|
Detroit 1820 BY EPHRAIM S. WILLIAMS
The name given to Jefferson avenue, like so many others—would there were more—in the city, is itself historic. It is one of five Presidential names given to our principal avenues by the governor and judges of Michigan territory, in their replatting of the town after the sweeping fire of 1805—Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison and Monroe. It begins with the entrance of Woodbridge at First street. Starting from the ancient shore of the Detroit at this point, and now facing eastward, we pass presently the location of the citadel or arsenal at the northwest corner of Jefferson and Wayne, connected with Fort Shelby by a covered way. The house of the military storekeeper, for a long time Capt. Perkins, was a small frame a little below, on the avenue, where Mrs. Perkins became as noted for the floral beauty of her front yard, as her husband for the neatness of his buildings and
grounds, with their piles of ordnance, shot, and shell. Between Wayne and Cass stood one of the old time block houses, on the line of the Hull stockade, the last one built; and, after the fire of 1805 this was used as the public jail. At the northwest corner of Jefferson and Cass stood the dwelling of Judge May, built of stone from the chimneys left by the fire. This succeeded the block house in use as a jail, but by 1815 it was abandoned for an old wooden building on the same side of the avenue a little beyond Shelby.
Detroit Michigan
Page 12
|
|
Please consider making a donation to help offset expenses to keep this site online.
Thank you
|
