Poletown East is a neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan, bordering the enclave city of Hamtramck. The area was named after the Polish immigrants who originally lived in the area. A portion of residential area known as Poletown became the General Motors Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly plant in 1981 with those residents relocated by General Motors and the cities of Detroit and Hamtramck which claimed eminent domain in order to make way for a new automobile plant.
The boundaries of Poletown East as defined by the city's planning and development department include the city of Hamtramck, St. Aubin Street and I-94 to the north, I-75 to the east, Warren Avenue to the south, and Mt. Elliot Street to the east. [1]
West of St. Aubin and south of I-94, as well as well as the area north of I-94 between St. Aubin and Mt. Elliott, are industrial in nature. The area bound by St. Aubin, I-94, Mt. Elliott and Warren is largely residential.
The boundaries of historical Poletown included the Hamtramck city line, Gratiot Avenue, and a line from Mt. Elliott to the intersection of Canfield and St. Antoine, the location of the Detroit Medical Center. [2]
Poletown was settled in the 1870s when the first waves of Polish and Kashubian immigrants came to Detroit, and served as the heart of Detroit's Polish community for many years. The nucleus of the community was the St. Albertus Roman Catholic Church, which opened in 1871 and closed in 1990. Poletown experienced its greatest period of growth during the 1920s and 1930s as thousands of Polish immigrants came to Detroit in search of jobs in auto plants, like the nearby Packard Plant, and the Chrysler Plant to the east on Jefferson Ave, and the slaughterhouses that were in the area. Poletown was not only home to Poles, but also to Italians and African Americans. During the 1950s and 1960s, freeway construction and urban renewal projects altered the neighborhood.
In 1981, a portion of the neighborhood was demolished to make way for the construction of the General Motors Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly plant. General Motors and the cities of Detroit and Hamtramck relied on eminent domain to relocate the 4,200 people who lived in the area, along with their 1,300 homes, 140 businesses, six churches and one hospital. [3] The plant was built at the boundary of Hamtramck and Detroit as a BOC factory (Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadillac) and became known as the "Poletown Plant".
Coleman Young, Mayor of Detroit, used eminent domain to seize the portion of Poletown. Critics stated that Young could have chosen other areas for the plant and yet he chose one of the final remaining working class White areas of Detroit. Young had criticized the destruction of the Black Bottom through eminent domain. [4]
Some of the displaced residents sued the cities and General Motors, but the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that economic development was a legitimate use of eminent domain. Another Poletown group, the Citizens District Council, supported the efforts to build the new plant. Gary Campbell, a Poletown resident and bar owner, accused those opposing the new plant of presenting opinions of a small minority as if they represented the entire neighborhood. The controversy led to national news attention and the involvement of Ralph Nader and the Gray Panthers. Protests centered on Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church. The regional Catholic Archdiocese supported the relocations and had already agreed to sell the two Catholic churches that were in the area. However, Joseph Karasiewicz, the priest at one of the parishes, defied his archbishop and fought to keep his building from being sold. The Archdiocese stood firm in its support of the sale. A 29-day sit-in at the Immaculate Conception Church came to an end on July 14, 1981, when police forcibly evicted 20 people from the church. Twelve people were arrested, only three of the twelve arrested were from Poletown. [5]
Poletown Neighborhood Council v. Detroit became a landmark case for "public use" eminent domain matters. Twenty-three years later, the Michigan Supreme Court reversed the precedent that it had set in the earlier case. In their 2004 decision, County of Wayne v. Hathcock a property owner near Detroit's Metropolitan Airport successfully fought against the development of a new suburban office/industrial park. [6] The case was argued by Michigan eminent domain attorney Alan T. Ackerman. In a later 2005 United States Supreme Court decision, the case of Kelo v. City of New London ruled that the use of eminent domain to promote economic development is constitutional, but the opinion in Kelo cites the Hathcock decision as an example of how states may choose to impose their own restrictions on the taking of property.
Poletown is sometimes used inclusively as slang for Hamtramck, Michigan [ citation needed ], probably due to Hamtramck's strong identification with Polish-Americans. "Poletown" proper is the section immediately south of Hamtramck within the city of Detroit, but at one time had a strong and vibrant Polish neighborhood. Hamtramck itself has become highly diverse and there is still a small Polish-speaking minority. Polish bakeries and restaurants there are particularly popular, especially around Fat Tuesday. Many people around the city celebrate Fat Tuesday by eating Pączki (singular form: pączek), even if they are not Polish.
Hamtramck is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An enclave of Detroit, Hamtramck is located roughly 5 miles (8.0 km) north of downtown Detroit, and is surrounded by Detroit on most sides. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 28,433, and was by far the most densely populated municipality in Michigan. It is notable as the only Muslim-majority city in the United States.
