History
During the late 19th century, creating wide, graceful streets was seen as a way to create a beautiful city. After much debate, in the 1890s Detroit adopted the idea of creating a "Grand Boulevard" encircling the city. By 1913, the landscaped Grand Boulevard was generally recognized as a major adornment of the city, and a prestigious address in which to reside.
Houses built along this section of the Boulevard were among the grandest in the city at the time they were built; however, by the mid-1920s, the appeal of living along Grand Boulevard declined. During the Great Depression and later during World War II, some of these massive elegant homes in this historic district were cut up into small apartments. Currently, this section of Grand Boulevard has become a mixed-use neighborhood. Only a few of these homes are still used as single-family residences; many serve as group homes for those who need institutional care.
Read more about this topic: East Grand Boulevard Historic District
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I assure you that in our next class we will concern ourselves solely with the history of Egypt, and not with the more lurid and non-curricular subject of living mummies.”
—Griffin Jay, and Reginald LeBorg. Prof. Norman (Frank Reicher)
“In history an additional result is commonly produced by human actions beyond that which they aim at and obtain—that which they immediately recognize and desire. They gratify their own interest; but something further is thereby accomplished, latent in the actions in question, though not present to their consciousness, and not included in their design.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“Classes struggle, some classes triumph, others are eliminated. Such is history; such is the history of civilization for thousands of years.”
—Mao Zedong (1893–1976)