Monday, February 25, 2019

(Photos) The abandoned homes of Detroit's Martin Park neighborhood

One of the many awesome things about Detroit--especially if you are an urban explorer--is that all you need to do is get to the Motor City, park your car, and start taking photos. It's that easy.

Gary, Indiana is like that too.


So when you enter Martin Park from the south you are greeted by this sign on Log Cabin Street at Puritan you are greeted by this sign, which reads, sort of, "Welcome to the Martin Park Community."


Just steps away is a onetime abandoned gas station.


On Eason and Log Cabin is this 1920s-vintage apartment building.



A short walk brings you to this heap of arson. Or presumed arson.


Within the far northwest side of Chicago there are two suburbs surrounded by the city, Harwood Heights and Norridge. There's a similar situation in north central Detroit with Hamtramck and Highland Park. The western boundary of Highland Park is a Midwestern rarity, a diagonal line that is not a road. So it's difficult to ascertain where Highland Park ends and Detroit begins. According to Google Maps, these abandoned and burnt-out homes on Geneva Avenue at Rosa Parks Boulevard are in Highland Park. I think.

Oh, Google Maps these houses weren't fired damaged when its Street View photos were uploaded.


Across the street lies this eyesore. It wasn't scorched by fire last July either.

When Henry Ford opened his massive Highland Park factory in 1910--which housed the world's first moving assembly line that built automobiles--Detroit coveted the suburb--and Hamtramck. Downtown Detroit and a few neighborhoods are on the rebound but the Motor City doesn't need more wasteland and presumably isn't interested in Highland Park anymore.

About two miles from here is the American Foursquare dwelling that was the home of Clint Eastwood's Walt Kowalski character in Gran Torino.


Here's a side view of that same house two pics up.


This green home at 1926 Geneva Avenue is not part of the Green New Deal.


This American Foursquare duplex at 16617 Log Cabin has been the target of metal thieves--a common crime in Detroit. Beneath the aluminum siding is asphalt brick.

The borders of Martin Park, roughly speaking, are Highland Park to the east, McNichols Road to the north, Livernois to the west--including the University of Detroit Mercy--and Puritan Avenue to the south.


One final American Foursquare.

It was immediately after I snapped this photograph when I saw a man about my age in crutches fall on what passes for a sidewalk in Detroit--which no one in the city seems to shovel after a snowfall. There was freezing rain the night before so walking was hazardous for everyone, including me.

As I explained last week in my post at Da Tech Guy, I gave him and his female friend, who should have been walking at his side, a ride to their destination, what they called a grocery but it seemed more like what they call in Michigan a party store, that is, a liquor outlet.

Related posts:

(Photos) Downtown Flint in winter

The abandoned homes of Highland Park, Michigan


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