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Old 12 Apr 17, 08:36 PM  
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Who Knew Toronto was on the Med - Leg Nine - Detroit, A City in Decay

The Last Leg - Any Colour as long as its Black

I make no apologies, this post is very photo heavy. When looking for things to do in Detroit, I discovered a photography tour of some of the "dead" parts of Detroit. It is billed as a 3 hour tour, ours lasted 6 hours. It is run by a photographer and although it technically includes trespass, Jesse (who runs the course) has an "understanding" with authorities and in all the years he has been doing the tours, he has not had a problem.



Jesse knows his stuff and started the tour because his friends were keen to see the sites he took photos of. He now runs his tour daily for groups around 10 and the site you visit changes as new propeties are abandoned and others become unsafe.



We saw a school, a church and a factory. Due to the rain a library and a synogoue were not accessible. There is a comfort and lunch break at a fantastic little hipster bakery in the middle, in Indian Village, which remains one of the few areas of Detroit to have been consistently afflulent.

Thoughts on the tour
We were the only Brits on the tour and the Americans were keen to understand if we knew about that side of Detroit (yes) and whether it could happen here (no - we haven't the land to let a city the size of Birmingham just rot away).

We came away shocked, thoughtful and with a better understanding of the city and the culture. 6 months on It is still making me think and ponder, and part of travel is to broaden your mind and this trip did that.
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Old 12 Apr 17, 08:50 PM  
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Our first stop was the Harry B. Hutchinson's Intermediary School. Opened in 1920s - it was state of the art with Cookery Class rooms, gyms, mechanical workshops and two swimming pools (until the 1970s the Detroit School Board insisted boys swam naked! hence the need for two pools)

At its height there were over 2000 pupils, Berry Gordy lived around the corner when Motown records were at their height, however the area began to downhill only a year later when the Detroit riots broke out less than a mile away. It closed in 2011 with less than 200 pupils.

The building is still owned by the School Board but the ongoing battle between the looters and the board was won by the looters in 2013 and now it is being left to rot.











Like every school in Detroit, it would have doubled up as a fall out shelter and there are still tins of the crackers lying around.



Everything that has value and is portable has been stripped out and the shell remains.



This is not a leafy lane, this is the main road to the school but there are three choices for houses in Detroit

(1) Live in the whilst the fall down around you
(2) If have insurance - burn it to the ground and claim
(3) Die in it - let the city work out who owns the ground and if you are lucky (as in this street) they will pull down the remains for you. This is what is happening here - houses are falling down and the council is trying to pull the houses down. They have funding to demolish 100,000 houses. In 20 years they have being able to reclaim about 15,000 plots
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Old 12 Apr 17, 08:56 PM  
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Next we moved on to St Margaret Mary Catholic Church. Again built and dedicated in the 1920s and designed to accomdate 400 worshippers. In 1970 they closed the attached chapter house and school due to dwindling number and the church was sold to the Baptish Church movement, who abandoned the building themselves in 2012. At the time the church had 5 pianos and a full set of pews









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Old 12 Apr 17, 09:10 PM  
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Our last stop was the iconic Fisher Body Plant 21, used in may films and skateboarding vidoes, it was designed by Albert Kahn, the father of the Assembly Line.

Albert Kahn made Detroit what it was at its height, the light airy factory floors with pillars not walls, giving plenty of space of equipment. He experimented with light and colours and his signature blue glass is still visible.

And for people of a certain age and petrol heads to whom "Body by Fisher" means something - this is where they were made. Opened in 1919, it is on the market for $300K. It is popular with film crews who have put in new staircases and handrails and a toilet. However there is a contaminated water issue you would need to sort out!













By far the best day of the holiday, we loved it. We got back to the car at 3pm and still had a 200km drive back to the outskirts of Toronoto for our penultimate day the next day. We were tired and after a snack supper we collapsed into bed.
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Emma and Steven

Trip Reports
Howling @ the Horror 2015 (Complete)
Who knew Toronto was on the Med (Complete)
Getting Our Kicks - Pre Trippie
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