I am greatly saddened to learn this. I had kept in touch with jjaba, IRL Arnie, across the years. I took him on a tour of Detroit July 6, 2005 along with Rock and a friend of Rock's, whose name I do not recall. In Sept. of 2018, he returned the favor by taking my wife and I on a streetcar tour of Portland, when I passed through there following my Peace Corps reunion in Northern California.

I last heard from him this past October 29, when he emailed one his jokes but there was no mention of any health issues. Beside adding levity and Detroit history to this forum he was indispensable in providing information on Detroit Jewish history and culture when I was creating the Lost Synagogues of Detroit site.

https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...jaba-17763.jpg

Jjaba with the Rock [left] at the site of the Studebaker Plant on Piquette. on July 6, 2005. The abandoned plant had burned down earlier that year. Jjaba took a brick home as a memento.

Addendum: The Studebaker site is today, and has been for about ten years, the site of a large four-story affordable residence for veterans.

Happy Anniversary Fabulous Ruins of Detroit.

Happy Anniversary, Lowell! Thanks for keeping the place up for the last 25 years! I don't think I go back to 99, but I am pretty sure I go back to around 2001. Time flies when you're having fun.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sarge

Happy Anniversary, Lowell! Thanks for keeping the place up for the last 25 years! I don't think I go back to 99, but I am pretty sure I go back to around 2001. Time flies when you're having fun.

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Thanks Sarge, and I can see that you are a "Niner". In March 2009, when the Discusware forum software was no longer supported, we migrated to vBulletin. As you likely recall we were unable to migrate the accounts and their passwords requiring everyone to rejoin. I can see from the join date in the upper right of your post that was March 2009 for you. Almost all Niners were on the old forums.

I had found a vestige of the 1999 forum with 1999 dates but cannot relocate it a the moment. It used a very inadequate Microsoft Front Page forum package and the following year we migrated to Discusware.

Click/tap here to see the earliest vestige I currently can find from 2000.

Note this is an image, which I didn't place here as it would stretch the page immensely. One can't click what appear to be links and see the posts but the usernames are visible and reveal some recognizable ones like gistok, Detroit Stylin, and jjaba.

Today's flashback, January 15, 2004, takes us into the snows of January in the Dequindre Cut, a long abandoned railroad route that by then had become the haunt of graffiti artists and the homeless. Since then it has been beautifully transformed into pedestrian railway that connects Detroit's Riverfront with Eastern market and continues to be developed northwards.
Attachment 42981

https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...uindre-cut.jpg

Happy Anniversary, Fabulous Ruins of Detroit! And thank you, Lowell, for the past 25 years!

I don't remember exactly when I first posted here, but it was fairly early, like in 1999 or 2000. I don't spend as much time in the city now as I did back then, but I do pop in here from time to time to see what's going on.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gistok

Lowell is there anyone else here besides Detroit_Stylin and myself that goes back in the the late 1990s? There are so many old timers that have been lost due to passing. And some have moved away... still miss Jjaba...

Back in the early days we invoked "Skipper's Rule" a lot, because so many development dreams were never to be [although that hasn't changed]. And back then there were a LOT of true Ruins of Detroit.

Sad that in those days we lamented the loss of Hudson's and the Statler. And back then nobody ever dreamed that the MCS would ever rise again.

And back then Peter Karmanos was the über developer to be talked about on the forums although since the Kwame "stink" and the fortunes of Compuware are nowhere what they once were, he's nowhere on the map for city development.

Back then nobody dreamed that Dan Gilbert would one day be Detroit's knight of redevelpment. Downtown would still be a hit and miss of major developments.

And then there's the Ilitches... I think that after Comerica Park opened up, and the Ilitches started their "Macedonian Parking Cartel", with little other development [while they waxed poetically about saving the Fox]. During the entire history of DYes... the Ilitches have never found a large following on this forum. That is except for Ilitch apologist MSU_Steve on DYes [he left the forum once he found out he was wrong], who thought that they would finally mend their ways with Little Caesars Arena... yeah right. In fact if there's one constant theme on DYes... it is that "will the Ilitches every come thru with more than just pretty pictures on their commitment to downtown"?

