My first stop off the interstate in Youngstown was Wick Park, which is a historic district up on a plateau of sorts just north of the downtown area. The outstanding focal point of the neighborhood and sitting at the end of Park Avenue where it t-bones with 5th Avenue is the Stambaugh Auditorium. I think…
Tag: Vacant Lots
In Search of the Sidaway Bridge and John D. Rockefeller, Cleveland
Sometimes I go searching for something and I don’t find it, but the journey becomes interesting (and a little scary) in of itself. In this case, I went looking for the Sidaway Bridge, further up one of the tributaries of the Cuyahoga River, after reading about it online, and besides being fascinated by its structure,…
East of Downtown, Cleveland
Cleveland is much like St. Louis in that it is much longer than it is wide. In this case, however, the city stretches along a lake, and is longer east-west. St. Clair and Superior avenues in many ways are like the equivalents of North Broadway back in St. Louis, as well, passing through industrial zones…
Collingwood Boulevard and Ashland Avenue, Old West End, Toledo
South of the cathedral on Collingwood are a whole bevy of interesting houses, and a nice change of pace from Detroit’s architecture in a neighborhood known as the Old West End. This first mansion is the Edward Ford House, and like so many gigantic manses, was repurposed as an institutional building, becoming the Red Cross…
Indian Village, Detroit
Cruising by Mr. Fish on my to Grosse Pointe on the East Vernon Highway, I stumbled onto a mirage, a neighborhood of perfectly preserved houses along several long blocks with stately trees known as Indian Village due to several, but not all, of its streets being named after Native American nations. Indian Village is pretty…
East Grand Boulevard, Detroit
Terminating at the MacArthur Bridge, which leads out to Belle Isle, East Grand Boulevard stretches to the north-northwest, and is lined with fine houses that date to the early Twentieth Century. It makes ninety degree turn to become West Grand Boulevard, which we briefly looked at yesterday as part of our larger discussion of Grand…
The Grande Ballroom and Grand River Avenue, Detroit
One place I wanted to visit in Detroit was the Grande Ballroom on Grand River Avenue, northwest of downtown. While the building has been abandoned for decades, it once played a pivotal role in the development of rock and roll, particularly as it was where the band MC5 played early in their career. Other very…
Former Ford Piquette and Fisher Body Plants, Detroit
Henry Ford’s Piquette Avenue Plant remains one of the most important locations in industrial and consumer history, serving as the factory where the famous Model T, as well as a whole other alphabet or earlier prototypes were manufactured. While not the first place Ford operated, it is still of critical importance. Located north of downtown,…
Gary, Indiana, August 2023
I’m sure these two photos, above and below, are the classic “ruin porn” photos that most people seek out to take when they visit Gary, Indiana. And I’m not going to pretend that the city doesn’t have serious problems, and no one who lives there, I’m sure, is going pretend there aren’t thousands of acres…
Lee Avenue Between North Newstead and Warne Avenues
I don’t know what it is, but as soon as you cross over North Newstead Avenue into the Fairgrounds neighborhood, the trail drops out from underneath you. The housing stock is older, and that definitely plays a part. But what can I say when I cover a mile and 90% of all I see are…