USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. I > Part 44
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As early as 1878, there came into existence the Detroit Association of Charities, which has its counterpart at the present day. Fifty-two different churches and charities joined in this association, the object of which was to prevent imposition, repress street begging, and assist the deserving poor. As in many other charitable movements in Detroit at this time, Mrs. Morse Stewart
THE FIRST INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL BUILDING ON NORTHWEST CORNER OF WASHINGTON BOULEVARD AND GRAND RIVER AVENUE IN 1879
SECOND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL BUILDING, CORNER OF GRAND RIVER AND WASHINGTON BOULEVARD Still standing
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was the guiding spirit. She virtually inaugurated this particular work, as she did numerous other charities. Mrs. Stewart was Isabella Graham Duffield, daughter of Rev. George Duffield, for thirty years pastor of the First Presby- terian Church. Mrs. Stewart gave her life to the labors which she loved, and her philanthropic service to the community, which ended only with her death in 1888, have hardly been surpassed by any individual since that time.
THE COMMUNITY UNION
As mentioned before, a group of the strictly charitable associations had lor g been grouped under the general care of the Associated Charities. In 1917, in order to avoid the annoyance and duplication of work that came from separate solicitation of funds for each institution, forty-two different agencies were brought together in a "Community Union," or "Detroit Patriotic Fund," as it was first called, and a single seven days' "drive" was arranged for raising the amount needed for all. This was combined with the Red Cross and other war and relief funds. The total amount asked was $7,070,000, of which $661,400 was for the Community Fund, and the amount was over-subscribed. In November, 1919, the Community Union included in its budget fifty-six public welfare agencies. These agencies, it was stated, served no fewer than 100,000 people in the course of a year, and the amount asked for their support in 1920 was $5,500,000. The settlement houses, those societies which aid the poor and sick, assistance to foreigners unused to their new surroundings, mothers' clubs, sewing, cooking and home-making schools, instructions in hygiene, nurseries, medical and dental clinics, recreational activities, and the various community centers are but a few of the diverse departments of the Community Union ..
DETROIT PUBLIC WELFARE COMMISSION
Through its public welfare commission, established by the new city charter to take the place of the poor commission the City of Detroit itself performs a notable work in the field of charities. Its work has to do with outdoor relief and institutional relief, such as aid for the needy, old age pensions, prisoners' dependents, burial relief, transportation for non-residents, medical care, Re- ceiving hospital, indigent sick in private hospitals, Eloise Infirmary, Eloise Hospital for the Insane, and the Eloise Tuberculosis Sanatorium. The various duties of the commission are performed through the following bureaus: relief, medical, social service, employment, registration, ambulance, purchasing and accounting. The work of the board of health and other city departments all goes to make up the vast effort which the City of Detroit puts forth to care for her unfortunate citizens.
The work of the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Volunteers of America, private associations, manufactories, and individuals, is a record of charitable achievement ranking with those of the larger cities of the country.
CARE OF POOR IN WAYNE COUNTY
By a legislative act of June 23, 1828, the people were authorized to vote on the question of a Wayne County poor house, but they voted against erecting a building. However, by the acts of July 22, 1830, and March 3, 1831, the board of supervisors was empowered to purchase 160 acres of land for a poor farm and site for a poorhouse, and to erect thereon a suitable building.
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Nothing further was done in the matter at this time, but on the Sth of March, 1832, the supervisors passed a resolution to expend $1,200 on the project, and appointed a committee to seek a suitable site. On March 27th of the same year, the supervisors purchased about seventeen acres from John L. Leib, in the Township of Hamtramck, for $200. This land is now the northwest corner of Gratiot and Mount Elliott avenues. At the time the site was over two miles from the city limits.
Charles Moran and Edmund Brush, who were appointed a committee of the supervisors on purchase and plans, entered into a contract with David French on October 4, 1832, for a poorhouse after plans and specifications approved by the board. The house was to be of frame, sixty-six by twenty-five feet in dimensions, and of two stories. For his work, French was to have been paid $950, but the actual cost was lower than this amount.