So many other tales to tell... with less financially endowed developers to talk about... ;)

---

That is a good question. I havent seen Jjaba in YEARS.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kathleen

Sad to report that Arnold "Arnie" Panitch [[aka Jjaba) died just a couple months ago.
https://obits.oregonlive.com/us/obit...ry?id=53620805

His DYes handle Jjaba was derived from the first initials of the names of his three children, his wife, and himself: Joel, Jason, Adam, Barbara, Arnold.

Back in 2007, he honored me with a selection of postcards in honor of my 2000th DYes post. Just weeks later I sent him a prize honoring his 5000th DYes post.

---

Thats tragic. That answers my question. I used to love his wit and humor.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Detroit Stylin

Thats tragic. That answers my question. I used to love his wit and humor.

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Hey old timer... ;) Remember how Jjaba used to talk in the 3rd person about himself... it was one of the things that made him such a colorful character! As I mentioned to Kathleen... Jjaba used to reminisce going to Tiger games with his girlfriend... where "he kissed her on the strikes, and she kissed him on the balls"!! :o

Thank you Lowell! As I mentioned in another thread Detroityes is a great reference point for historical information for Detroit! Happy New Year!

I was a long time lurker but joined after ItsJeff passed. There was a radio story on Craig Fahlie’s show about the funeral and it spurred me to join.

Thank you Lowell.

there are so many I miss: Gannon, Django, Ravine … an honor to know them. All of them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kathleen

Sad to report that Arnold "Arnie" Panitch [[aka Jjaba) died just a couple months ago.
https://obits.oregonlive.com/us/obit...ry?id=53620805

His DYes handle Jjaba was derived from the first initials of the names of his three children, his wife, and himself: Joel, Jason, Adam, Barbara, Arnold.

Back in 2007, he honored me with a selection of postcards in honor of my 2000th DYes post. Just weeks later I sent him a prize honoring his 5000th DYes post.

---

I realize it it has been a minute since Jjaba passed, but I think we should all take the opportunity and write something on the memorial page displayed above.

Today's flashback takes us back to this date on January 23, 2008 and an ice-choked Straits of Detroit between Windsor and Detroit as seen from the western tip of Belle Isle.
https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...aits-belle.jpg

I was joined on a winter drive-about by my late friend Lonnie Butler as we next visited the recently built and buttoned-up-for-winter Rivard Plaza of the Detroit Riverwalk. The weather reminded us of many days spent in similar weather delivering appliances together as Sears delivery drivers.
https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...its-rivard.jpg

Rivard Plaza is also the location of the paver commemorating famed DetroitYES member ItsJeff [Colby] whose untimely passing motivated members of the forum to donate for this memorial along with a memorial bench on Belle Isle.
https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...ts-itsjeff.jpg

February 1, 2012, the rays of the day's dying sun paints the abandoned and dying Book Tower in Downtown Detroit and illuminates its empty interior.

Since those seemingly hopeless days the Book Tower and adjacent Book Building have been magnificently restored to their former glory, as has been followed across those years by the members of the DetroitYES forum.

https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...Book-Tower.jpg

The Book Tower, to me, was always the signpost of downtown Detroit. As I always lived very close to Grand River, it was the horizon marker that I stared at for years and years. Yup.

Fond times working in the Book Tower during the early days of my Gale career! Our offices were on several floors of the building. Lunches were often picked up at the Kwikee...soup of the day was my fave! And donuts for breakfast!! Parked in a 25-cent lot off Grand River near I-75. Watched the Trolley Plaza being built...and obscuring our northern view looking towards Grand Circus. Hoping to see the renovated building soon!!

Hi Ray!!

