DETROIT 



1778 



DETROIT 



the river front for several miles the shore is 

 lined with wharves, elevators and warehouses, 

 and here the railroads have located passenger 

 and freight stations. To the north for a dis- 

 tance of about twenty miles lies the Saint Clair 

 Flats, a beautiful residential district, where 

 many wealthy Detroit merchants have built 

 handsome homes. Windsor, across the river, 

 is in reality a suburb of Detroit, and is the 

 terminus of Canadian traffic. Fort Wayne, 

 with its extensive batteries, guards the chan- 

 nel. 



Parks and Boulevards. Detroit is one of the 

 most beautiful cities in the Union. Its park 

 reservation of 1,200 acres is divided into 

 twenty-one parks, the most noted of these 

 being Belle Isle (700 acres), an island of great 

 natural beauty on which has been expended 

 $1,500,000. It lies opposite the eastern section 

 of the city and is made accessible by a bridge 

 which was constructed at a cost of $315,000. 

 Its area is to be further increased to the extent 

 of 100 acres by including the southwestern 

 shoals. Here will be erected a fountain for 

 which the late James Scott gave his entire 

 fortune of $500,000. Palmer Park, a forest of 

 141 acres, has a colonial log house, a colonial 

 casino and a collection of colonial relics. 

 Grand Circus is a semi-circular park of five 

 acres in the heart of the city, from which the 

 streets radiate as from the hub of a wheel; 

 their intersections of streets which run at right 

 angles form a number of triangular parks, some 

 of which are ornamented with beautiful foun- 

 tains. The Campus Martius is a large plaza 

 between Grand Circus and the river, around 

 which are clustered some of the city's finest 

 public and office buildings. It gives an impres- 

 sion of light and space seldom found in the 

 business district of a large city; the plaza con- 

 tains the Michigan Soldiers' and Sailors' 

 Monument. 



The streets of Detroit are broad and well- 

 shaded, and have a wide reputation for clean- 

 liness. Woodward Avenue performs the double 

 duty of business street and residential boule- 

 vard. It begins at the river, and, passing 

 through Grand Circus, the residential district 

 and beyond the limits, divides the city into 

 halves. Griswold Street is the Wall Street of 

 Detroit. There are fine residential districts 

 along Cass Avenue, Boston and Chicago boule- 

 vards, in Virginia Park and in Arden Park, but 

 the city's pride rests in Grand Boulevard, 

 which begins at the river on the north and 

 winds about the city to the river on the south. 



Buildings. The most conspicuous of the 

 city's buildings is the massive Wayne County 

 courthouse. Others of note are the Federal 

 building, constructed at a cost of $2,500,000; 

 the city hall, facing the Campus Martius, built 

 of sandstone at a cost of $600,000; the hand- 

 some new post office; the old post office, now 

 used as the customhouse; the Chamber of 

 Commerce; Detroit Athletic Club House; Ma- 

 sonic Temple; Y. M. C. A. building; the fine 

 passenger station of the Michigan Central Rail- 

 way; Union Station, and the Majestic, Penob- 

 scot, Ford and other office buildings of the 

 most modern "skyscraper" variety. The bank 

 buildings, too, are handsome, up-to-date struc- 

 tures, those of the Detroit Trust Company, 

 'Union Trust Company, Dime Savings Bank, 

 First and Old Detroit National Bank and the 

 People's Bank being especially noteworthy. 

 The Detroit Savings Bank is the oldest bank 

 in the state. Of the numerous church build- 

 ings the Roman Catholic Cathedral is the 

 largest, but the Church -of Saint Anne is the 

 most noted, since the original structure was the 

 first place of worship erected in the city. The 

 First Presbyterian, Fort Street Presbyterian, 

 Saint John's, Trinity and Christ (Episcopal), 

 Woodward Avenue Baptist and Central Meth- 

 odist churches and the Sacred Heart Convent 

 are all structures of unusual architectural 

 beauty. 



Institutions. Besides an excellent public 

 school system, the city has Detroit University 

 (opened by the Jesuits in 1877 as Detroit Col- 

 lege), Michigan College of Medicine and Sur- 

 gery, Detroit College of Law and Detroit 

 Homeopathic College. There are nine branches 

 of the central public library, which alone con- 

 tains 278,000 volumes. The Museum of Art 

 has a fine collection of historic and scientific 

 relics valued at $300,000, including the Scripps 

 gallery and the Stearns collection. The House 

 of Correction, the buildings, grounds and equip- 

 ment of which cost $600,000, is a widely-known 

 reformatory. Saint Mary's, Red Cross, Her- 

 man Kiefer and the United States Marine hos- 

 pitals are the prominent institutions of this 

 kind, and there are homes for the friendless, 

 the aged, the poor and the incurable, and 

 Protestant and Roman Catholic orphanages. 



Commerce. Detroit is the gateway for all 

 the commerce between the eastern and western 

 lake ports and for a large part of the railway 

 passenger and freight traffic between Canada 

 and the great Middle West (see SAULT SAINTE 

 MARIE CANAL). The volume of trade and 





