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Trumbull at Brainard: 1900

Detroit circa 1900. "View looking north along Trumbull Avenue at Brainard Street." At right, the home of publishing magnate James E. Scripps.  6½ x 8½ inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Detroit circa 1900. "View looking north along Trumbull Avenue at Brainard Street." At right, the home of publishing magnate James E. Scripps. 6½ x 8½ inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

 

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What it used to be

Here is a pic I took yesterday from the same vantage point. No distortion as in Google view, also, there is one less building than when Google took their picture. As I drive around this city and think about what it used to be (as in the Shorpy picture) - it just kills me that it has turned out this way. There are actually quite a few homes left in Brush Park and other areas of Detroit like this one, but most are in some form of dilapidation. Maybe one day it will come back.

Newspaper Barons and Kids

Shown here it the gate to the James Scripps Mansion. Scripps was the founder and publisher of the Detroit News. The mansion was later used for several decades as a Catholic women's residence, before it burned down in 1986. The partially ruined structure that can be seen in the Streetview is the former carriage house.

Directly across Trumbull to the left of this photo stood the mansion of Scripps' daughter Ellen and her husband George Booth. Booth was later publisher of the News himself and the couple were founders of the Cranbrook Educational Community north of Detroit. Booth left the considerable Scripps-Booth library holdings along with his mansion to the Detroit Public Library.

It served as the Scripps Branch Library until the library administration decided in the 1960's to tear it down and replace it with the modern library that stands there (in Scripps Park) today. My mother grew up a few blocks away and spent many happy hours in the beautiful mansion library. She was very unhappy when it was demolished.

Bygone times

It was a beautiful city in its day.

Then and Now: 113 Years Later

Apologies for the heavy distortion needed to correct the Streetview perspective to the camera view, but still interesting. Google Streetview Sept 2013.

Click for large version

Degentrified

Not as upscale as it used to be, however people still stop in the street and gawk at the camera.


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