You're in for a treat Kathleen, particularly in the now-spectacular Book Building Atrium.

https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...g-interior.jpg

Happy Anniversary Detroit Yes! I rarely post, but drop in from time to time. I was reading all the replies to Lowell’s post with some members mentioning when they joined the forum. I couldn’t remember exactly, so I had to check my profile which says I joined in 2009. Say What??!! Windows 98 days? :confused: Old desk top, keyboard, & tower! All long gone! Now I just use my phone. Oh my!! How ancient!! I am old!! :rolleyes:

I remember reading an article that was in the Freep, I think it was about ItsJeff & Detroit Yes, so I thought this was a great way to learn more about the in’s and out’s, good times & bad, new developments, opinions, etc, about our beloved home.
Thank you Lowell!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by msamslex

I couldn’t remember exactly, so I had to check my profile which says I joined in 2009.

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There was a system changeover in 2009 so everybody who was a member at that time shows a join date of 2009.You probably started before that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 401don

There was a system changeover in 2009 so everybody who was a member at that time shows a join date of 2009.You probably started before that.

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Thank you 401don. Thats right. I’d forgotten all about that now that you mention it. I don’t remember exactly when I joined then. Still a long time ago though.

February 4, 2024 a visit to the Gordie Howe Bridge. Slated to completion later this year the arms of the new bridge reach out to each other across the Straits of Detroit. The handshake moment between the two countries of our international metropolis is approaching.

https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...rdieHowe-1.jpg

https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...rdieHowe-2.jpg

Looking to the east the Ambassador Bridge, currently the only above water crossing between the border cities, frames Downtown Detroit where one can see the rising Hudson Site Building whose height will rival the twin towers of the bridge.
https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...rdieHowe-3.jpg

Memo to self and others, for best lighting arrive in the morning so the bridge is illuminated from behind you, as seen in this view from the west along the Zug Island road.

https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...rdieHowe-4.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by renf

Thank you very much, Lowell, for maintaining this interesting and
valuable site for a quarter century. Congratulations on your
achievement!

---

Ditto

Is no one going to mention ItsJeff, Jeff Colby? We became e-mail pals off of the forum.

I think I discovered this site in the early 2000's. It led me to the engineers who designed the plan for demolishing the J.L. Hudson Company, who sold me a couple of mementos of the building where my dad worked for 30 years and I had my first summer job. I still have dreams about the store. DetroitYes has been my source of information on the old Detroit and the birth of something new. I'm glad I was able to contribute a few insights and only a little trolling. I have never met any of the other participants, but maybe I will someday, if we can all check in to the MC Depot hotel. Best wishes to everyone, and thanks to Lowell.

Did you miss the It's Jeff plaque picture Lowell posted above?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by missn

Is no one going to mention ItsJeff, Jeff Colby? We became e-mail pals off of the forum.

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And surely there will be more memories of ItsJeff share soon as the anniversary of his death draws near. On February 14, it will be 17 years since we lost our dear friend and DetroitYES leader.

Thanks again for all the kind remarks and, I must say, it is great to see some 'old' members resurface and chime in!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lowell

You're in for a treat Kathleen, particularly in the now-spectacular Book Building Atrium.

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Lowell: We dropped by the Book Tower yesterday for a look-see! Magnificent!! The Atrium is stunning!! The glass dome is really beautiful. Happy to see the lobby clock all restored.

We spent a few minutes in the Book Tower historical exhibit. Very interesting. Brought back some memories.

And we wandered about the atrium lobby, both ground and second levels, checking out the art works done by local artists, including Shirley Woodson, Sydney James, Mario Moore, and Gilda Snowden, and others.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jcole

Did you miss the It's Jeff plaque picture Lowell posted above?

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Thanks. I did miss it.

Thank you, Lowell, for maintaining this wonderful site!!

