Rachael Washburn

Honors 1000
Essay#2
November 5, 2016
Where are we going?
Detroit, as a city, is a historical classic headed towards the future that
can accept history and move forward with it. The Detroit Historical Museum
preserves the history of the city as it is made, and inspires visitors to view
the city in a new light after they leave the museum. Martin F. Kohn of the
Detroit Free Press describes how funding in 2006 provided the Detroit
Historical Society with the resources they needed to spruce up the museum
to give reasons for patrons to visit the museum more often. New exhibits to
included more recent events and people such as Eminem, Kid Rock, the
Tigers 2005 All-Star Game, and Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in order to attract
more visitors (Kohn). If one goes to the lower level of the museum, they can
wander the Streets of Old Detroit, an exhibit that allows visitors to stumble
over the cobblestone streets as they wonder at the old style of what shops
along Woodward Avenue. Most obviously, visitors can explore and experience
the physical changes that have occurred to the cities streets and shops.
The most common way to witness the direct change in the physical city
of Detroit is through photographs, even in scholarly articles. Change can be
written about, but every picture is worth a thousand words, as in PostIndustrial Imaginaries by Nate Millington. Millington offers an analysis of
Detroits physical changes, as well as several suggestions for what to do with
the infamous ruins of the city. Despite strong arguments made with citing
written works, the ability to see the change and the ideas for future change
Is best when used in conjunction with a picture. In the end, the overall
assessment is that Detroit is a survivor city: a city that resists being
forgotten and adapts to any challenge thrown at it. The physical changes
made to Detroit only help the city to redefine the way of seeing Detroit from
all backgrounds and help the city and its inhabitants to grow stronger.
(Millington)
Jonathan J.B. Mijs explores a contrast of where Detroit was to where
Detroit is heading in his photo essay Blurred Lines. He also explains how
the city has physically shifted from manufacturing to art, through the
citizens efforts to blur the lines of what is and what could be: the ruins and
art; the presence and vacancy. The pictures he included in his article did a
fantastic job capturing the contrasting political, and economic views that
Detroit offers to those who come to explore. It includes spaces like the
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Michigan Theater turned parking lot, the rubble used on the streets to make
the set for Transformers 4, and other ruins that make Detroit a classical place
to visit for the aesthetic feel of Athens, to capture a feeling of the glory of
times that have passed (Mijs). Detroits streets, as depicted in the Detroit
Historical Museum, have changed dramatically over time, but still have
details that carry over to the next version of the physical city.
In talking with the lead docent of the museum, Todd Jackson, he
explains that everything on the lowest level of the museum either came from
some part of the city, or was carefully recreated. What probably stands out
the most is the change in the streets as one walks through the exhibit. In
the 1840s section, the street is a muddy, cobblestone mess. By the 1870s,
the streets are paved with cedar logs that extend deep into the mud, then
sealed with tar. The 1900s streets arent yet paved: the streets are brick,
with the former wooden streets providing a stable road surface that did not
warp. The 1900s was also when the streetlights changed from gas lamps to
electric streetlamps. As we moved forward in time, steel and brick replaced
the wood and stone of the shops and buildings (Jackson). The physical
changes of Detroits streets represent the economic and political changes
the city went through over the past few centuries, as well as the adaptivity
and resiliency that embody the city of Detroit.
The physical changes that any city, not just Detroit, undergo, make the
biggest impression on how the city is seen. After all, the first impression is
the viewpoint that every related thought is based on. Urban form, the
physical city, is the first thing that people see when they come to a new city.
The urban form may be the most obvious change that a city has, but it is the
basis for every other way of seeing that has a case to make for most
important perspective.

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The above pictures follow the changes depicted in the Detroit Historical
Museums Streets of Old Detroit. The first picture is the 1840s, the next is
the 1870s, followed by a picture of the 1900s, described and analyzed
above, respectively.

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Works Cited

Kohn, Martin F. "DETROIT HISTORICAL MUSEUM TO UNVEIL ITS

MAKEOVER." Detroit Free Press. Sep 28 2006. ProQuest. Web. 5 Nov.
2016.
Jackson, Todd. Personal Interview about Historical Detroit. 30 Oct. 2016.
Mijs, Jonathan J.B. Blurred Lines: Structure/Agency, Presence/Vacancy in
Detroits Urban Museum. City & Community, 14:2,2015. American
Sociological Association. 5 Nov. 2016.
Millington, Nate. Post-Industrial Imaginaries: Nature, Representation and
Ruin in Detroit, Michigan. International Journal of Urban and Regional
Research, 37:1, 2013. 5 Nov. 2016.