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| Established | 1928 |
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| Location | 5401 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, Michigan, United States |
| Director | Elana Rugh |
| Website | www.detroithistorical.org |
The Detroit Historical Museum is located at 5401 Woodward Avenue in the city's Cultural Center Historic District in Midtown Detroit. It chronicles the history of the Detroit area from cobblestone streets, 19th century stores, the auto assembly line, toy trains, fur trading from the 18th century, and much more. [1]
Attorney and historian Clarence M. Burton donated his collections to the Detroit Public Library in 1914, leading to the development of the Detroit Historical Museum. In December 1921, Burton brought together 19 prominent local historians to found the Detroit Historical Society, an organization dedicated to the preservation of the city's history. In 1927, membership offices were leased and Society treasurer J. Bell Moran was appointed to set up a museum. A curator was hired and on November 19, 1928, the "highest museum in the world" opened in a one-room suite on the 23rd floor of the Barlum Tower, now the Cadillac Tower.
William Edward Kapp, architect for the firm of Smith, Hinchman & Grylls designed the building. [2]
On July 24, 1951, the 250th anniversary of Detroit's founding by Antoine Laumet de la Mothe Cadillac, the new museum was dedicated in an elaborate ceremony. In attendance were such dignitaries as Governor G. Mennen Williams, Mayor Albert E. Cobo, U.S. Senator Homer S. Ferguson, the French and British ambassadors and Detroit native and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Ralph Bunche of the United Nations.
In 1949, the Detroit Historical Museum acquired one of the last commercial sailing vessels on the Great Lakes, the J. T. Wing. It operated the ship as a museum until 1956 when it shuttered because of its deteriorating condition. On July 24, 1961, it was replaced by the Dossin Great Lakes Museum which opened on Belle Isle Park as a branch of the Historical Museum devoted to maritime history.
From 1949 through 2006, the museum also operated Fort Wayne, a former military installation constructed in 1845 on the banks of the Detroit River approximately 4 mi (6.4 km) southwest of the city's downtown area. Portions of the fort were deactivated after World War II and the barracks and fortification were turned over to the City of Detroit to operate as a museum. The remaining parts of the installation were ceded by the army to the city through 1976. In 2006, operation of the fort was given to the Detroit Recreation Department.
Shortly after the death of The Detroit News style columnist Charlotte "Tavy" Stone in 1985, the museum established the Tavy Stone Fashion Library. The library and costume gallery consolidate the museum's holdings on historical costumes and design in space on the second floor. [3]
The Detroit Historical Society (DHS) was founded in December 1921 with prominent Detroit historian Clarence M. Burton, its first president. Initially, a literary society bent on studying and discussing Detroit history, its direction changed in 1927 when under the leadership of one of the DHS directors, J. Bell Moran, the Society founded the Detroit Historical Museum (DHM).
Since the first museum opened in the Barlum Tower as "Detroit's best kept secret," prominent Detroiters as trustees of the Society and the public have added to the collection. As of today, it has over 200,000 items. [4]
However, by the late 1930s the Society had become more of a social club than a Historical Society. In 1941, the Society recruited The Detroit News columnist George Stark into membership. It was later said the DHS was seeking mention in Stark's daily column, but "what they got was George instead." With J. Bell Moran being called into government service due to the war, George Stark took over the leadership of the DHS and instituted a building campaign in 1942.
By this time, the Museum was in the former Homer Wiliams home on Merrick Street across from what is now the Cass Avenue entrance to the Detroit Public Library. The Williams home, where future Michigan Governor G. Mennen "Soapy" Williams grew up, has been replaced by part of the Wayne State University Campus.
After a 1946 referendum spearheaded by the DHS and the City of Detroit, the City of Detroit Historical Commission was created to manage the Detroit Historical Museum. The Detroit Historical Society turned its collection and sizable building fund over to the city and assumed the role of being the principal outside financial backer to the museum.
By the 1990s, the Museum rode a wave of success. In 1993, the Detroit Historical Society raised nearly $4 million for exhibits, educational programs and an endowment fund for the Museum. A new permanent exhibit, made possible by the success of the campaign, opened in 1995 – The Motor City Exhibition. This exhibit traces Detroit's development into the Automobile Capital of the World and includes an operating assembly line with a two-story body drop from the General Motors Cadillac Division Clark Street Plant. In 1998, the Museum opened another permanent exhibition, Frontiers to Factories: Detroiters at Work 1701–1901. This exhibit depicts the city's first two hundred years, as it grew from a French fur trading post to a major industrial center.
In March 2006, the Detroit Historical Society once again assumed operational responsibility for the Museum, after signing a formal agreement with the City of Detroit. Four months later, the Museum closed for an extensive "Museum Makeover" reopening on September 29, 2006, with six new exhibits, a facility with improved lighting, signage and building upgrades. [5]
The museum closed again May 21 through November 22, 2012 for renovation. Several new exhibits were installed including the Allesee Gallery of Culture; Detroit: Arsenal of Democracy that explores the city's role in World War II; a sign from Tiger Stadium; the Kid Rock Music Lab, created through a $250,000 gift from performer Kid Rock, and the Gallery of Innovation and Doorway to Freedom: Detroit and the Underground Railroad that allows visitors to simulate the journey of a runaway slave traveling through Detroit to Canada. [6] [7]
In October 2019, the museum announced it would resume charging admission November 1, due to a deficit of $297,000 the prior year. The museum established admission for adults at $10 with reduced rates for children, seniors, active military and some other groups. [8]
On March 13, 2020, the museum along with other institutions in Michigan announced it would close through April 5 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions issued by Governor Gretchen Whitmer. [9] The closure was later extended into June. On June 25, several museums in the city announced they would reopen July 10, 2020, after devising a coordinated plan that included requirements and protocols to keep staff and visitors safe. [10]
The Detroit City Hall was the seat of government for the city of Detroit, Michigan from 1871 to 1961. The building sat on the west side of Campus Martius bounded by Griswold Street to the west, Michigan Avenue to the north, Woodward Avenue to the east, and Fort Street to the south where One Kennedy Square stands today.