Polish Americans are Americans who either have total or partial Polish ancestry, or are citizens of the Republic of Poland. There are an estimated 8.81 million self-identified Polish Americans, representing about 2.67% of the U.S. population, according to the 2021 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Detroit, the largest city in the state of Michigan, was settled in 1701 by French colonists. It is the first European settlement above tidewater in North America. Founded as a New France fur trading post, it began to expand during the 19th century with U.S. settlement around the Great Lakes. By 1920, based on the booming auto industry and immigration, it became a world-class industrial powerhouse and the fourth-largest city in the United States. It held that standing through the mid-20th century.
Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly, also referred to as Factory Zero and GM Poletown, is a General Motors (GM) automobile assembly plant straddling the border between Detroit and Hamtramck, Michigan. It is located about three miles (five km) from GM's corporate headquarters.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Wayne County, Michigan.
St. Florian Church is a Roman Catholic Church at 2626 Poland Street in Hamtramck, Michigan. The church was designed by Ralph Adams Cram of the firm Cram and Ferguson.
Mount Olivet Cemetery is a cemetery at 17100 Van Dyke Avenue in the city of Detroit in Wayne County, Michigan. It is owned and operated by the Mt. Elliott Cemetery Association, a not-for-profit Catholic organization that is otherwise administered independently from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit and any of the various Catholic religious orders active in Metro Detroit. At 320 acres (130 ha), it is the largest cemetery in Detroit, although it no longer promotes itself publicly as a Catholic establishment.
The Sweetest Heart of Mary Roman Catholic Church is located at 4440 Russell Street in Detroit, Michigan, in the Forest Park neighborhood on the city's central East side. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1974 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. It, along with St. Albertus Roman Catholic Church, 0.4 miles east on East Canfield Street, and St. Josaphat Roman Catholic Church, 0.3 miles west at East Canfield Street and Chrysler Drive, served the large Polish community through most of the twentieth century. In a diocesan reorganization instituted by Archbishop Allen Vigneron in 2013, Sweetest Heart of Mary joined with St. Josephat to form Mother of Divine Mercy Parish.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Detroit, Michigan.
St. Albertus Roman Catholic Church is in the Forest Park neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1974 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
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".
Milwaukee Junction is an area in Detroit, Michigan, east of New Center. Located near the railroad junction of the Grand Trunk Western Railroad's predecessors Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railway and the Chicago, Detroit and Canada Grand Trunk Junction, the area encompasses the streets of East Grand Boulevard to the north, St. Aubin St./Hamtramck Drive to the east, John R Street to the west, and the border following I-94 to the south. Due to the presence of numerous car companies within it at the turn of the 20th century, Milwaukee Junction is considered the "cradle of the Detroit auto industry".
Robert P. Young Jr. is a former justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. Young was first appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court in 1999, elected in 2000 and 2002, and again won reelection in 2010 for a term ending in 2019. Justice Young announced he would be retiring from the court at the end of April 2017. Young is a self-described judicial traditionalist or textualist. In June 2017, Young announced his intentions to run against Debbie Stabenow in the 2018 senate race, but later dropped out saying he could not raise enough money for his campaign.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Downtown and Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Downtown and Midtown neighborhoods in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Latitude and longitude coordinates are provided for many National Register properties and districts; these locations may be seen together in online maps.
The Joseph Campau Historic District is a commercial historic district located along Joseph Campau Street in Hamtramck, Michigan. The district runs from roughly Holbrook and Lehman Streets on the south to Pulaski and Casmere Streets on the north. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
Peacemakers International is a Christian ministry located at 5322 Chene St. in the Poletown East neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan. Pastored by Detroit native Steve Upshur, Peacemakers International hosts church services on Sunday evenings with the help of praise and worship teams from churches across Southeast Michigan and puts the rest of its efforts into its outreach to the area's poor, maintaining a large community garden to provide fresh produce to those in need and operating the halfway houses, Jesus House and Mercy House.
The Greening of Detroit is a 501(c)(3) non-profit environmental organization whose mission is to inspire the sustainable growth of a healthy urban community through trees, green spaces, healthy living, education, training and job opportunities. The Greening serves communities in Detroit, Highland Park and Hamtramck, Michigan.
As of the census of 2010, there were 5,196,250 people, 1,682,111 households, and 1,110,454 families residing within the Detroit–Warren–Ann Arbor Combined Statistical Area. Within the Detroit–Warren–Dearborn Metropolitan Statistical Area, there were 4,296,250 people residing. The census reported 70.1% White, 22.8% African-American, 0.3% Native American, 3.3% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 1.2% from other races, and 2.2% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.2% of the population. Arab Americans were at least 4.7% of the region's population.
In 2023, Polish Americans are most heavily concentrated in the Upper Midwest and Northeast regions of the United States. As the second most Polish populated state, Michigan follows closely behind Wisconsin with 784,200 people identifying as Polish, or 7.82% of the state's population, identifying as Polish. Many of these Polish Americans live in the Metro Detroit area of Michigan.
Joseph Campau Street, also known as Joseph Campau Avenue, is a city street in Hamtramck and Detroit in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Michigan. Jos. Campau Historic District is located along the street in Hamtramck. Along Joseph Campau Street and the Detroit River are River Place and The Roberts Riverwalk Hotel and Residence Detroit.
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