Very little is known about the first county house, owing to the loss of its records. The first keeper, J. P. Cooley, managed the institution for a year and a half, under the direction of the board of supervisors, but not exactly according to their ideas. In 1834 the board of superintendents of the poor was created, and Rev. Martin Kundig was made the first superintendent by the supervisors. The administration of the poor house was turned over to him. The Sisters of St. Clare were placed in direct charge of the institution under the new regulations and remained in charge until the inmates were moved to the second poorhouse in 1839.
During the period of Rev. Martin Kundig's administration, the cholera epidemic broke out in Detroit for the second time, and the poor house was soon filled with children whose parents were carried off by the plague. To relieve their pitiable condition, the kind-hearted Father Kundig purchased a site adjoining the county property, and erected thereon a free orphans' home. The Female Association aided in the support of this home. The legislature aided Father Kundig in 1834 by voting him $3,000.
The eares and vexations of Father Kundig were many. He had contraeted 'to care for the poor during the year 1837 for twenty-two cents a day. There were about 100 in the poorhouse, and of these about sixty were bedridden. A panie swept over the country and foodstuffs became very dear. The county paid him in county warrants which were drawn upon an empty treasury. He wrote to William Woodbridge on May 19, 1837, to the effeet that he could get no money from the county, that he had none himself, that he could borrow none, but still was obliged to support the inmates with potatoes at $1.25 a bushel and everything else in proportion. Father Kundig lost everything of value which he possessed, but he remained as superintendent until April 10, 1839, when the location of the poorhouse was changed to Nankin Township.
The removal of the county poor farm from the city to the country was caused by several reasons. The city poor had increased in numbers, as had the county poor, and although the county poorhouse was erected for the use of the county, the city had contracted to care for its destitute at the same place. There was need of more space, where farm work could be carried on, and where the home and grounds were not endangered by the enveloping growth of the city.
The new home in Nankin Township was in the midst of a forest and was a log house formerly used as a tavern and known as the "Black Horse Tavern." One nearly impassable road led to the place. The board erected a two-story
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frame building east of the log house. In February, 1845, the board let con- tracts for a brick building on the site of the log house. The material was supplied by the county, the brick having been made on the flats north of the river, while the heavy timber was cut and hewn in the county woods. The new building was seventy-eight feet long, thirty-six feet wide, and two and a half stories high. A large fireplace supplied the heat. Two cells were con- structed in the northeast corner for "drunks," unruly inmates and violent "crazys" and, the better to restrain the latter, chains were fastened in the walls. The brick building was used by the keeper and his family, with some of the older and more feeble inmates, while the old building, of wood, was used to house the remainder of the inmates. In 1856, owing to the increased number of those to be cared for, the frame building was moved to the east of the brick and the latter extended forty feet, and when finished the combined buildings had a frontage of 118 feet. In 1859, a seventy by thirty-four feet wing, extending north from the west end of the main building, was authorized and constructed.
In 1865 a new keeper's residence was built. In 1873 the board raised the main building and wing, and put on new roofs. In 1876 an addition was built to the wing, extending north thirty feet. During these years the number of inmates steadily increased and the poorhouse was in a constantly crowded state. In 1887 the board decided to erect modern buildings and laid the matter before the people at the spring election. The vote was in favor of the erection of two wings at a cost of $50,000. The structures were completed in March, 1889. Both wings were practically alike, 140 feet long, 42 feet wide, with finished basement under all.
In 1894 the board went before the supervisors and asked to be allowed to use the earnings from the state for a new center building. The request was granted. The bids were opened in April, 1895, and work begun in the same month. The old brick building, erected in 1845, was torn down, also the keeper's residence, and upon the site was built the center building, 118 feet long, connecting with the two large wings, 57 feet deep, with a projecting front for the keeper and his assistants. It was completed and turned over to the board in February, 1896.
The term "Eloise" designates the whole group of Wayne County buildings which are located on Michigan Avenue, in Nankin Township, sixteen miles west of Detroit. These buildings are now grouped as the Eloise Infirmary, the Eloise Sanatorium, and the Eloise IIospital.
The infirmary is the development of the Wayne County Poor House, called the Wayne County Alms-House in 1872, and the Wayne County House in 1886. On June 2, 1913, it became the Eloise Infirmary. In 1914 the women's annex to the infirmary was added. The story of this institution and the build- ings is narrated in the preceding paragraphs.
