Detroit is the largest city in Michigan state. In the 20th century, Detroit boomed with an industrial powerhouse and automobile industry. Its population grew immensely, and in 1910 it became the 9th largest city in the United States. The “Great Migration brought large numbers of black Southerners into Detroit. The black population multiplied from 5700 in 1910 to 40,800 in the 1920s. Some other industries, including metal crafts, railcars, stove works, paints, iron, brass, and copper, progressed by leaps and bounds. Henry Ford built an assembly line at his Highland Park Plant in 1910. Later that decade, when World War I broke out, Detroiters fought valiantly.
Here below are some stunning historical photos that show Detroit city in the early 20th century from 1900 to 1910.
I love seeing old photos of Detroit, this was a nice collection, thanks!
“The Paris of the Midwest”. Seems like Washington Avenue was the place to be.
Wait, is there both a Washington Avenue and Washington Boulevard?
Cars destroyed our cities.
Cars didn’t destroy Detroit, people did.
*to make room for more cars
There would not really be a Detroit without cars. Cars built this city! Lol.
Cars exist all over the world in places where they didn’t destroy cities to make room for more cars
The auto industry built this city. It is the reason Detroit grew and basically created a middle class in America. Those are just facts. in your viewpoint autos and freeways also led to its decline. So I guess both can be true.
Do you have any education on the history of the city’s urban planning and how they literally destroyed neighborhoods to expand roads and build highways and encourage people to move to suburbs and be car dependent?
Yes. That’s what I stated. Do you have any history on Henry Ford, the model T, the car capital of the world, the reason for the city expanding and growing in the first place? You can’t have one without the other. You’re speculating those freeways killed the city. The reality is that segregation, politics, riots, and poverty led to the decline of Detroit. The rise of the auto industry, and the middle-class in America through Detroit is a fact.
read some of your other comments, and now realize you’re a know it all who actually contradicted your own opinion about the problem with Detroit, so have a good day. Lol
Youre ignorant of the fact that half of the buildings downtown were torn down for parking and freeways. They physically destroyed the city for cars. You’re clearly uneducated on the urban planning history of the city.
You’re so smart. Lol.
You’re clearly uninformed on the history of Black Bottom and you’ve never seen photos of the city before the ripped it apart for parking lots and freeways and road widening.
Silly me. People didn’t move here for the auto industry, and the auto industry didn’t build the city, it was the Coney dogs, right? It’s all about the coneys. You are so incredibly smart. You are no match for me or anybody on Reddit. I yield to thee O spirit of Detroit!
Seriously though, I entertained your foolishness for a while, but how does someone from Detroit not know that the auto industry is what made Detroit and completely changed our whole country and the world? How does anyone with any kind of education not know this? Inconceivable!
You’ve never heard of Black Bottom because you’re uneducated on the city.
Are you too incompetent to look at before-and-after photos of the freeway and parking lot construction that devastated the city?
You’re obviously uneducated and ignorant on the basic history of Detroit. They literally destroyed the physical makeup of the city for parking loads, freeways and road widening. You don’t know anything about Detroit, so you’re ignorant of this fact.
Suburbanization and urban freeways funneled hundreds of thousands of people outside of the city, fueled by cars and car dependency.
You have blinders on
You’re belligerently ignorant of the city’s history
Your passion is commendable, but your misplaced angst is laughable. Get yourself a latte and some avocado toast, and take a break from your belligerent ranting and take a few breaths. If you look both ways before you cross, cars won’t hurt you. Stay safe.
Not my fault you know nothing about the city.
You’re right. It’s not your fault. We collectively thank you for swooping in from the suburbs after a safe and cushy childhood and taking a couple classes at Wayne State and saving the city with your incredible intellect and historical knowledge. Thank you so much.
You’ve never heard of Black Bottom.
Why you gotta to keep going off about black bottoms? I like em and I cannot lie. BTW, Antoine Cadillac founded Detroit. Even he knew Detroit’s future was in cars!
Buildings that wouldn’t have been there without cars lol
Are you incapable of understanding the difference between the auto industry existing versus physically tearing down entire neighborhoods to build parking lots and highways?