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DETROIT IN 1838 BY HENRY A. FORD
The town was quite well and modern built, nearly all the huts and cottages of the French period having disappeared. Wooden buildings were much the more numerous; and as many of them occupied leased grounds, the sight of houses in process of removal was more common than now. The business quarter had several fine brick blocks and the city had "altogether a cheerful and comely appearance, " with "not a few outward indications of high cultivated taste and refinement. " The principal public 'buildings, besides the state house or capitol, included the city hall on the Campus, a $20, 000 brick structure, 100 feet by 50, with two stories and a basement, the lower story occupied for a market; St. Paul's church, brick, with a 115 foot tower; the Baptist church, a plain affair at the corner of Fort and Griswold; St. Anne's, still standing-on Larned street, but then its two spires were "in front, " and were backed by an octagonal dome 30 feet high; and the old Bank of Michigan building, costing $40, 000. There were eight church societies, two Catholic, one colored, and one each of Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, and German, Lutherans. The Catholics had
one and the Protestants another orphan asylum, the latter in "a handsome two story brick edifice, " on the familiar site then "a mile and a half above the city. " The public schools of the place were grouped in seven districts which together had 4, 355 children of school age. A branch of the state university was located here.
DETROIT MICHIGAN
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