The Eloise Sanatorium is the new hospital for the treatment of tuberculosis by the outdoor method, which had its inception in 1903, when two tents, with brick foundations, were erected. The first sanatorium building was com- pleted in May, 1911, and opened for patients on June 6th following.
The Eloise Hospital is the name adopted August 18, 1911 for the group of buildings devoted to the care of mentally diseased inmates, and formerly known as the Wayne County Asylum. Distinction was first made between the rational and insane patients on March 22, 1841. One Bridget IIughes was the first per- son admitted as a "crazy," which was the designation at the time, and she
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remained an inmate for fifty-three years. The first asylum building of any con- sequence was a two and a half story brick, consisting of a center structure and two wings. This was completed in 1869 and the insane patients housed therein. Two wings were added in 1876. The center was reconstructed in 1899 and in 1904 and 1905 a wing was added each year. The building known as Building C, first called the Women's New Building, was erected in 1894. Building D, originally called the Women's Insane Hospital, was constructed in 1904.
The postoffice at this place was established in 1894 and named for Eloise, the little daughter of Freeman B. Dickerson, then president of the board. The board applied the name to the institutions later. Additional wings and small buildings have been added to the group as needed and the combined institutions have now grown to be among the largest of their kind in the country. A detailed history of "Eloise" has been published under the authorship of Stanislas M. Keenan, and is very exhaustive in the treatment of the different buildings and general development.
CHAPTER XVIII
PARKS AND BOULEVARDS BY WILLIAM STOCKING
A HISTORY OF BELLE ISLE BY CLARENCE M. BURTON
THE FIRST PLATTING OF THE TOWN-WIDE STREETS AND OPEN SPACES-THE PROGRESS OF MODERN DEVELOPMENT-THE GRAND BOULEVARD-PARK DE- VELOPMENT-THE PLAYGROUND FEATURE-AN AMBITIOUS PLAN FOR THE FUTURE-A PARADISE ON LAKE AND RIVER-CHARMING DIVERSITY OF WATER TRIPS-BELLE ISLE, BY CLARENCE M. BURTON.
The complete destruction of the town of Detroit by fire in 1805 supplied the opportunity for the laying out of a modern city. There were no houses left to interfere with the drawing of entirely new street lines. Accordingly the old streets were vacated, the old lot deeds canceled, and in place of them a new lot was assigned to each resident. Judge Augustus B. Woodward, who was the dominant figure in the local government, had seen and admired L'Enfant's plan for the city of Washington and set out to reproduce that plan in Detroit. He proposed that the center of the new town should be a circle, intersected by two streets each 120 feet wide. Radiating from the circle should be avenues, alternately 200 and 120 feet wide. At the distance of half a mile or so from the circle should be new focal points from which other avenues should radiate. To the streets and avenues he proposed that historic names should be given. The plan was ridiculed and was never half carried out. But as far as it did go it gave to Detroit its most distinctive features. To it we owe the avenues that were named after the first five Presidents of the United States. To it we owe Grand Cireus Park, The Campus Martius, several of our widest avenues and the few triangular parks that remain near the center of the city, together giving an impression of space and openness unusual in the business center of an American town. The work thus laid out was afterwards supplemented by the intelligent platting of farms on either side of Woodward Avenue. That Avenue passing through the Campus Martius and the Grand Circus has always divided the city into two nearly equal parts, and for a long period was the most conspicuous residence street in the city. On either side of it the Cass and Brush farms were subdivided into wide streets and spacious lots, making together an area which was considered one of the best residence sections of the whole country. Detroit, to quote a common newspaper characterization, "with its wide, well paved and well shaded streets, its numerous small parks, its palatial residences and its imposing churches, ranks among the most beautiful cities in the country." With this reputation its citizens were too well content, and for a long period but little attention was paid to park development or improvement. Even the Grand Circus, which was without embellishment, and left almost without care, was
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surrounded with a high picket fence with gates opened only a few hours on Sunday. In fact there was such smirking satisfaction with what they had that the people threw away two opportunities for acquiring magnificent new parks at very little expense. One of these, Linden Park, in the eastern section, was a tract of forty aeres, with the most diversified forest growth of any traet of similar size in the county. It was offered by Moses W. Field as a free gift with the sole condition that the city should expend $3,500 on its improvement. The city did not comply with this condition and the property reverted to the owners. The opportunity to acquire, at a very low price, a park of 340 aeres, ineluding fifteen aeres of river front, in the same section of the city was, after two years of wrangling, finally thrown away and a number of other suggestions for park improvement were turned down. In 1879, however, the people of Detroit awoke to the importance of improvements in this line and steps were taken which resulted in giving to the city its two chief adornments, Belle Isle Park and the Grand Boulevard.
