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From the steely heights of wartime manufacturing, to the explosion of the post-war years, Detroit has seen its share of surges. Now Motor City's cultural renaissance throttles ahead at full speed. Downtown is being reborn, Detroit's architectural history, from art deco to neo-gothic, is being revamped, the artsy Necklace District shines again and roulette wheels keep turning in the nation's most populated gaming city.
Forget the tired cliches about Detroit's demise. Remember that Motown began here in 1958 and changed America's music charts for all time. In the early-'80s, the intrepid beginnings of techno happened in the warehouses of downtown Detroit and the present-day success of Eminem continues to shine a provocative light on this city's cultural world. Museums abound, the Hydroplane Thunderfest draws thousands every year and Detroit's People Mover keeps the city in motion.
From the native Anishnabe tribe to early French colonials to present day Motowners, something about the banks on the placid waters of the Detroit River have always drawn, and kept, a loyal crowd.
Downtown Detroit Hotels
Hotel Pontchartrain
2 Washington Boulevard Detroit, MI 48226
Around so long it's been dubbed the "Pontch" by Motowners, the Hotel Pontchartrain stands on the site of Detroit's first French fort of the same name. The 25-floor Pontchartrain recently underwent renovations to bring its rooms into the new millennium. Rooms overlooking the Detroit River recall the fascination the French must have felt, while back rooms peek into Detroit's fire station. All rooms are softly classic and since Detroit grew up around this very spot, be certain you're central.


Luxury speed cruisers dock in front of this red brick ode to European prestige, set in Detroit's quaint and quieter River Town district. Inside in the lobby, chandeliers, rich carpeting and crimson color schemes prove this French hotelier's hold on one of Detroit's more abundant addresses. In a word, the guestrooms, from deluxe doubles to presidential suites, are lavish; the services, from meeting rooms to tanning beds, span the gamut of extravagance.








The City That Was
When you click on points of interest in the panoramic photo of 1906 Detroit in the right frame, text and images will appear in this frame. Each picture within the pages can also be clicked on to provide more-detailed, higher-resolution photos.
The Detroit pictured here has been washed away in a tide of technological and social change more rapid, perhaps, than any in human history. Click on the photo at right, read the text below, and witness the transformation of Campus Martius from grand civic plaza to post-Industrial urban backwater.

Campus Martius, Detroit, Michigan, 1906
This is downtown Detroit, 1906, on the eve of the automobile explosion. There are no automobiles in the three-picture perspective at right, even though Henry Ford had driven his first model through the streets of Detroit ten years earlier. People and cargo travel by horse or electric streetcar, and pedestrians roam freely through the streets. Detroit City Hall (1871) is in the center with its wide lawn sloping to Woodward, Detroit's main street. The scene has an aura of civic idealism, equal parts bustling metropolis and manicured garden; the dusty streets, striped by vehicle tracks, lend a rural air.
Detroit's major roads radiate from this public square known as Campus Martius. (Ironically, the city had been laid out in the shape of a spoked-wheel nearly one hundred years before Henry Ford manufactured the first Model T.) All distances in Detroit were once measured from this point, including the "Mile Roads" that march into Detroit's northern suburbs. Woodward Avenue, Fort Street, and Michigan Avenue meet here, and Gratiot and Grand River start only a few blocks away. These are main arteries along which Detroit is still developing in the outer suburbs.
As the automobile transformed the country, Detroit quadrupled in population (1900-1930). Concrete was poured, skyscrapers soared, and the retail district, seen in the right panel of the panorama, expanded to world class status. Increasingly prosperous Detroiters bought more and more of their own product, and downtown overflowed with cars.
By 1928, Campus Martius was the busiest intersection in the country according to a contemporary visitor's guide.
As early as 1920, civic leaders made plans to relieve the congestion around Campus Martius. Streets were widened, traffic signals installed, and subway schemes studied. The Great Depression put an end to the subway plans, and the city's growth slowed.
After the war, Detroiters, like most Americans, were far more interested in the open spaces of their suburbs than in the grimy confines of the central city. Despite well-intentioned (yet often clumsy) attempts at urban renewal, the central city and Campus Martius slowly withered as families left the city to raise baby boomers in the clean air of suburban tract housing.
The City Hall in the center of this picture was torn down in 1961, leaving an open public space. New buildings were set back from the street, and the streets were widened, but by the late 60's, the number of people in downtown was declining. The closing of the huge Hudson's department store in 1982 signaled the end of retail in downtown, and only government and financial institutions hang on today, awash in a sea of unused office space and boarded storefronts. General Motors' recent purchase of the Renaissance Center for a bargain basement price ($72 million for a complex that cost $350 million to build twenty years ago) is an indication of how far the decline has gone.