Identifier: laketourtopictur01detr (find matches)
Title: A lake tour to picturesque Mackinac; historical and descriptive
Year: 1884 (1880s)
Authors: (Detroit and Cleveland steam navigation co.) (from old catalog) Whitcomb, Cummings D. (from old catalog)
Subjects:
Publisher: Detroit, Mich., O. S. Gulley, Bornman & co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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secured direct com-munication with the east by the opening of the Great Western Railway,of Canada, and four years later a competing line in the completion ofthe Grand Trunk. In 1860, though occupying no less an area than at present, it wasmuch more sparsely settled. The larger part of the Cass farm was stillwhat its name indicates, and fields abutted on Woodward avenue, withinthe two mile radius. Only a few leading thoroughfares were paved.There were neither street railways nor omnibus lines, and old fashioneddrays did all the hauling. No public street lamps were to be found,except in the central part, and where the city hall now stands, was agroup of old wooden rookeries, once the depot buildings of the M.C.R.R.The parks were uncared for, and overgrown with grass and weeds. Oneferry boat, the Gem, accommodated all the traffic between Detroit andWindsor. There was no police force, no house of correction, and onlya black hole for a jail. Since then the progress has been very rapid, 28
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A Lake Tour to Picturesque Mackinac and large tracts which were at that time open comnaons, are now denselycovered with houses. The wholesale trade and manufacturing interestshave nearly absorbed the lower part of the city near the river, and theretail traffic spreads out continuously towards the extreme limits onevery avenue leading from the central square, called Campus Martius,invading the haunts of the former aristocratic residents, who are fastseeking other locations, and, building up the vacant spots on the out-skirts with a class of elegant homes unsurpassed elsewhere. Detroit covers an area some six miles in length, on the river, by adepth of two and a half miles, and although located near the extremesouthwest corner of the State, is the chief city and commercial metrop-olis of Michigan. It is on the right bank of the river, (or, more properly,a strait, Detroit being the French term for strait,) is seven miles belowlake St. Clair, and twenty miles above lake Erie. Through this

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