THE GRAND BOULEVARD
Detroit's Grand Boulevard is now well within the city limits at every point, but it was originally more of a township than a city proposition. Its earliest and most zealous promoters lived in Greenfield. Its first prophet was Edward Chope of that township, a man of means, considerable leisure and abundant zeal. In 1876 he commenced a boulevard campaign on his own account. In personal interviews, in newspaper communications and in committee hearings, whenever he could get a community together, he urged the importance of secur- ing right-of-way for a boulevard before land in the suburbs had become so valuable as to make the first cost prohibitive. He was ably supported in this campaign by J. P. Mansfield, another Greenfield man.
In the legislature of 1877, Edwin F. Conely introduced a bill "to provide for the construction of boulevards in the townships of Greenfield, Springwells and Hamtramek and on the line between these townships and the City of Detroit, . and in the City of Detroit." He afterwards substituted for this a bill "to pro- vide for the establishment of a boulevard around the City of Detroit from Jefferson Avenue in the township of Hamtramek to the River Road in the township of Springwells." This bill went through all of the preliminary stages, but lacked three votes of the number necessary for final passage. There was a strong lobby against the measure, and one of the leading citizens, in his vig- orous opposition, declared that the boulevard, if it ever materialized, would be a "goose pond in spring and fall, and a goose pasture in summer," also "a burden and a nuisance."
Notwithstanding this defeat, the agitation continued, and in the next legis- lature Eber W. Cottrell, a member of the house from Greenfield, introduced and championed a similar bill, which, as a companion to the Belle Isle purchase bill, finally passed .- The act sought to secure a joint interest on the part of the township and the city. It provided for one commissioner from each of the townships and gave the towns authority to appropriate money for the improve- ment after securing for such appropriation the approval of a popular vote. It protected the city from excessive expenditures by providing that the location of the boulevard and all appropriations for its improvement must be approved by the common eouneil and board of estimates.
The attempt to interest the towns was not successful. They did not care
DEDICATION AND OPENING OF GRAND BOULEVARD James Randall in center in light clothes; Mayor Pingree mounted
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to spend money for an improvement that they knew would ultimately be brought within the city limits, and none of them ever voted a cent for it. The city was for a time not much more liberal. In 1SSO it appropriated $250 for the expenses of the commissioners; in 1882, $2,500; and in 18S1 and 1SS3, nothing. Public-spirited citizens paid out of their own funds for much of the preliminary expense ineurred. There was a long controversy over the route to be selected. One party favored the "inside route," which would have brought the whole north line inside the railroads. The "outside route", which was finally adopted, was opposed by many as being too far away from the business and residence portions of the city. The decision was largely influenced by liberal donations of right-of-way on the proposed line. It was not until 1883 that a conclusion was reached and the line was located very nearly as it exists today.
The first land given for the boulevard was the south half of the right-of-way through the old Bagg farm, from Woodward Avenue to Russell Street, donated by Frisbie & Foxen. Colonel John Atkinson donated the north half of the same line, and thus the first half mile of boulevard, 150 feet wide, became public property. On a pleasant afternoon in the latter part of 1SS3, a formal dedication was made by a meeting of citizens near the junction of Woodward Avenue. A luncheon of sandwiches, beer and pretzels was served, a brass band provided musie, and Sylvester Larned, Colonel Atkinson and James P. Mansfield made speeches. The fenees were taken down, the first sod was turned, and afterwards sold for $100, and the small assembly seattered.
This was only a meager beginning and subsequent progress was slow. The first house on the line of the boulevard was built by James A. Randall in 1SS4. The first house on the east side was built by William Stoeking in 18SS, and for several years after that there was only one other house to obstruct the view from Congress Street near Jefferson to the point where the Boulevard turned toward the west, a distance of more than two miles. The first improvements on the west side were made by Bela Hubbard, who was always a liberal sup- porter of the enterprise.
