With so much of our content dealing with the products of the Big Three, we’ve had plenty of images from Detroit on our pages. But on this occasion, they highlight the city itself rather than views of factory floors and such (all well worth checking out!). The shots come from about three different sources; some from the 1940s and some from the 1950s. Then, all images from the 1970s were taken by author and photographer John Margolies.
The opening image belongs to Margolies, and features the known Uniroyal Tire sitting on Allen Park by I-94 since 1966.
1940s:
1950s:
1970s:
The harbor shot with British American Tavern is interesting, since it shows both inside and outside views of a ’58 Plymouth.
I notice the Union Jack flying in that shot. That was a few short years before Canada had its own flag.
I was more focused on the VW in the lower right. What a gem!!
Then noticed the flag as well and was puzzled.
Appears the maple leaf flag was adopted in 1965.
Based on the 1960 Chevy in front of the VW, looks to be 1960 thru ’65.
Just to clarify, the Union Jack was not the Canadian flag before 1965. The Canadian Red Ensign was the Canadian flag from 1822 until 1965. With design variations, along the way.
The shot of the yellow ’58 Plymouth taxi looks to be taken from the inside of a ’59 Plymouth.
I take it GM HQ was not in downtown Detroit, but I’m surprised it isn’t visible in the long views.
The GM Headquarters was inland about a mile on West Grand Boulevard then.
The current GM Headquarters in the Renaissance Center was not built until the early 70s.
The building under construction in the last 60s pic (designed by Minoru Yamasaki, future architect of the World Trade Center in NYC) was completed in 1963, and isn’t visible at all in the other pics, so that dates those pics.
I like that photo looking at Detroit from Windsor, Ontario. A then-and-now photo comparison is below – at some point the Riverside park was expanded and the buildings in the photo were demolished.
Plus, this is the odd place where Canadians look north into the United States.
My wife’s mother grew up in Detroit in the 1940s. She didn’t much care for it, since her family moved there from a Northern Michigan farm, which was more to her liking. One of my favorite stories was how her brother and sister (then teenagers) would walk to Windsor on the weekends and spend the day there, and then walk back. No ID was needed, and neither country had any problem with kids crossing the border alone. Coming back to the US one day, the two of them and another friend were being typical bratty teens, and the US border guard decided to give them a scare and said he wouldn’t let them cross the border because they couldn’t prove they were Americans. After a good deal of panic, the border guard finally said they could prove they were Americans if they knew who the 16th president was. It’s Lincoln, of course, but her brother panicked and said Millard Fillmore instead. The guard thought that was obscure enough to qualify them as Americans, so he let them pass.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/7DgQnvWqmvKyCHqWA
Love that sneaky little VW in the fourth 1950s shot. I heard that foreign car drivers in Detroit really got the stink-eye (and worse) after the gas crisis hit the domestic auto market in the mid 70s.
I wonder how it was two decades before when foreign cars were just a novelty.
The 1st 1940s photo (2nd photo in the post) shows Woodward Avenue looking towards downtown. It was bad even then.
Ironically, Woodward Avenue was once one of the most beautiful residential boulevards in the country, but in 1935 the Avenue was widened to make way for cars, cars, and more cars! All the elegant mansions like the ones pictured below at 1105 Woodward were demolished. The grand churches (seen in the photo) were either moved back 50′ or altered, confounding the architects’ original conceptions.
In place of the elegant mansions drab, mediocre commercial buildings were built. All the finely crafted houses, ornate fences, street trees, landscaped areas and other dainties of the “City Beautiful” Movement were thrown in the garbage and replaced with junk. The change in tastes and priorities from the Victorians to the Jazz Age/Depression Era generation was stark and irreconcilable. And the rest of the city all went downhill from there.
I enjoy looking at these old pictures. But sometimes they make me feel like a past historic relict myself, I was there.
That 8th photo (looking at the river and the Union Jack flag) – I wonder how many other people recognize the photographer’s car? That shot was taken from the front passenger seat of a 1959 Plymouth. I would recognize that dip between the headlights anywhere!
Pretty nice pictures .
My memories of East Coast cities were grim, these look pretty good to me .
That VW is a ’58 ~ ’59, I don’t think that color was available in the ’60 / ’61 model years .
Yes, VW’s back then were hated by anyone who didn’t ‘get’ them .
Notice the tail / brake lights are obscured by the U.S. spec. bumper over riders, it took VW until the 1962 model year to correct this, so many were rear ended because the brake lamps weren’t very visible .
-Nate