I lurked for several years before signing up ... your Ruins of Detroit site dispelled any fantasies of what Detroit had become since I left Michigan c.1976. And DetroitYES offered a glimmer of hope ... now it's great to be able to see the city rising from bankruptcy and despair ... Thank you a million times!!

On this date February 14, 2002, the Belle Stables, ravaged by fire and the elements awaits eventual demolition. Reportedly elements of the stables were salvaged and turned over to the Henry Ford Museum for possible reconstruction, but I have no confirmation of that. Does anyone?

The stables once connected to a network of bridle paths that criss-crossed the adjacent Belle Isle forest.
https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...le-Stables.jpg

Detroit's Central Market, built in 1861 on Cadillac Square closed in 1894, and spent the next 110 years at Belle Isle changed almost beyond recognition to being the Belle Isle Stables, which had that fire back about 20+ years ago.

Greenfield Village dismantled it, and restored the framework of the building back to its' 1861 look... job well done! Although I thought that it would have made a nice addition to historic Eastern Market on the site of where the former Shed 1 was located [on the parking lot in front of R. Hirt Building].

But anyway... it's great that it is reborn!! :o

https://www.thehenryford.org/visit/g...entral-market/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gistok

Greenfield Village dismantled it, and restored the framework of the building back to its' 1861 look... job well done!
But anyway... it's great that it is reborn!! :o

https://www.thehenryford.org/visit/g...entral-market/

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Awesome! Thanks for pointing that out Gistok and its interesting history. Reminds me the I am overdue for an update visit to Greenfield Village / Henry Ford Museum. Here it is from their site.
Attachment 43030

Congrats to you, Lowell, for your longevity and devotion to DetroitYes and providing such a great platform to highlight the CoD! I guess that I would be considered an "old-timer", as I joined this site in around 2004 or so. I still check in every once in a while, but I haven't lived in Michigan since 2021, so I really only stalk the posts now. I still consider D'Yes to be the go to for all things Detroit, but the players that made it what it was for me have all but disappeared or are no longer with us. Gone are the days of Gannon, Django, Ravine, the irascible ItsJeff, BobL, Hornblower, Scs101, Jams and the list goes on. Good to see gnome, Gistok, Stromberg, jcole, Kathleen, Lowell and several others, too. May this forum go on for another 25 years. Take care everyone!

^ Well stated PRes!

^^

Hello to PlymouthRes! Hope all is well. Thanks for checking in!

On this date March 6, 2010 the one room former country school Thayer School sits boarded up amid Metro-Detroit's ever-encroaching urban sprawl in Northville Township. Behind it rests Thayer Cemetery. A TV antenna, now a relic too, curiously sits atop it.

https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...yer-School.jpg

"Built in 1877 on land purchased from Rufus Thayer, the first settler at 6 Mile and Napier Road, Thayer School is the oldest one-room schoolhouse on its original site in Northville Township. It was a school until 1952 when it was closed and purchased by Mr. Thayer’s great granddaughter and then was a home for 40 years until being sold to Arbor Hills Landfill. Thayer Cemetery was created in 1838 when Mr. Thayer and his wife lost their infant son George who was buried on their property at 6 Mile and Napier. The historic district was created by the Northville Township Board of Trustees in 2011." Source

I have passed this many times; it's on my backroad route to Ann Arbor. It is also cater-corner to a massive landfill. From this latest Google Street view it appears to have been sand-blasted with a new roof and be undergoing a restoration.

This has been a great place to visit over the years. My current profile says Apr 2010, but I was on here while I was still living in the metro Detroit area. [[pre-2007)

I thought I knew my east side history, but there was/is a couple folks that boggled my mind with their knowledge. Educated me a lot more about the Leesville area which my people were around by the 1840's. One kind soul, another name I don't remember even gave me his copy of Wm Sugar's 1953 book about Leesville. At least thru marriage I think I was related to all the big families from that area.

I loved the many threads on Detroit history, and the help I got from some other kind souls, handle names I don't remember now. A former MichCon boy like myself, got me a couple MichCon history books that was printed long ago.

