Black Bottom/ Paradise Valley and the original Detroit 1920s-1950s
The BELT is an art alley steps away from old black area of Harmonie Park - a musical street mainly Randolph and a theatre street (mainly Broadway) Imagine black people taking a break between sets on Randolph . There was a thriving musical scene here from the 1870s to the 1970s Which is why people often argue where Black Bottom/Paradise Valley really was (see map) Like other immigrant groups, for Blacks, the landing neighborhoods of Black Bottom/Paradise Valley kept shifting Northward until the population went around the mansions and abutted Mack Avenue which is now the Medical Center. (That is Urban Renewal for ya - squeeze at both ends)
Fortunately not every thing is gone . The Black newspaper of record -The Michigan Chronicle has its offices in the Harmonie Park Music Historical area.Now that even the cobblestone is baack it is easy to close your eyes and imagine Ragtime since the early edge of this fabled neighborhood started blocks form the river on Adams in the post Civil War era . See Map. By the 1970s however, only Randolph street was left, just below Gratiot. WHY is this important ?
Finally the State of MI realized that Detroit lost an important piece of history and spent $$ to restore the area -particularly Randolph street and the BELT. Place the blame on the National Highway act, which wiped out the main street Hastings(equivalent to Harlem's club scene) and the Urban Renewal Movement which tore down the rest. Motown arose from the rubble The Supremes and Smokey Robinson were neighbors. Diana Ross moved here from a nicer neighborhood at 15 and black people in particular were losing their jobs in the recession of the Eisenhower Presidency. Maxine Hubbard Belton moved here in 1953 and rented in the area until 1960 , when Margaret (yes me writing this ) started school and they were able to buy a house near 8 mile ,Conant Gardens , which had great schools and was the black neighborhood to move into at the time.
Photo by Ryan " Jake" Jakubowski of J&C Photography Photography https://www.jcphotography-mi.com/about
PHOTOCREDIT J& C Photography 2021
Amazing Photo of January 2021 snowstorm in Detroit of THE BELT
Abutting the black Bottom/Paradise Valley neighborhoods was the original immigrant area : Greektown.
The Greek Town Casino/Hotel originally owned by The Sault Chippewa Indians is nearby, The whole area is quite old and has beautiful old circa 1888 buildings. The general Immigrant area was originally Greek and Slavic and Irish and was all wood and Burned completely in 1805. Interestingly the original Jail and the first housing projects in Detroit aka the Brewster Projects (Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard ) were placed at the North and South ends of this area from the riverfront following generally the borders of the French Farming Strips pre 1785. The ribbon farm map below is from the Detroitography blog and shows Detroit @1796.
We missed the Great Fire of 1805. Black people were here in Detroit from @ 1834 when Canada outlawed Slavery and Michigan was a territory. The international border was the last stop on the Underground Railroad in the United States where escaping slaves took refuge in Churches like 2nd Baptist. Most blacks stayed here in Detroit working on the riverfront, but after the city suffered the great fire of 1805 -distinct neighborhoods sprung up. See map: PLAN FOR DETROIT
Detroit was supposed to have a circular grid like Paris but the Cross hatch north -south British grid won out and was superimposed on the circular French grid . In any case the streets that have a little of both became slums. In the picture below the ribbon farms predated the slums , then the whole city burned down and had to start all over again. The slums :which included both Paradise Valley/Harmonie Park/Black Bottom start after the civil war. Blacks were restricted to this area and it became very overcrowded. See Map : UNITED STATES SIDE OF DETROIT
Paradise Valley historically took up some 66 square blocks. Some say the area was bounded by Vernor, John R, Madison, and Hastings, while others say the neighborhood was bordered by Adams, Brush, Alexandrine, and Hastings. See Map: PLAN FOR DETROIT
The slums started after the civil war. Immigrants fleeing Europe because of the political upheavals of the mid 1800s from Italy to the edges of Russia came to Detroit. The last group to colonize the area that was already a slum thanks to overcrowding and mostly wooden houses was black people from the Great Migration @1920-1950. The Urban Re-Newal movement razed the area along with the National Highway Act of 1949. See the pictures of this area which was Detroit's equivalent of the Harlem Renaissance and lasted much longer due to black people getting paid by the car industry.
Artistically ,The Great Depression killed off the Harlem Renaissance 1925-1929) Yet here there was enough going on for the REDBULL Academy to start documenting Detroit's pre Motown Jazz and R&B scene see link https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2015/08/detroit-jazz-and-blues
Wayne State University Archives Photo: Detroit News Archives (1938)
You have to close your eyes to see anything that was jumping and musically thriving mid century Fortunately on you tube https://youtu.be/g2sOE2-DIHA you can re live the era .
Maxine Hubbard moved here with Howard Belton in 1953 and rented near the Packard plant and the edges of Paradise Valley. Her sisters Dorothy Davis and Gladys Hubbard lived nearby the Paradise Valley Black Bottom areas as well - all were able to enjoy some of the scene before they tore it down. https://www.metrotimes.comm/detroit/paradise-reclaimed-the-winding-journey-to-restore-detroits-historic-black-entertainment-dostrict/Content?oid=2460356
All I remember is the Doctors office on Mack and St Jean near the Sears on the dividing line between Black Bottom and Paradise Valley also known as Gratiot.
@ late 1950s All of us lived in a mixed neighborhood with older Germans and the Packard Plant nearby. Jessica Suzanne can tell you tons about the era/area. The neighborhood has been razed. Packard plant- that famous ruin was still operating but closed just as Black Bottom/Paradise Valley were done too. 1958 during the Eisenhower years was rough on black people and the economy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packard_Automotive_Plant
the Packard plant has been purchased to be converted to lofts/stores etc. It is no longer a ruin that is explorable The famous overpass broke and it is constantly patrolled by security now.
Here is the latest renovation update 5 minutes on You Tube https://youtu.be/W825UDf57tc
If you wish to live vicariously you tube has quite a few films on the beat up Detroit -
We of course prefer the history stuff on Our Black Heritage - not buildings
but people
See this 5 minute podcast on Black Bottom and the Chrysler freeway that replaced it
https://wdet.org/posts/2015/10/19/81771-curiosid-how-a-1900s-black-detroit-community-was-razed-for-a-freeway/ of the Black Bottom/Paradise Valley
It is very hard to visualize the original black area today in your mind. Detroit has been relentless in tearing down its past. The football Stadium sits atop central Paradise Valley
and specifically replaced the nightclubs
Club Congo /Ebony Room Paradise Valley
both of these clubs/restaurants were probably black and tan clubs which means it was interracial before WWII . In any case it went back to being all black after the 1943 riots
what is being torn down is what has always been torn down- Wooden houses.
posted by Detroit: Get Lucky at
10:33 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home