I spent a couple days at Algonac State Park along the St Clair River as a home base to visit my cousin Tom & his wife Cherrie, and go to the Detroit area to see some local attractions and visit the neighborhood where I lived while attending grade school.
Algonac State Park offers camping, fishing, and viewing lake freighters passing along the St Lawrence Seaway.
Watching the freighters from the park:
The Bridge To Bay Trail consists of boardwalks, riverwalks, rail trails & bike paths that extend 50 miles along St Clair County shoreline. I rode my bike on the trail from the campground at Algonac State Park.
I spent a day at The Henry Ford, taking a tour of the Rouge Assembly Plant where Ford F-150s are assembled, and visiting the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village.
Tours of the Rouge Assembly Plant start with a bus ride to the plant.
A small sample of the many school busses bringing students to The Henry Ford. The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation is in the background.
Taking photos and video isn't allowed inside the Rouge Assembly Plant. The tour includes two video presentations that cover the history of the plant and present day manufacturing processes. After that we viewed the assembly line from walkways that wrap around above the manufacturing floor as workers built F-150s. The pickup that I'm driving on my trip around the country was built on this assembly line in 2018. At the end of the tour an exhibit of Ford vehicles is on display. Photos and video are permitted in this area.
My next stop was the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation.
Several Presidential Limousines are on display including models used from FDR through Ronald Reagan.
A variety of vehicles that rolled along the highways of the USA and prototype models that were never driven by the public are on display.
After taking in the Museum I walked around Greenfield Village next door.
Greenfield Village includes a mix of historic buildings that have been moved to the site and recreations of period buildings.
Visitors can ride trains, horse drawn carriages, and vintage Ford vehicles through the Village.
Shots at the rail switching yard and maintenance building:
The Wright Brothers bicycle shop; in the back room there's a display showing fabrication of their aircraft.
Edison Power Plant
A recreation of Edison's Menlo Park Complex where many inventions were created:
Glass Shop
Machine Shop
Phonograph display
More activities and scenes around the Village
Various crafts and related equipment are on display
A carding machine to prepare fibers for spinning
Weaving equipment and demonstration
Vintage printing presses and typesetting equipment
A steam powered lumber mill
Clay preparation and pottery
I spent another day in Detroit visiting Hitsville USA (The Motown Museum) and the neighborhood in Grosse Pointe where my family lived while I attended elementary school.
Tours take place here in the house on the right where Berry Gordy, Jr founded Motown records and associated record labels. The company eventually acquired 6 more houses along the street for its operations in Detroit.
Some of the many photos and exhibits documenting the history of Motown Records
Promissory note for $800 that Berry Gordy, Jr borrowed from his family to start the business
Office where aspiring performers came looking to work at Motown Records. 3 phone lines supported the busy office.
Phone switchboard and cigarette machine (35 cents per pack)
Original master tape room
Candy machine installed to supply 12 year old Stevie Wonder with his favorite candy.
Control room overlooking the recording studio. Worn spots in the floor are from recording engineers dancing to the music over many years.
Next stop after Hitsville: the rented family home on Notre Dame St., now a real estate office. The house is across the street from the playground at Lewis E. Maire School where my sisters and I attended classes
Views of the front of the school on Cadieux Rd
Chalk art on the sidewalk in front of Maire School
The house on Bishop Rd where the family lived from about 1958 - 1962 until moving to California
Very, very cool. Classic eastern houses and schools. And you got your car fix!
ReplyDeleteSo lucky to get to Greenfield Village and the HF museum. They were closed when we went back to Michigan a year and a half ago. COVID thing. And isn't it cool and creepy all at the same time to visit your old stomping grounds?
ReplyDeleteSeems like The Motown Museum might have been coolness overload!!!
ReplyDeleteSo much history in this post--national and personal. I don't recall if we ever went to Greenfield Village when we lived in Grosse Pointe. Maire School looks so different now that I am an adult. I don't remember standing back and looking at the school as a whole. I remember instead big doorways, crowded hallways, big stairs to different floors. Our old house on Bishop also looks different--of course there has been remodeling and the big tree in the front yard is gone. The Motown pictures are so interesting. It was wonderful you could see all of this.
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