One name I do remember is tponetom. A lovely kind soul, that I miss exchanges with. His missives about him and wife Peggy who were then living in the UP always warmed my heart.
Thanks so much for your dedication to this site Lowell. I don't visit much in recent years, the bickering is distasteful and one poster in particular who is fond of making War and Peace level posts, makes me ill, he is hard to ignore or avoid since he chimes in on almost every thread.

^ That UP connection was very nice from tponetom.

March 21, 2003 the remains of the gilded age Ransom Gillis mansion lie in seemingly hopeless ruin.

https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...som-Gillis.jpg

It would be magnificently restored showing that if the will is there, nothing is beyond hope of restoration.

Speramus Meliora Resurget Cineribus!

The Completely Restored Ransom Gillis House - December 3, 2015
http://detroityes.com/webisodes/2015...illis-2015.jpg

October 4, 2018, once a lonely ruin the Ransom Gillis House is now in the center of the massive redevelopments of Brush Park. Read more here >>

Ransom Gillis House - August 2, 2000
http://detroityes.com/webisodes/2015...illis-2000.jpg

Ransom Gillis House Oct. 24, 2015
http://detroityes.com/webisodes/2015...m-gillis-6.jpg

Ransom Gillis House Sept. 25, 2015
http://detroityes.com/webisodes/2015...m-gillis-5.jpg

And with it a newly revitalized Brush Park neighborhood would rise.

http://detroityes.com/webisodes/2018...anomGillis.jpg

Ransom Gillis in Winter 2005
http://detroityes.com/webisodes/2015...shouse2005.jpg

Thank you for updating this, Lowell. It is really amazing how they brought back this building from near oblivion. Triumph of the will and a lot of heart.

Lowell... when seeing photos like the Ranson Willis house, I am sadly reminded of driving thru this neighborhood back in the 1980s, when there were about 4 times the number of these homes still intact, but derilect. The city did some street work to highlight these homes, but no one was interested back then.

That was so sad to see because had they all survived, then much of Gilbert's Brush Park development would have had to have been built elsewhere. But as the decades progressed, fewer and fewer homes survived... and today we have these restored gems interspersed with modern construction, which is an odd mixture of styles.

Although I am glad they are restored, these streets just don't have the feeling of a neighborhood that streets like West Canfield and East Ferry have. But that is obvious.

April 4, 2015 we head "Down Riveria" shoreline city of River Rouge for visit to Belanger Park.

This lovely carved-out niche sits tucked between a massive Great Lakes Steel facility and the Detroit Edison Plant seen the background.
https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...-Park-pano.JPG

A lone fisherman tends his lines on this beaming early spring day.
https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...-Park-fish.JPG

Beyond him the skyline of downtown stretches across the horizon. The landmark Renaissance Center sits across the elbow of Canadian land that marks the big bend toward Lake Erie in straits of Detroit.
https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...k-downtown.JPG

Remarkably he had caught a rainbow trout, a species the Detroit River is not know for.
https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...Park-trout.JPG

A commerotive plaque dating from 1978 announces the creation of Belanger Park. Bravo to the City of River Rouge for creating this moment of beauty amid the grinding industrial shoreline.
https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...-Park-sign.JPG

It's April 16, 2006 as we visit the empty streets of Downtown Pontiac where the elegant Strand Theater sits vacant and boarded up. Downtown Pontiac, filled with beautiful architecture, faced, and still does, an uncertain future.

https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...rand-40149.jpg

Further north on Saginaw Avenue the centerpiece of Pontiac, the 1929 art deco gem, the Oakland Towne Center, formerly the Pontiac State Bank Building, beamed in the spring sunlight.

https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...tiac-State.jpg

On the positive side, this Google Street view image from 15 years later in 2021 shows the Strand restored.

https://detroityes.com/webisodes/202...nd-in-2021.jpg