Detroit (Other Keyword)
1-12 (12 Records)
A survey of Detroit’s ruins reveals the spread of industrial decline among all kinds of sites, and the post-industrial transformation of urban landscapes. Maps show the spread of abandonment from factories to other businesses, transportation sites, and residential areas, including schools and police stations. Photos of abandoned buildings show the processes of decay and ruination, from vandalism to the weather. What can Detroit teach archaeologists about the interpretation of material evidence...
Archaeologies of Disinvestment and Displacement: Documenting Detroit’s Foreclosure Crisis (2018)
The City of Detroit boasts "the largest and most transparent" demolition program in the US, having demolished approximately 12,000 structures in under 3 years. While the city is best known for its decaying industrial sites, the majority of Detroit’s vacant structures are residential: recently occupied homes, schools, churches, and businesses.This presentation focuses on the production and destruction of these more ordinary ‘ruins,’ examining the political and historical processes that create...
An Archaeology Of Jazz: Urban And Racial Identity At The Blue Bird Inn, Detroit (2016)
The postwar period was a transformative time for African American communities in Detroit. Mass migrations of African Americans from the south and shifts in the racial boundaries between neighborhoods led to dramatic changes in the urban makeup of the city. Located at the center of one such neighborhood in Detroit’s Westside was the Blue Bird Inn, one of the most important jazz clubs in the city as well as a social hub for the community. The Blue Bird rose to prominence in the late 1940s with the...
Community Displacement and the Creation of a 'City Beautiful' at Roosevelt Park, Detroit (2016)
Michigan Central Station and Roosevelt Park were constructed between 1908 and 1918 as part of Detroit’s City Beautiful Movement. The construction process was a place-making effort designed to implant order on the urban landscape that involved the displacement of a community who represented everything that city planners sought to erase from Detroit’s city center: overcrowding, poverty, immigrants, and transient populations. Current historical archaeological research reveals how the existing...
Detroit vs. Slow Archaeology: Blight Removal and its Obstacles to Local and Community-based Practices (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Slow Archaeology + Fast Capitalism: Hard Lessons and Future Strategies from Urban Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 2014 one-third of Detroit’s 380,000 parcels were designated as blight. On these vacated lots 40,000 neglected, decaying buildings were slated for demolition. The Detroit Land Bank's demolition campaign, partly financed by federal Hardest Hit Funds, has had disproportionate...
Dining in Detroit: A critical look at urban food consumption patterns through 19th Century Faunal Remains Analysis. (2018)
As North American cities underwent growth and change in the early to mid 1800s, production and consumption of food became a chief driving force in this transformation. For many North American cities, including Detroit, a defining moment in urbanization is characterized by the change in food production. Through an assemblage of faunal remains, historical documents, and cookbooks, this paper attempts to illustrate the processes of change in Detroit during 19th century, and observe the transition...
Dining in Detroit: Revisiting 19th Century Faunal Remains from the Renaissance Center Excavations (2015)
This poster presents preliminary analysis of the recently cleaned and catalogued faunal remains from one of the features of the Detroit Renaissance excavation as part of the Unearthing Detroit project at Wayne State University. Unearthing Detroit began as a project to "excavate" our own storage room Grosscup Museum collection. The faunal remains from a privy unit feature from Section J, Level 1 will be focus of analysis. The analysis includes cleaning and preservation methods, examining...
Excavating the Motor City: Structural Racism and the "Archaeological Record" in Detroit (2018)
In 2012 the Detroit Housing Commission received funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to demolish the long-neglected public housing development known as the Douglass Homes, a collection of townhouses and mid- and high-rise apartment buildings in mid-town Detroit. The Douglass Homes had been built on top of an earlier residential neighborhood on the edge of Paradise Valley, a once-flourishing center of African American commerce and social life in the city. Pursuant to...
Historical Archaeology in Detroit: Sixty Years and Counting (2021)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Research, Interpretation, and Engagement in Post-Contact Archaeology of the Great Lakes Region" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. This presentation recounts the origins of historical archaeology as both a profession and a practice based on the work of the first generation of urban archaeologists in Detroit. Last year, 2020, marked the 60th anniversary of the first professional historical archaeology...
A Hundred Bottles of Beer in the Ground: Excavating Detroit’s Historic Local Beer Industry from Artifacts of Working-Class Households in Roosevelt Park, Corktown Neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan. (2018)
During Detroit, Michigan’s "Golden Age" of beer production (1840-1880s) many immigrants brought beer-making skills and started brewery businesses. Many breweries were located downtown and their increasing popularity saturated local beer-production. Since 2011 Wayne State University has been excavating residential lots at Michigan Central Station in the Corktown neighborhood, recovering over 10,000 artifacts. Corktown was comprised of Irish and German immigrants, first generation Michiganders,...
Interpreting the Sherds: Ceramic Consumption Practices in a Nineteenth Century Detroit Riverfront Neighborhood. (2016)
Following the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, Detroit became an emerging urban and industrial center. During the early-mid 19th century, private homes, hotels, manufacturers, and grocery stores densely populated the neighborhood along the Detroit River. Over 19,000 artifacts from this waterfront neighborhood were recovered in 1973-74, during the construction of the Renaissance Center, within a 9-city block area. The Renaissance Center Collection ceramics tell a rich story of various...
Urban Displacement in Detroit and the Erasure of African American Communities (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Urban Erasures and Contested Memorial Assemblages" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Urban historical archaeology has been practiced in Detroit by professionals for over 60 years now. So why is it that less than a handful of sites or landscapes associated with the city’s African American communities, (who make up over 80% of the population), have ever been examined archaeologically? The answers are partly rooted in a...