HISTORY

The site is situated around multiple communities with rich history. The neighborhoods within these communities once flourished with a vast shopping district centered at Grand River Avenue and Oakman Boulevard. As a result of racial tensions that cumulated in violent riots, industrial restructuring, the loss of thousands of jobs in the automobile industry, and rapid suburbanization in the middle of the 20th century, Detroit began to rapidly contract. The city’s population peaked at 1.85 million in 1950 and by 1970, it had dropped to 1.51 million. In this chapter you learn about the historical context of Detroit in sequential order, and will notice major changes that highlight the deterioration that takes place in the infrastructure.