history
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Choosing the Best Walking Tour in Detroit
The Best Walking Tour in Detroit Detroit has no shortage of tour options, from buses and pedal-pubs to guided walks. If you’re trying to decide which one will actually give you a real feel for the city, a few questions are worth asking before you book. Who’s leading the tour? This matters more in Detroit…
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Detroit’s Forgotten Downtown Architects
Detroit’s Forgotten Downtown Architects Walk up Griswold Street in Detroit and you’re walking through an open-air museum of early American skyscraper design — the “alphabet buildings,” so named for the light-and-air-maximizing floor plans that traced the shapes of letters long before air conditioning made such techniques unnecessary. Most Detroiters know Albert Kahn, the architectural titan…
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Detroit’s Jazz Legacy
Detroit’s Jazz Legacy How a Midwest auto town became one of the most important cities in American jazz. Detroit rarely gets top billing in the story of American jazz, yet the city was a working laboratory for the music at nearly every turn, from the swing era through bebop and into Motown. Its jazz legacy…
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Griswold Street: The Wall Street of Detroit
Griswold Street: The Wall Street of Detroit How a single downtown street became the financial engine of a Midwest industrial capital, and one of the finest collections of early American skyscrapers. Walk down Griswold Street in downtown Detroit today, and you pass beneath a wall of early twentieth-century skyscrapers, terra cotta cornices, arched windows, and…
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Why Does Detroit’s Paradise Valley Still Matter Today?
Why Does Detroit’s Paradise Valley Still Matter Today? A look at the neighborhood’s history, its removal, and why its story is still being told. Every spring, thousands of fans stream into Comerica Park for Detroit Tigers’ Opening Day, filling seats, parking lots, and nearby bars without a second thought for what stood on that ground…
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The Hidden History of Black Bottom
The Hidden History of Black Bottom Long before it became synonymous with Detroit’s Black community, Black Bottom is believed to have gotten its name from French colonial farmers, who used the term to describe the area’s rich, dark soil along the Detroit River. By the 20th century, the name had taken on new meaning, attached…
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Questions About Detroit Legacy Tours
What makes Detroit Legacy Tours different? Detroit Legacy Tours offers research-based walking tours that explore the city’s architecture, neighborhoods, urban planning history, music legacies, industry, Underground Railroad history, and overlooked historical figures. Tours are designed for visitors and locals seeking a deeper understanding of Detroit beyond traditional sightseeing. Who are these tours for? Tours are…