Building a Social Contract: Workers’ Houses in Early 20th-Century Detroit
Join us on Wed., Oct. 1 at 6:30 p.m. at the Centennial Library. Michael McCulloch will share highlights from his recent book.
Stories From the Sidewalk
Book Features History of Arsenal and Riverbend Neighborhoods
Stories From the Sidewalk, a hefty hardcover book at nearly 380 pages published by the Museum Guild of Dearborn, is on sale now at the Dearborn Historical Museum gift shop or available online at https://thedhm.org/books.
To say the least it is an oversized stocking stuffer for the holiday season that every fan of architecture and devotee of history will treasure.
Three years in the making, it is the work of a passionate group of history buffs and researchers. This coffee table book documents over 360 houses and buildings in Dearborn’s Arsenal and Riverbend neighborhoods. With the belief that every house and building has a story to tell, the editors organized the book by neighborhood and street address along with a full-color photograph and details on the history and architecture of each historic resource.
Subtitled, A Walk Through 137 Years That Shaped Dearborn (1833 – 1970) the book is designed as a walking tour of these two charming and historic west Dearborn neighborhoods. It surveys and preserves for future generations the story of Dearborn’s growth from a village on the Chicago Road (Michigan Avenue) to a bustling and thriving city as the area became the automotive capital of the world and the manufacturing epicenter of the Ford Motor Company.
Co-authors and editors Christopher Merlo and L. Glenn O’Kray undertook this project with a sense of urgency to document and preserve the stories of these historically significant houses and buildings before they are either razed or drastically renovated – a fate that has befallen several houses and buildings in the Arsenal and Riverbend neighborhoods.
All income from the sale of the book will go to the Museum Guild of Dearborn.
Historic Highlight
Michigan Bell Building Built to Mimic Fordson High School
Built in 1929-30, this building at Ford Road and Horger Street is kitty-corner from Fordson High School. The two buildings not only share a neighborhood; they also share some important design cues.
The similarity is deliberate. Designed by the Smith, Hinchman and Grylls architectural firm for Michigan Bell, the building’s construction was guided by a unique perspective. Michigan Bell central offices such as this one were designed to be not only functional, but also to be beautiful and to complement, rather than stand out from, nearby buildings.
Wirt Rowland, famed architect of Detroit’s Guardian and Penobscot buildings, designed many of the Detroit-area Michigan Bell central offices. He left only a small imprint on this building, however. He is credited with the design of the third-floor addition. The primary architect was Amedeo Leone.
Known as the Michigan Bell Oregon Central Office when it opened, Bell buildings like this one were built in and around Detroit and incorporated design elements from the existing neighborhoods.
A close look at the Ford Road building reveals the choices that were made to complement the high school that was recently completed just across the street. The building’s pale, yellow brick takes its color from the school’s light Briar Hill sandstone exterior. Its limestone trim around windows and base, as well as double-hung windows with multi-pane windows are similar in design to the school’s. The entrance is arched and topped by an oriel window, again, similar to the school’s entrance. An original architectural sketch shows an even stronger resemblance to the high school. Some details were lost during the addition of the top floor. The yellow brick was used as a cost-effective way to add to the building’s beauty. The bricks feature slight variation in their color and were laid in decorative patterns, which contribute texture and interest.
Research by Sharon Morton, Photos courtesy of Dearborn Historical Museum
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