The Lawyers Building is an office building located at 137 Cadillac Square in downtown Detroit, Michigan. It was also known as the American Title Building. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
The Detroit Public Library is the second largest library system in the U.S. state of Michigan by volumes held and the 21st-largest library system in the United States. It is composed of the Main Library on Woodward Avenue, which houses the library's administration offices, and 23 branch locations across the city. The Main Library is part of Detroit's Cultural Center Historic District listed in the National Register of Historic Places adjacent to Wayne State University campus and across from the Detroit Institute of Arts.
The Dossin Great Lakes Museum is an historical maritime museum in Detroit, Michigan. Located on The Strand on Belle Isle Park along the Detroit River, this museum places special interest on Detroit's role on national and regional maritime history. The 16,000-square-foot (1,500 m2) museum features exhibits such as one of the largest collections of model ships in the world, and the bow anchor of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, which went down in a storm in 1975.
The Boston–Edison Historic District is a neighborhood located in Detroit, Michigan. It consists of over 900 homes built on four east-west streets: West Boston Boulevard, Chicago Boulevard, Longfellow Avenue and Edison Avenue, stretching from Woodward Avenue in the east to Linwood Avenue in the west. It is one of the largest residential historic districts in the nation. It is surrounded by Sacred Heart Major Seminary to the west, the Arden Park-East Boston Historic District and the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament to the east, and the Atkinson Avenue Historic District to the south. The district was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1973 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
William Edward Kapp was an American architect. He earned his architectural degree at the University of Pennsylvania. For the majority of his career, he worked for the firm Smith, Hinchman & Grylls.
The New Amsterdam Historic District is a historic district located in Detroit, Michigan. Buildings in this district are on or near three sequential east-west streets on the two blocks between Woodward Avenue and Second Avenue. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.
Grand Boulevard is a thoroughfare in Detroit, running east to west in some places and north to south in other places and is approximately 11 miles in length. It once constituted the city limits of Detroit. Grand Boulevard is named the "Berry Gordy Jr. Boulevard" in the area where the Motown Historical Museum is located and the "General Motors Boulevard" in the area of Detroit's "New Center" where the Fisher Building and Cadillac Place are located. Grand Boulevard is commonly referred to by residents of the city simply as "the Boulevard".
Belle Isle Park, known simply as Belle Isle, is a 982-acre island park in Detroit, Michigan, developed in the late 19th century. It consists of Belle Isle, an island in the Detroit River, as well as several surrounding islets. The U.S.-Canada border is in the channel south of Belle Isle.
City of Detroit III, often referred to as just D-III, was a sidewheel steamer on the Detroit River and Lake Erie. She was one of the largest sidewheelers on the Great Lakes.
Philip A. Hart Plaza, in downtown Detroit, is a city plaza along the Detroit River. It is located more or less on the site at which Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac landed in 1701 when he founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, the settlement that became Detroit. In 2011, the Detroit-Wayne County Port Authority opened its new cruise ship passenger terminal and dock at Hart Plaza, adjacent to the Renaissance Center, which receives major cruise ships such as the MS Hamburg and the Yorktown.
William Barlum Thompson was the Mayor of Detroit from 1907 to 1908 and again from 1911 to 1912.
Henry Gillman was an ethnologist, curator for the Detroit Scientific Society, a librarian at the Detroit Public Library, and later he was affiliated with Harvard University's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Early in his career he was a survey assistant for the U.S. Department of War and made charts of many Michigan locations.
The following is a timeline of the history of the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan.
Joseph Campau was among the leading citizens and wealthiest landowners in Detroit, Michigan, at the beginning of the 19th century. Campau had three trading posts and a store in Detroit until the early 1800s. He then embarked on a real-estate career that made him very wealthy. Campau was also a newspaper man, establishing a newspaper with his nephew, John R. Williams. He held several city public offices for the city. Campau was an officer in the Michigan Territory Militia and during the War of 1812.
The Campau family of Detroit, Michigan, was established when noble French brothers Michel and Jacques Campau settled in Detroit, Michigan in 1707 and 1708, respectively. Jacques, Joseph Campau, and Barnabé Campau are among the Barons of Detroit, according to Richard R. Elliott, because they had "ancestral virtues most worthily perpetuated."
Antoine Dequindre (1781–1843) was a soldier, landowner and shopkeeper in Detroit, Michigan in the first half of the 19th century. He is best known for heroism at the Battle of Monguagon during the War of 1812, when he was serving as a captain in the Michigan Legion. Dequindre Road, which runs through Detroit as well as Oakland and Macomb counties, is named for him.
Charles Moran was an American businessman, jurist, and politician who served three terms in the Michigan House of Representatives. His family was prominent in early Detroit, and he is also related to the Campau and Dequindre families who were influential in the growth of the city.
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