Chapter Four: Woodward Avenue

This tour documents the Woodward Avenue historic tour featured at the 2017 Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment.

Chapter Four: Introduction

Motor City. Paris of the Midwest. America's comeback city. Hitsville, USA. From its legacy as a center of industry and manufacturing to its roots as the cultural epicenter of hip hop, funk, and techno music, Detroit’s pliable identity is reflected by…

Maccabees Building

Designed in the Art Deco style by Albert Kahn, the Maccabees was constructed in 1927 and was listed to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The building’s namesake comes from the fraternal organization Knights of the Maccabees, which…

Fisher Music Center

Following heavy renovations throughout the 1970s, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra moved back into Orchestra Hall. n 2002, the building was renamed after Max Martin Fisher, a prominent Detroit businessman and philanthropist. Fisher’s philanthropic work…

Auto Worker Strikes

After other protests in Flint and a walkout in 1941, Henry Ford officially recognized the right to collective bargaining for his employees by signing a contract with the United Auto Workers union. As wartime agreements between union workers and…

Assembly Line Logics

Released in 1976, Jeff Rice points out that Cash’s tale reflected a systemic reality for many blue-collar workers at the time who could only “dream to be a consumer of the luxury [they help to] create.” Rice claims: “Those that searched out success…

Merchant's Row

Today, the newly constructed M-1 Rail runs through the heart of Merchant’s Row, serving as one of the final stops on the streetcar’s route through downtown Detroit. The M-1 Rail is a unique collaboration between public, private, and philanthropic…