The city appropriations were small, $20,000 in 18S5; $15,000 in 1886; and $25,000 in 1SS7; but in the meantime individual effort was not wanting. At different times, William Foxen, B. Lauder, James A. Randall, John V. Ruehle, William W. Wheaton, John T. Foxen and others worked on committees to secure the right-of-way, and a considerable fund was subscribed and expended in buying land from persons who opposed the improvement, the right-of-way. through these tracts being afterwards donated by the purchasers. As finally opened from Jefferson Avenue on the east around to Fort Street on the west, the highway was 11.29 miles in length and covered an area of 213 acres, fully nine-tenths of which was donated. The land was worth at that time all the way from $500 to $2,500 an acre, some of it as high as $40 or $50 a front foot. As thus laid out this promise of a magnificent thoroughfare was largely a tribute of private energy, zeal and munificence. The sections between Jefferson Avenue and the river on the east and Fort Street and the river on the west were subse- quently acquired by condemnation and purchase at considerable expense.
In 1SS7 James A. Randall took hold of the enterprise with a zeal and activity that earned him the title of "Boulevard Randall." At this time the small city parks were in charge of the board of public works, Belle Isle in charge of one commissioner and the boulevard of another. There was often a clashing of
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interests and a general lack of unity of purpose and plan. Mainly for the pur- pose of changing this, Mr. Randall got himself elected to the legislature of 1889 and secured the passage of an act bringing the boulevard and all the parks under one commission, of which at a later period he was very properly appointed a member. His greatest service, however, was in securing authority to the city for borrowing $500,000 for paving the roadway of the boulevard. This was really the start of the work, which, with subsequent appropriations, has given to the city its magnificent twelve-mile driveway, which is surpassed in popu- larity and use by but very few in the country. James E. Seripps and Bela Hubbard were also leaders among those who made the boulevard possible for Detroit.
Even after the roadway had been made easy for teams the progress in building was exceedingly slow. Sections of the thoroughfare were still considered "too far out." There was no street car line parallel with it and, except at a few crossings, it was comparatively inaccessible. Many of the owners who bought frontage on speculation put such a high price on their lots as to discourage investment, and they had to consent to reductions in price before the public "took hold." The length of the line was also a drawback to its early occu- pation. A streteh of over eleven miles was suggestive of isolation and a lack of neighborliness. In the end it was really the automobile that was the making of the boulevard. Its broad, smooth roadway offered facilities for pleasure riding and made all portions of the line accessible to everyone with a car. Late in the '90s, the writer, with a real estate dealer, took a ride over the eight miles of boulevard from Jefferson Avenue around to Grand River. They met or passed less than a dozen vehicles on the whole trip. Before the auto came into general use, not more than one-fourth of the lots on the boulevard were occupied. Now there are very few vacant. It is unfortunate that neither building restrie- tions nor a building line were adopted when this thoroughfare was first opened. There have been a few manufacturing and business encroachments on its line, but for the most part it is occupied by residences, varied in design and many of them of very pretentious architecture.
As noted before, the smaller downtown parks, or breathing spaces, such as Capitol, Library, Grand Circus parks and the Campus Martius, were part of the governor and judges plan for the platting of the city. Until about 1844, these small tracts were places of deposit for refuse mostly; no effort was made to improve them. As the years went by, however, the ground was raised, trees and flowers planted, walks and fountains placed within the areas, and other efforts made to add beauty to them. Two of the oldest parks in the city given by individuals are Elton and Crawford, presented by Crane & Wesson in 1850. Cass Park was given to the city by Lewis Cass in 1860; Stanton and Macomb, both by S. K. Stanton, in 1861; and T. J. and Daniel J. Campau gave Adelaide Campau Park to the city in 1865. Honorable Thomas W. Palmer gave the beautiful aereage known as Palmer Park in 1893. Many of the smaller parks were originally swales and sloughs, filled up by their owners, and then pre- sented to the community as points of beauty. Clark Park was half donated by John P. Clark and half bought by the city; Owen Park was the gift of John Owen, Perrien Park came from Joseph Perrien, and so on down the list. The names of the principal parks in Detroit, the acreage and the estimated valuation follows:
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